November 25, 2025 • 30 mins
Author and comedian Mark Malkoff joins Mark Thompson to dive deep into Love, Johnny Carson: One Obsessive Fan’s Journey to Find the Genius Behind the Legend. From behind-the-curtain gems to Carson’s unmatched influence, it’s a must-hear conversation for comedy fans. Then Mark Thompson unravels the unbelievable story of a multimillion-dollar comic book discovered in the most unlikely place...up in the attic!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's KMF.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I Am sixty and you're listening to The Conway Show
on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Mark Thompson's sitting in for Tim Conway Junior. Many loved
Johnny Carson. The Tonight Show was an institution, and I'd say,
as entertainers go, he was iconic at a time when
late night TV was so very relevant. You could say
it's relevant now, even in a different way, just the
way that the late night slots have been redefined and
(00:37):
have become relevant in a political way. But what I'm
talking about is sort of a cultural relevance, and Johnny
Carson was one of a kind. One obsessive fan has
a podcast all about Johnny Carson and The Tonight Show
and now his first book called Love Johnny Carson. Mark Malkoff,
(01:01):
Welcome to Kfiser.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Mark, it's good to help you.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Thank you. Of course, I grew up with Carson and
so very much intrigued. Oftentimes we'll watch you know, the
clips are everywhere now, but I remember when yes, yeah,
go ahead, yeah yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
Freak no, I was gonna say the clips. They have
over a million subscribers on Johnny Carson's YouTube channel, the
Official One and thirty years later people are still talking
about him. It shows you how amazing he was as
a performer.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Yeah, and it's funny, this is how dominant he was.
I remember as a kid, they came out with a
Tonight Show album, a record album. It was on vinyl, yes,
and you could play this album. It was like clips
from the Johnny Carson was like YouTube, but think of
it as a record album sort of.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
And yeah, it was Rickles and it was Dangerfield in
the best of the Tonight Show.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
You're right, yeah, And I'd forgotten until this very moment.
Then you and I are talking and I remember getting
it and playing it over and over and over again.
So your love of Johnny Carson is something that you
have played out in this podcast for a while. In
the podcast, do you discuss like different episodes of The
Tonight Show or how do you handle it there?
Speaker 4 (02:18):
I do. I touched to over four hundred people that
worked for Johnny Carson, people that were guests like mel
Brooks on Johnny's first show. We talk about iconic moments
like Johnny's writer Pat McCormick streaking and running naked across
the stage during Johnny's monologue in nineteen seventy four or
seventy five, and it's a lot of what actually happened,
(02:38):
the backstories of I was with Ed Eames, for example,
and Beverly Hills. Eddames was in his nineties and he's
telling me about throwing a tomahawk and he told his
wife that night when he went back home, it's.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Never going to air.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
He throws the tomahawk on to a wooden outline of
a cowboy and.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
It hits the cross area.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Back then in nineteen sixty five, that was scandalous, and
he was convinced it with an air. But Carson told NBC,
you were airing this, I am Johnny Carson, and it
was history.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yeah, it sure was. Became like one of the clips
that ran every Anniversary show. And this would have been
his one hundredth birthday.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
It would have been October would have been one hundred.
And you know, his brother Dick lived a very long
life and passed away just.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
A few years ago.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
But Carson was smoking two paths of Paul Malde a
day unfiltered.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
His dad was a chainsmoker.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
Johnny started when he was fourteen, did not quit until
he left the Tonight Show, and by then he had mphysema,
and he just the rest of his life was just
health challenges.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
How old a man was he when he passed away.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Who was seventy nine years old, and the last year
he was writing jokes for David Letterman. Secretly he was
still having lunch with his writers. He was still in
his poker game with Steve Martin and Chevy Chase and
Barry Diller and Carl Reiner. He had friends, which I
talk to the friends, and you know what, the one
thing Mark that they all told me is that the
(04:05):
people that really knew Johnny told me that he was
almost the same Johnny you would see on the tinanio
on and off camera, a little less gregarious, but he
had to be comfortable with you. It was a small
group of friends like Newhart, Rickles, David Steinberg, and they
would say that he was almost the same Johnny, which
is very calenter culture to the media's cold and aloof
Moniker of Carson.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Well, it's absolutely true that the media picture narrative around
Carson is not that it's that he was so different
off camera. You're saying that those closest to him anyway
found him the same, found him engaging found him warm, right,
(04:47):
that's what you're saying.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
That's what they said. They said there was no one
more loyal. But at the same time the guy was
there were always threats to his life, and for self
preservation reasons, he had to shut down a little bit.
I mean, they couldn't want down the screen that someone
grabbing his arm. Mark David Chapman, who assassinated John Lennon,
had a short list of people to kill if it
wasn't Lenin, and Johnny Carson was on that list. The
(05:09):
FBI was protecting him from threats, so he had to
shut down sometimes, and that's what his friend said.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
It was just self preservation.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
The people that knew him the best told me he
was almost the same Johnny on and off, which I
couldn't believe.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
You have a new book called Love Johnny Carson, and
in the book you have a bunch of things that
sort of dispel these rumors that you're talking about, or
dispel these kind of notions that were out there in
the media. And just because you're talking about, you know,
wanting to kill Johnny Carson, all this stuff, it seems
so extraordinary. There is a real story behind the story
that was kind of out there, that Joe Gallo, who
(05:46):
is a mobster who wanted to kill Carson, and how
Frank Sinatra saved Carson's life. Can you tell that story.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
That did happen in nineteen seventy one at Jailay's. I'm
here in New York City. I live in New York City, Carson.
We talk on the tonight Joe about his struggle with drinking.
He would say he'd be fine, he'd have one more
drink too many, and he'd turn into Attila the Han.
Johnny would say, some people get fun loving when they drank.
Johnny admitted he would want to fight the room. Johnny
had drank too much. Didn't remember this, but he and
(06:16):
Joe Gallo had just gotten out of prison after a decade.
Joe Gallo was in the bathroom and Johnny did something
inappropriate that Joe Gallow's girlfriend, Jilly Rizzo got ed McMahon
and Johnny out of there, and Gallo flipped out, and
Sinatra was the one. Johnny and Dave Tebbitt was the
NBC Vice president went to Sinatra and Sinatra is the
(06:39):
one the broker peace deal with Gallo, and Gallo said,
only because you for you know Johnny Carson, you're friends
with Johnny Carson. Does he live and breathe? And Gallo
died less than a year later. He was a who
was still down shot by downtown in little Italy.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
I believe. Wow.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Yeah, he was a dangerous, dangerous guy. But Johnny, when
he drank ed McMahon would be his bodyguard and just
try to get him back home. But it was something
that Johnny would talk about on the TINANTIRA. You would
talk about his problem with being overly competitive. Like in
nineteen seventy one, he would have four television show, four
TV sets going on in his apartment. At eleven thirty,
(07:21):
He'd be watching his show, Dick Haviot's show, David Brost
had a show up at the same time, and then
he'd be watching it was either Merv Griffin or Joey Bishop,
but he'd be studying them like a coach, like a
football coach. I mean, he was so competitive that something
was going to suffer, and it was his marriages and
it was his kids unfortunately.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Yeah, that's really a reminder, you know, you forget because
just the era. Now you can time shift, you can
record things that just didn't exist back then. And so
you see these shows in real time and I forget
that he did. You know, we think of him as
this dominant personality, and he was. His show was dominant.
(08:01):
It was cultural dominance, media dominance. But for him there
was competition. The Cabot was on, as you say, Frost
was on, et cetera. It's fascinating to hear that. Mark
Malkoff's book is Love Johnny Carson, One obsessive fans journey
to find the genius behind the legend. It's on sale now, Mark,
can you hang through the break and just can we
(08:21):
finish up? I'd love to just ask you a couple
of more things. Great. I grew up with Carson and
The Tonight Show, and I remember never missing an episode
when I was in high school, and it was just
one of those things that for me was an institution
of my life, kind of an organizing principle, and that's
why I think late night television was that way for
(08:43):
a lot of people. Anyway, more with Mark Malkoff, and
we'll talk more of his book, Love Johnny Carson as
we continue, Thompson here for Conway.
Speaker 5 (08:52):
You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFI
Am six forty.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Mark Thompson's sitting in for Tim Conway Jr. Talking to
Mark Malkoff. His new book is Love Johnny Carson, One
obsessive fans journey to find the genius behind the legend.
And Mark has been the super fan of Carson and
has done a podcast for some time now talking to
past guests and producers and writers. I mean, you know Saget,
(09:21):
Larry King, Michael J. Fox, Paula Poundstone, all these interviews,
Carol Burnett, mel Brooks. So congratulations on all the work
you've done. And the book has a bunch of stuff
about Carson and the Tonight Show. One of the things
about the Tonight Show that was interesting Mark is I
guess they have these they there were banned guests from
(09:42):
the Tonight Show, and in your new book you talk
about I mean people I wouldn't have put on the list,
like William Shatner. What was William Shatner banned from the
Tonight Show?
Speaker 4 (09:51):
For William Shatner for about two or three minutes on
his third appearance with Johnny, wouldn't let Johnny get a worded.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
He was long winded.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
He did not stick to the pre interview, which Shatner
supposed to tell him amusing story. Carson was bored, the
audience was bored. That was Strike one. Straight two is
Shatner turned his back to Carson and turned to the
previous guest Buddy Hacket, and they ignored Carson for some
a little bit of time. Strike three was back then
you were not allowed to say the network of your show.
(10:22):
So Shatner was on TJ.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Hooker.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
He was allowed to promote that, but he wasn't allowed
to say it was on ABC. Carson would say it
was on another network, and Shatner in front of everyone
that I'm on ABC and had to beat that out.
So yeah, So basically Carson Carson deemed.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Somebody having bad manners. They were banned.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
Jerry Lewis apparently was rude to one of Carson's Q
card guys, and Johnny said, you will never be on
the show again. He was the guest host that time,
and if anyone came into that show with bad manners.
Ellen DeGeneres with bands her I think a third time
because they asked her not to do a a joke
they deemed offensive to some audience members and she ended
(11:03):
up doing it and they never had her back so well,
I thought.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
That's these are wild stories, I mean really wild. Never
would have thought, but yeah, and you remind me of
this time where they used to always say so and
says here and I know you've got a show on
another network. They would always say another network, and it
just was always weird. But Carl Sagan, I always thought,
was someone that Carson worshiped. And yet I've noted here
in the notes that in your book you discussed the
(11:29):
fact that he was on the band list. Carl Sagan.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
It was really tough because Johnny and him were friends,
and when Carl Sagan would go on the show, Johnny
would have dinner with him after the show. I mean
that was very rare for Johnny to do that. He
wouldn't do that with movie starts. But he loved Sagan.
But during Sagan, I think it was his eighteenth appearance
he in the mid eighties. Sagan interrupted Johnny twice during
a segment to correct him, and Carson was just very
(11:56):
embarrassed for somebody that famous. Carson was leally sensitive. I mean,
David Letterman was the same way. You wouldn't make me
think somebody that makes fun of people. In the monologue,
would be that sensitive, but Johnny would just never have
him back. You thought it was rude being interrupted, and
he just, for whatever reason wouldn't put him on again.
Steve Allen was another person that was apparently rude to
(12:18):
one of the staff members, and Carson said, Steve Allen's gone.
So people came into Johnny's quote home and they weren't behaved.
He had just hit they were gone. I mean, he
was a guy from Nebraska. I was just actually in
Johnny's boyhood home in Norfolk, Nebraska, and his friends told
me also that he was very Midwestern and that never
(12:38):
really left him.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
I see, yeah. I mean, I guess it was of
an era and consistent with the way he was, but
it just seemed so excessively sensitive. I also think of me.
It's wild to hear that in your book again, it's
called Love Johnny Carson One Obsession fans Journey to find
the Genius behind the Legend from Mark malcolf Mark, you
talk about out a drunken George Papard nearly coming to
(13:04):
blows with Paul Williams, and Paul Williams was a insanely
talented guy, but a diminutive guy like not a big
guy at all, and George Papart I got to think,
you know, crush him.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
George Papard back then and he admitted it later had
an alcohol issue. He was an alcoholic. He was drunk
on the tonight show. It was clear, and he called
Paul Williams a midget. And Paul Williams told me that he,
you know, got stood up ready to fight George Purpard
and threatened to punch him. And it was Paul Williams
sat down with me and he looking back, he can
(13:40):
understand George was suffering from alcoholism and Paul Williams at
the time was suffering from that. And luckily both of
them were able to get cleaned up. But yeah, there
weren't these these times where it really looked like people
were going to fight, like a drunken Marlon Brando in
nineteen sixty four chugging champagne for ninety minutes in the
green room, McRae goes out and him and aah go
(14:00):
Bor go in at it and having to be separated.
So back then, those things would happen sometimes on this show.
I mean, it doesn't happen anymore, but when you're doing
that live television, live to tape. People would get into it.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Yeah, there was a sense of kind of looking in
a Hollywood cocktail party. I remember that kind of a
Hollywood party, you know, that's what and people would stop
through and I remember as a kid thinking it was
so much fun when Don Rickles would come on or
just walk on, or Sinatra, Dean Martin or any of
these sort of old Hollywood personalities.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
You know, it was so glamorous.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
And one thing I do want to mention in the
that I put in the book that I find very
very funny as well as when you turn on the
Tonight Show, you never knew who you were going to get.
You wanted Johnny Carson, but at the same time, it
might be Arnold Palmer guest hosting the Tonight Show, or
it could be Kirk Douglas or Kermit the Frog, it
could be Diana Ross. You never knew who was going
to guest host the Tonight Show, and they would pick
(14:55):
odd people like cass Elliott was guest hosting the Tonight Show,
and it was one of those things where you wanted Carson,
but Carson would be home watching the show. And that
was hilarious that some of these people thought that they
could easily host the show, and they some of them
were really good, like McClean Stevenson that a lot of
people like Lord Green from Bonanza. Come on, you can't
(15:16):
have somebody like that host the Tonight Show. Yet people
like that would try.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Yeah, I guess you know. They put eyeballs in front
of the sets, just kind of a what did you think?
Mark Malcoff? As we finish up, don't have another miner
of show. But you know the tell All books. The
guy the Carson's lawyer wrote a book that was you know,
what did you How did you digest all of that
as a fan of Carson?
Speaker 2 (15:40):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (15:41):
I didn't know until I started talking to all of
Carson's president the.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
People that worked for him.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
The reason the book is called Love Johnny Carson is
because the people kept telling me I love Johnny Carson.
It was completely opposite of Johnny Carson's lawyer's book, which
was pretty negative, I have to say.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
And he would make these.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
Claims that are untrue, that Johnny Carson died all alone,
and that's not true. Johnny died he had his wife
Alex there, two of the sons were there.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
He had family with him.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
He had friends, and I really do feel like with
Bushkin and his book made it out to be like
Carson didn't have friends, and from talking to these people,
it's just a completely different Johnny Carson. And yes, people
like Wayne Newton and there's a couple people like Joan
Rivers had problems with him, but it was only a
handful of people.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
And I do go into that.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
I mean, Joan Rivers tried to take Johnny's producer Peter
with Sally to Fox, tried to take every one of
Johnny Carson's talent coordinators, offered a double their salary. There's
more to the story, and I go into that in
the book.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Well, the book is Love Johnny Carson, One obsessive fans
journey to find the genius behind the legend. It's from
super fan Mark Malkoff, and congratulations on the book. It
sounds great. I'm going to pick it up. I was
a huge fan of the Tonight Show and I liked
all the iterations. You know, of course Jay's a friend
of the show, and oh, I loved it with Leno
(16:59):
kept it number one on and you know, and had
a monologue that I think exceeded anything that preceded him,
and I just the history is part of our many
of our a certain vintage people. It is a part
of our personal history. And I just love that you've
immersed yourself in it. I look forward to get into
the book, Love Johnny Carson. Thanks Mark, Thank you, sir.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
This was fun.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Yeah, I really enjoyed it. Mark Malkoff Again, the book
is Love Johnny Carson. Thompson. Here for Tim Conway Jr.
Speaker 5 (17:31):
You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFI
Am six forty.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Mark Thompson Here for Tim Conway Junior. My show is
called the Mark Thompson Show. A lot of politics and
news on YouTube. Great to come over here to KFI.
Talked to that guy about the Carson legacy and the
Carson Show, his new book, Love Johnny Carson. Mark Malkoff,
the author and podcaster. He does the Carson Podcast. You know,
there's a story about Freddie Decore, who was the executive
(18:02):
producer of the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. I think
I may have mentioned this on kffive before because I've
always thought this is an extraordinary thing. Apparently, he was
the son of a guy who was kind of a grifter,
sort of always on the run. I guess Freddy at
(18:25):
Kordova as a kid, they were going from town to
town kind of. His father was sort of a con man,
grifter guy. And as a result, Fredday de Kordovo, who
achieved great fame and great stature in Hollywood as the
executive producer of The Tonight Show, instead of having bank accounts,
(18:47):
would have hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash in
his home in Truesdale Estates. And for those of you
who are listening on the iHeartRadio app it may not
be a Los Angeles, Trusdale Estates, is this very bougie
place is just right above Beverly Hills. It's Beverly Hills equivalent.
(19:09):
And it's where many stars lived. Elvis lived there. I
mean many, you know, hugely wealthy people live in Trusdale Estates.
And among them was this guy, for the court of
that the executive produced the Tonight Show. So that he
had one hundred thousand dollars in cash, or hundreds of
thousands of dollars in cash, and all this money in cash,
tens of thousands of dollars everywhere in the house in
(19:30):
itself is I don't know. It's interesting. I don't know
if I would mention it to you, except for the
fact that he kept it inside the walls and in
the floorboards of the house. It was literally in the house.
So worried was he that he was going to get
(19:50):
ripped off. He was raised with that bizarre I guess
insecurity that you know, for whatever reason you he had
this sort of unmoored childhood and that it was somehow
played out that way as an adult. And so when
the time came to sell the house, they had to
(20:14):
get his wife, Janet I think her name was Janet,
had to get all that money out of these places
in the house where the money was literally like nailed
under floorboards. A bizarre twist to an interesting life. And
(20:35):
the article I read it was Invanity Fair some years ago,
detailed the wife's fall from grace. She was sort of
Miss Hollywood and Miss Beverly Hills, sort of queen of
the town, a socialite enjoyed dining out, essentially on the
power that Freddy de Kordova had as executive producer of
(20:56):
this old Tonight show, that Johnny Carson Show. Were just
talking about Johnny Carson before the break and as that
ebbed as that power ebbed as he after his death,
and she no longer could, you know, live in this
lifestyle that she'd become accustomed to. It's so wild sort
of descent into normalcy, like she just became a normal
(21:21):
civilian instead of this Beverly Hills socialite. Think like Jazacabor.
She was kind of like that sort of person coming
into the room hot, you know, wearing some stole, pulling
up in some expensive car. And she ultimately moved to
Mexico with her maid, with the like the housekeeper. It's
(21:43):
an extraordinary thing. But that's one of the people connected
to the Tonight show, connected by marriage, but married to
the executive producer Ready to Cordova always thought that was
a wild story, and I leave you with this wild
story too. Discovered in the Attic, perhaps one of the
(22:07):
most valuable comics that you could have.
Speaker 6 (22:12):
A rare Superman comic founded an attic just became the
most expensive comic book in the world. Auctioneer Lawn Allen
shares how it happened.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
A few months ago.
Speaker 7 (22:23):
A form was submitted through our website saying they had
a Superman number one and a few other comic books,
and as you can imagine, we get a lot of
requests like that. There's a lot of reprints of Superman one,
and luckily they had some nice pictures. So I immediately
called them and they told me they found it in
(22:46):
the attic in San Francisco area, and it ended up
being an unbelievable condition. So I jumped on the next
flight and flew out to San Francisco and went and
saw it in person.
Speaker 6 (22:59):
The comic book question was Superman number one.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
And I'll just cut to the chase. Superman number one,
unearthed by three brothers cleaning out their late mother's attic,
went to auction. It sold for nine point one two
million dollars this month at a Texas auction sale. Crazy
check your addicts this holiday season. Mark Thompson here for
(23:28):
Tim Conway Jr.
Speaker 5 (23:31):
You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Mark Thompson hanging out for Tim Conway Junior returns next week?
Does Timmy? And Uh? Chris Merrill is coming up next.
I think he's on the line now. Indeed, sir, indeed,
how are you, sir? I'm well, I'm doing very how's
your holiday week go, it's how's it done? A little chopping?
I'd say, yeah, yeah, a little shopping. No, but I
(24:04):
heard the show. I I mean, I'm with you. No,
I was gonna say, the one thing that's gone well
is this show? But all right, no, it's always solid.
What is this? What is the what is the Merrill clan?
Do you have kids who come to the house or
you go elsewhere? How does it work?
Speaker 8 (24:22):
I'm so glad you asked this, mark because everyone cares
my uh, my, my wife. So a few years ago,
when I was unemployed, I don't know if you know,
there was a station in the Bay Area where I
was doing a lot of work.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
You may be familiar with it. And then they up
and the range if somebody shift, yeah, yeah, exactly. Always
the last voice imagine that you could hear on this
legendary radio station is incredible. And they just changed. It
was weird.
Speaker 8 (24:47):
So my wife and I at the time, we decided,
you know what, we've been radio long enough, been fired
enough times. Let's let's let's buy a place somewhere where
we want to be and this is gonna be our
home base from now on. And uh and so we
bought a place at in my in my hometown in
northern Michigan. It's it's it's a it's a little house
just above a lake and it's near Lake Michigan. It's
beautiful and it's wonderful and we love it now and
(25:08):
my wife is there, and so, uh, you know, that's right.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
With my wife. And then I go live in Palm Springs.
Speaker 8 (25:14):
And everybody says, yeah, right, and everybody says everybody's like,
are you guys Okay, yeah, we're actually we're doing great.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
I think it's the best thing for a marriage. You
put her in northern Michigan and you go live in California.
It's it's a it works for us, it works great.
Speaker 8 (25:29):
But she's not here for Thanksgiving, but her family is here,
and so she says, well, you can go spend time
with my with my family. Oh yes, that's what I want.
I want to spend time with the in laws. Well,
now you much like them. But but but wait a
minut I'm going to go back to the to where
she is. But right now, yeah yeah, yeah, so so
explain that I'm sorry, where is she when you're you're
ware and she's where? So so uh, I'm I'm here
(25:52):
and then she is in this my hometown. It is
a I call it. It's kind of the it's the
Malibu with the Midwest, all right, uh, and it's a
it's northern Michigan and it's a little town called Luddington,
and it's south of Traverse City.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Traverse City, Okay, yeah, yeah, a lot of people know that.
Speaker 8 (26:06):
So it's about about halfway between the Skegan and Traverse
City on on the on the lake shore.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
And that's where you live most of the time. You're saying,
that's where, Well, that's what my driver's license is. But
I you know, I I live where I work.
Speaker 8 (26:18):
So so we spend actually a lot of time apart
and then I show you went back once a month
or whatever, and oh.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
That's this is really interesting. I never know this about
Chris Meryl. So where do you and so where do
you work? I mean, where do you work? Slash live?
Speaker 8 (26:31):
So I work at a state mall. You're going to
out me, now, I didn't know, all right, that's right. No,
I work at a at a station in Phoenix. Oh really,
this is wild. I didn't know that. I thought you
were in Michigan this whole time.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
No, No, when you and I were doing stuff together.
Speaker 8 (26:46):
I was, but no, I work in Phoenix every day
and I'm so blessed that I get to do this show.
And I've been doing I've been doing stuff on KFI
for uh for a long time, in the last five year, yeah,
a while.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
So this is really this is great. So I so
no wonder you're so happy Your wife lives in Michigan
and you live in Phoenix. That's very happy. Kidding, I'm kidding.
She's the one who's happy. Of course, that's her exactly. Yeah. Yeah.
And the thing is, and I'm one of those I'm
in the minority.
Speaker 8 (27:15):
It's it's about two thirds of people would rather be
hot than cold, but I would much rather be cold
than hot.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Oh.
Speaker 8 (27:20):
And the funny thing is she graduated high school in Phoenix,
and now she's living where I graduated high school and
I'm living where she graduated.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
This is why. Isn't that crazy? Really? Why? But we love.
Speaker 8 (27:31):
It's a cute little cottage that we have, and it's
just we just decided that's going to be our retirement home.
And and so right now, you know, we're still I mean,
she's we're ten to twenty years away from retirement.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
But we're we're doing it right now. Well, we'll say
along this last before. I mean, we tend to get
we tend to get a little love sick, so that
it's like, okay, I'm coming out. Oh that's I'm going home.
Yeah you got. I mean, you know, you've got to
miss somebody once in a while, you know what I mean.
And sometimes it's hard to do when you're close all
the time. That's what COVID did to us and made us,
you know, go crazy around each other. Sometimes. Oh that's
(28:05):
a great point too.
Speaker 8 (28:05):
But but then you know, actually we communicate really well
because we talk to each other a couple times a
day when I'm driving to work, when I drive home,
and sometimes when you're living with somebody, it's almost like
your ship's passing in the night. But now it's like
we have an appointment to communicate. That's really cool.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Yeah. Yeah, So we're trying to find the bright side.
And there are no kids in the marril of in
this Arrithmetrone. They're grown. Yeah, they're grown kids.
Speaker 8 (28:27):
And I have a daughter who was in Los Angeles
until last year she lived in Los Phelis and then
she she's now in Grand Rapids. And then I got
the two boys that live in Phoenix. One followed me
and one actually lived here already.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
And anybody in the broadcast or media business in your family,
thank god, thank god. Yeah, you discourage them.
Speaker 8 (28:46):
Yeah, my daughter, she she's got a degree from from
the cal State System in screenwriting. But it's like everybody
wants to be a screen right, everybody wants everybody wants
to be and they're like, well, I'm gonna follow my dreams.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
And she did, and then she's like, I'm.
Speaker 8 (29:01):
Broke, so well, yeah, it'll be a barista in the
Midwest for a while.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Listen. I can give you plenty of stories, but you
already know them of people who were struggling screenwriters until
they were forty nine years old and then they became
the biggest, you know, screenwriters in Hollywood. It does happen,
so so true. In meantime, you've got a barista a
little while. That's all. But yeah, really good. Well, this
has been great. I've learned all about Chris and I
(29:26):
didn't know anything about it. I've been working with him
and doing cross talk with him at KG already in
San Francisco, and then and and at KFI and finally
I've get toe you for years and finally get to
know you.
Speaker 8 (29:37):
Anyway, I was showing off your Instagram too, because you
were hanging out with the Dateline.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Guy right oh with Josh. We grew up together.
Speaker 8 (29:44):
So I love that I was showing that off because
if I if I got this right, you were recognized, yes,
and they were very excited because they recognized you.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Yeah, they were. They saw the Mankovich walks out and
they go, oh my god, that's a dayline guy. And
then they stepped on me to get to the Dateline guy.
It was really kind of rude. But that's just showing
that to everybody I knew. Would you gotta see this?
That's the Hollywood pecking order played out right there in
a deli outside of Delhi. All right, Chris Merrill's next. Everyone,
(30:13):
I will see you tomorrow or interact with you tomorrow.
It'll be fun. Thank you all the Conway kids for
hanging out and we will talk to you then.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Conway Show on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Now you
can always hear us live on kf I Am six
forty four to seven pm Monday through Friday, and anytime
on demand. On the iHeartRadio app,
It's KMF.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I Am sixty and you're listening to The Conway Show
on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Mark Thompson's sitting in for Tim Conway Junior. Many loved
Johnny Carson. The Tonight Show was an institution, and I'd say,
as entertainers go, he was iconic at a time when
late night TV was so very relevant. You could say
it's relevant now, even in a different way, just the
way that the late night slots have been redefined and
(00:37):
have become relevant in a political way. But what I'm
talking about is sort of a cultural relevance, and Johnny
Carson was one of a kind. One obsessive fan has
a podcast all about Johnny Carson and The Tonight Show
and now his first book called Love Johnny Carson. Mark Malkoff,
(01:01):
Welcome to Kfiser.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Mark, it's good to help you.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Thank you. Of course, I grew up with Carson and
so very much intrigued. Oftentimes we'll watch you know, the
clips are everywhere now, but I remember when yes, yeah,
go ahead, yeah yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
Freak no, I was gonna say the clips. They have
over a million subscribers on Johnny Carson's YouTube channel, the
Official One and thirty years later people are still talking
about him. It shows you how amazing he was as
a performer.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Yeah, and it's funny, this is how dominant he was.
I remember as a kid, they came out with a
Tonight Show album, a record album. It was on vinyl, yes,
and you could play this album. It was like clips
from the Johnny Carson was like YouTube, but think of
it as a record album sort of.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
And yeah, it was Rickles and it was Dangerfield in
the best of the Tonight Show.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
You're right, yeah, And I'd forgotten until this very moment.
Then you and I are talking and I remember getting
it and playing it over and over and over again.
So your love of Johnny Carson is something that you
have played out in this podcast for a while. In
the podcast, do you discuss like different episodes of The
Tonight Show or how do you handle it there?
Speaker 4 (02:18):
I do. I touched to over four hundred people that
worked for Johnny Carson, people that were guests like mel
Brooks on Johnny's first show. We talk about iconic moments
like Johnny's writer Pat McCormick streaking and running naked across
the stage during Johnny's monologue in nineteen seventy four or
seventy five, and it's a lot of what actually happened,
(02:38):
the backstories of I was with Ed Eames, for example,
and Beverly Hills. Eddames was in his nineties and he's
telling me about throwing a tomahawk and he told his
wife that night when he went back home, it's.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Never going to air.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
He throws the tomahawk on to a wooden outline of
a cowboy and.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
It hits the cross area.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Back then in nineteen sixty five, that was scandalous, and
he was convinced it with an air. But Carson told NBC,
you were airing this, I am Johnny Carson, and it
was history.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yeah, it sure was. Became like one of the clips
that ran every Anniversary show. And this would have been
his one hundredth birthday.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
It would have been October would have been one hundred.
And you know, his brother Dick lived a very long
life and passed away just.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
A few years ago.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
But Carson was smoking two paths of Paul Malde a
day unfiltered.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
His dad was a chainsmoker.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
Johnny started when he was fourteen, did not quit until
he left the Tonight Show, and by then he had mphysema,
and he just the rest of his life was just
health challenges.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
How old a man was he when he passed away.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Who was seventy nine years old, and the last year
he was writing jokes for David Letterman. Secretly he was
still having lunch with his writers. He was still in
his poker game with Steve Martin and Chevy Chase and
Barry Diller and Carl Reiner. He had friends, which I
talk to the friends, and you know what, the one
thing Mark that they all told me is that the
(04:05):
people that really knew Johnny told me that he was
almost the same Johnny you would see on the tinanio
on and off camera, a little less gregarious, but he
had to be comfortable with you. It was a small
group of friends like Newhart, Rickles, David Steinberg, and they
would say that he was almost the same Johnny, which
is very calenter culture to the media's cold and aloof
Moniker of Carson.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Well, it's absolutely true that the media picture narrative around
Carson is not that it's that he was so different
off camera. You're saying that those closest to him anyway
found him the same, found him engaging found him warm, right,
(04:47):
that's what you're saying.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
That's what they said. They said there was no one
more loyal. But at the same time the guy was
there were always threats to his life, and for self
preservation reasons, he had to shut down a little bit.
I mean, they couldn't want down the screen that someone
grabbing his arm. Mark David Chapman, who assassinated John Lennon,
had a short list of people to kill if it
wasn't Lenin, and Johnny Carson was on that list. The
(05:09):
FBI was protecting him from threats, so he had to
shut down sometimes, and that's what his friend said.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
It was just self preservation.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
The people that knew him the best told me he
was almost the same Johnny on and off, which I
couldn't believe.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
You have a new book called Love Johnny Carson, and
in the book you have a bunch of things that
sort of dispel these rumors that you're talking about, or
dispel these kind of notions that were out there in
the media. And just because you're talking about, you know,
wanting to kill Johnny Carson, all this stuff, it seems
so extraordinary. There is a real story behind the story
that was kind of out there, that Joe Gallo, who
(05:46):
is a mobster who wanted to kill Carson, and how
Frank Sinatra saved Carson's life. Can you tell that story.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
That did happen in nineteen seventy one at Jailay's. I'm
here in New York City. I live in New York City, Carson.
We talk on the tonight Joe about his struggle with drinking.
He would say he'd be fine, he'd have one more
drink too many, and he'd turn into Attila the Han.
Johnny would say, some people get fun loving when they drank.
Johnny admitted he would want to fight the room. Johnny
had drank too much. Didn't remember this, but he and
(06:16):
Joe Gallo had just gotten out of prison after a decade.
Joe Gallo was in the bathroom and Johnny did something
inappropriate that Joe Gallow's girlfriend, Jilly Rizzo got ed McMahon
and Johnny out of there, and Gallo flipped out, and
Sinatra was the one. Johnny and Dave Tebbitt was the
NBC Vice president went to Sinatra and Sinatra is the
(06:39):
one the broker peace deal with Gallo, and Gallo said,
only because you for you know Johnny Carson, you're friends
with Johnny Carson. Does he live and breathe? And Gallo
died less than a year later. He was a who
was still down shot by downtown in little Italy.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
I believe. Wow.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Yeah, he was a dangerous, dangerous guy. But Johnny, when
he drank ed McMahon would be his bodyguard and just
try to get him back home. But it was something
that Johnny would talk about on the TINANTIRA. You would
talk about his problem with being overly competitive. Like in
nineteen seventy one, he would have four television show, four
TV sets going on in his apartment. At eleven thirty,
(07:21):
He'd be watching his show, Dick Haviot's show, David Brost
had a show up at the same time, and then
he'd be watching it was either Merv Griffin or Joey Bishop,
but he'd be studying them like a coach, like a
football coach. I mean, he was so competitive that something
was going to suffer, and it was his marriages and
it was his kids unfortunately.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Yeah, that's really a reminder, you know, you forget because
just the era. Now you can time shift, you can
record things that just didn't exist back then. And so
you see these shows in real time and I forget
that he did. You know, we think of him as
this dominant personality, and he was. His show was dominant.
(08:01):
It was cultural dominance, media dominance. But for him there
was competition. The Cabot was on, as you say, Frost
was on, et cetera. It's fascinating to hear that. Mark
Malkoff's book is Love Johnny Carson, One obsessive fans journey
to find the genius behind the legend. It's on sale now, Mark,
can you hang through the break and just can we
(08:21):
finish up? I'd love to just ask you a couple
of more things. Great. I grew up with Carson and
The Tonight Show, and I remember never missing an episode
when I was in high school, and it was just
one of those things that for me was an institution
of my life, kind of an organizing principle, and that's
why I think late night television was that way for
(08:43):
a lot of people. Anyway, more with Mark Malkoff, and
we'll talk more of his book, Love Johnny Carson as
we continue, Thompson here for Conway.
Speaker 5 (08:52):
You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFI
Am six forty.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Mark Thompson's sitting in for Tim Conway Jr. Talking to
Mark Malkoff. His new book is Love Johnny Carson, One
obsessive fans journey to find the genius behind the legend.
And Mark has been the super fan of Carson and
has done a podcast for some time now talking to
past guests and producers and writers. I mean, you know Saget,
(09:21):
Larry King, Michael J. Fox, Paula Poundstone, all these interviews,
Carol Burnett, mel Brooks. So congratulations on all the work
you've done. And the book has a bunch of stuff
about Carson and the Tonight Show. One of the things
about the Tonight Show that was interesting Mark is I
guess they have these they there were banned guests from
(09:42):
the Tonight Show, and in your new book you talk
about I mean people I wouldn't have put on the list,
like William Shatner. What was William Shatner banned from the
Tonight Show?
Speaker 4 (09:51):
For William Shatner for about two or three minutes on
his third appearance with Johnny, wouldn't let Johnny get a worded.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
He was long winded.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
He did not stick to the pre interview, which Shatner
supposed to tell him amusing story. Carson was bored, the
audience was bored. That was Strike one. Straight two is
Shatner turned his back to Carson and turned to the
previous guest Buddy Hacket, and they ignored Carson for some
a little bit of time. Strike three was back then
you were not allowed to say the network of your show.
(10:22):
So Shatner was on TJ.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Hooker.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
He was allowed to promote that, but he wasn't allowed
to say it was on ABC. Carson would say it
was on another network, and Shatner in front of everyone
that I'm on ABC and had to beat that out.
So yeah, So basically Carson Carson deemed.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Somebody having bad manners. They were banned.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
Jerry Lewis apparently was rude to one of Carson's Q
card guys, and Johnny said, you will never be on
the show again. He was the guest host that time,
and if anyone came into that show with bad manners.
Ellen DeGeneres with bands her I think a third time
because they asked her not to do a a joke
they deemed offensive to some audience members and she ended
(11:03):
up doing it and they never had her back so well,
I thought.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
That's these are wild stories, I mean really wild. Never
would have thought, but yeah, and you remind me of
this time where they used to always say so and
says here and I know you've got a show on
another network. They would always say another network, and it
just was always weird. But Carl Sagan, I always thought,
was someone that Carson worshiped. And yet I've noted here
in the notes that in your book you discussed the
(11:29):
fact that he was on the band list. Carl Sagan.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
It was really tough because Johnny and him were friends,
and when Carl Sagan would go on the show, Johnny
would have dinner with him after the show. I mean
that was very rare for Johnny to do that. He
wouldn't do that with movie starts. But he loved Sagan.
But during Sagan, I think it was his eighteenth appearance
he in the mid eighties. Sagan interrupted Johnny twice during
a segment to correct him, and Carson was just very
(11:56):
embarrassed for somebody that famous. Carson was leally sensitive. I mean,
David Letterman was the same way. You wouldn't make me
think somebody that makes fun of people. In the monologue,
would be that sensitive, but Johnny would just never have
him back. You thought it was rude being interrupted, and
he just, for whatever reason wouldn't put him on again.
Steve Allen was another person that was apparently rude to
(12:18):
one of the staff members, and Carson said, Steve Allen's gone.
So people came into Johnny's quote home and they weren't behaved.
He had just hit they were gone. I mean, he
was a guy from Nebraska. I was just actually in
Johnny's boyhood home in Norfolk, Nebraska, and his friends told
me also that he was very Midwestern and that never
(12:38):
really left him.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
I see, yeah. I mean, I guess it was of
an era and consistent with the way he was, but
it just seemed so excessively sensitive. I also think of me.
It's wild to hear that in your book again, it's
called Love Johnny Carson One Obsession fans Journey to find
the Genius behind the Legend from Mark malcolf Mark, you
talk about out a drunken George Papard nearly coming to
(13:04):
blows with Paul Williams, and Paul Williams was a insanely
talented guy, but a diminutive guy like not a big
guy at all, and George Papart I got to think,
you know, crush him.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
George Papard back then and he admitted it later had
an alcohol issue. He was an alcoholic. He was drunk
on the tonight show. It was clear, and he called
Paul Williams a midget. And Paul Williams told me that he,
you know, got stood up ready to fight George Purpard
and threatened to punch him. And it was Paul Williams
sat down with me and he looking back, he can
(13:40):
understand George was suffering from alcoholism and Paul Williams at
the time was suffering from that. And luckily both of
them were able to get cleaned up. But yeah, there
weren't these these times where it really looked like people
were going to fight, like a drunken Marlon Brando in
nineteen sixty four chugging champagne for ninety minutes in the
green room, McRae goes out and him and aah go
(14:00):
Bor go in at it and having to be separated.
So back then, those things would happen sometimes on this show.
I mean, it doesn't happen anymore, but when you're doing
that live television, live to tape. People would get into it.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Yeah, there was a sense of kind of looking in
a Hollywood cocktail party. I remember that kind of a
Hollywood party, you know, that's what and people would stop
through and I remember as a kid thinking it was
so much fun when Don Rickles would come on or
just walk on, or Sinatra, Dean Martin or any of
these sort of old Hollywood personalities.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
You know, it was so glamorous.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
And one thing I do want to mention in the
that I put in the book that I find very
very funny as well as when you turn on the
Tonight Show, you never knew who you were going to get.
You wanted Johnny Carson, but at the same time, it
might be Arnold Palmer guest hosting the Tonight Show, or
it could be Kirk Douglas or Kermit the Frog, it
could be Diana Ross. You never knew who was going
to guest host the Tonight Show, and they would pick
(14:55):
odd people like cass Elliott was guest hosting the Tonight Show,
and it was one of those things where you wanted Carson,
but Carson would be home watching the show. And that
was hilarious that some of these people thought that they
could easily host the show, and they some of them
were really good, like McClean Stevenson that a lot of
people like Lord Green from Bonanza. Come on, you can't
(15:16):
have somebody like that host the Tonight Show. Yet people
like that would try.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Yeah, I guess you know. They put eyeballs in front
of the sets, just kind of a what did you think?
Mark Malcoff? As we finish up, don't have another miner
of show. But you know the tell All books. The
guy the Carson's lawyer wrote a book that was you know,
what did you How did you digest all of that
as a fan of Carson?
Speaker 2 (15:40):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (15:41):
I didn't know until I started talking to all of
Carson's president the.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
People that worked for him.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
The reason the book is called Love Johnny Carson is
because the people kept telling me I love Johnny Carson.
It was completely opposite of Johnny Carson's lawyer's book, which
was pretty negative, I have to say.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
And he would make these.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
Claims that are untrue, that Johnny Carson died all alone,
and that's not true. Johnny died he had his wife
Alex there, two of the sons were there.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
He had family with him.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
He had friends, and I really do feel like with
Bushkin and his book made it out to be like
Carson didn't have friends, and from talking to these people,
it's just a completely different Johnny Carson. And yes, people
like Wayne Newton and there's a couple people like Joan
Rivers had problems with him, but it was only a
handful of people.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
And I do go into that.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
I mean, Joan Rivers tried to take Johnny's producer Peter
with Sally to Fox, tried to take every one of
Johnny Carson's talent coordinators, offered a double their salary. There's
more to the story, and I go into that in
the book.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Well, the book is Love Johnny Carson, One obsessive fans
journey to find the genius behind the legend. It's from
super fan Mark Malkoff, and congratulations on the book. It
sounds great. I'm going to pick it up. I was
a huge fan of the Tonight Show and I liked
all the iterations. You know, of course Jay's a friend
of the show, and oh, I loved it with Leno
(16:59):
kept it number one on and you know, and had
a monologue that I think exceeded anything that preceded him,
and I just the history is part of our many
of our a certain vintage people. It is a part
of our personal history. And I just love that you've
immersed yourself in it. I look forward to get into
the book, Love Johnny Carson. Thanks Mark, Thank you, sir.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
This was fun.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Yeah, I really enjoyed it. Mark Malkoff Again, the book
is Love Johnny Carson. Thompson. Here for Tim Conway Jr.
Speaker 5 (17:31):
You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFI
Am six forty.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Mark Thompson Here for Tim Conway Junior. My show is
called the Mark Thompson Show. A lot of politics and
news on YouTube. Great to come over here to KFI.
Talked to that guy about the Carson legacy and the
Carson Show, his new book, Love Johnny Carson. Mark Malkoff,
the author and podcaster. He does the Carson Podcast. You know,
there's a story about Freddie Decore, who was the executive
(18:02):
producer of the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. I think
I may have mentioned this on kffive before because I've
always thought this is an extraordinary thing. Apparently, he was
the son of a guy who was kind of a grifter,
sort of always on the run. I guess Freddy at
(18:25):
Kordova as a kid, they were going from town to
town kind of. His father was sort of a con man,
grifter guy. And as a result, Fredday de Kordovo, who
achieved great fame and great stature in Hollywood as the
executive producer of The Tonight Show, instead of having bank accounts,
(18:47):
would have hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash in
his home in Truesdale Estates. And for those of you
who are listening on the iHeartRadio app it may not
be a Los Angeles, Trusdale Estates, is this very bougie
place is just right above Beverly Hills. It's Beverly Hills equivalent.
(19:09):
And it's where many stars lived. Elvis lived there. I
mean many, you know, hugely wealthy people live in Trusdale Estates.
And among them was this guy, for the court of
that the executive produced the Tonight Show. So that he
had one hundred thousand dollars in cash, or hundreds of
thousands of dollars in cash, and all this money in cash,
tens of thousands of dollars everywhere in the house in
(19:30):
itself is I don't know. It's interesting. I don't know
if I would mention it to you, except for the
fact that he kept it inside the walls and in
the floorboards of the house. It was literally in the house.
So worried was he that he was going to get
(19:50):
ripped off. He was raised with that bizarre I guess
insecurity that you know, for whatever reason you he had
this sort of unmoored childhood and that it was somehow
played out that way as an adult. And so when
the time came to sell the house, they had to
(20:14):
get his wife, Janet I think her name was Janet,
had to get all that money out of these places
in the house where the money was literally like nailed
under floorboards. A bizarre twist to an interesting life. And
(20:35):
the article I read it was Invanity Fair some years ago,
detailed the wife's fall from grace. She was sort of
Miss Hollywood and Miss Beverly Hills, sort of queen of
the town, a socialite enjoyed dining out, essentially on the
power that Freddy de Kordova had as executive producer of
(20:56):
this old Tonight show, that Johnny Carson Show. Were just
talking about Johnny Carson before the break and as that
ebbed as that power ebbed as he after his death,
and she no longer could, you know, live in this
lifestyle that she'd become accustomed to. It's so wild sort
of descent into normalcy, like she just became a normal
(21:21):
civilian instead of this Beverly Hills socialite. Think like Jazacabor.
She was kind of like that sort of person coming
into the room hot, you know, wearing some stole, pulling
up in some expensive car. And she ultimately moved to
Mexico with her maid, with the like the housekeeper. It's
(21:43):
an extraordinary thing. But that's one of the people connected
to the Tonight show, connected by marriage, but married to
the executive producer Ready to Cordova always thought that was
a wild story, and I leave you with this wild
story too. Discovered in the Attic, perhaps one of the
(22:07):
most valuable comics that you could have.
Speaker 6 (22:12):
A rare Superman comic founded an attic just became the
most expensive comic book in the world. Auctioneer Lawn Allen
shares how it happened.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
A few months ago.
Speaker 7 (22:23):
A form was submitted through our website saying they had
a Superman number one and a few other comic books,
and as you can imagine, we get a lot of
requests like that. There's a lot of reprints of Superman one,
and luckily they had some nice pictures. So I immediately
called them and they told me they found it in
(22:46):
the attic in San Francisco area, and it ended up
being an unbelievable condition. So I jumped on the next
flight and flew out to San Francisco and went and
saw it in person.
Speaker 6 (22:59):
The comic book question was Superman number one.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
And I'll just cut to the chase. Superman number one,
unearthed by three brothers cleaning out their late mother's attic,
went to auction. It sold for nine point one two
million dollars this month at a Texas auction sale. Crazy
check your addicts this holiday season. Mark Thompson here for
(23:28):
Tim Conway Jr.
Speaker 5 (23:31):
You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Mark Thompson hanging out for Tim Conway Junior returns next week?
Does Timmy? And Uh? Chris Merrill is coming up next.
I think he's on the line now. Indeed, sir, indeed,
how are you, sir? I'm well, I'm doing very how's
your holiday week go, it's how's it done? A little chopping?
I'd say, yeah, yeah, a little shopping. No, but I
(24:04):
heard the show. I I mean, I'm with you. No,
I was gonna say, the one thing that's gone well
is this show? But all right, no, it's always solid.
What is this? What is the what is the Merrill clan?
Do you have kids who come to the house or
you go elsewhere? How does it work?
Speaker 8 (24:22):
I'm so glad you asked this, mark because everyone cares
my uh, my, my wife. So a few years ago,
when I was unemployed, I don't know if you know,
there was a station in the Bay Area where I
was doing a lot of work.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
You may be familiar with it. And then they up
and the range if somebody shift, yeah, yeah, exactly. Always
the last voice imagine that you could hear on this
legendary radio station is incredible. And they just changed. It
was weird.
Speaker 8 (24:47):
So my wife and I at the time, we decided,
you know what, we've been radio long enough, been fired
enough times. Let's let's let's buy a place somewhere where
we want to be and this is gonna be our
home base from now on. And uh and so we
bought a place at in my in my hometown in
northern Michigan. It's it's it's a it's a little house
just above a lake and it's near Lake Michigan. It's
beautiful and it's wonderful and we love it now and
(25:08):
my wife is there, and so, uh, you know, that's right.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
With my wife. And then I go live in Palm Springs.
Speaker 8 (25:14):
And everybody says, yeah, right, and everybody says everybody's like,
are you guys Okay, yeah, we're actually we're doing great.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
I think it's the best thing for a marriage. You
put her in northern Michigan and you go live in California.
It's it's a it works for us, it works great.
Speaker 8 (25:29):
But she's not here for Thanksgiving, but her family is here,
and so she says, well, you can go spend time
with my with my family. Oh yes, that's what I want.
I want to spend time with the in laws. Well,
now you much like them. But but but wait a
minut I'm going to go back to the to where
she is. But right now, yeah yeah, yeah, so so
explain that I'm sorry, where is she when you're you're
ware and she's where? So so uh, I'm I'm here
(25:52):
and then she is in this my hometown. It is
a I call it. It's kind of the it's the
Malibu with the Midwest, all right, uh, and it's a
it's northern Michigan and it's a little town called Luddington,
and it's south of Traverse City.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Traverse City, Okay, yeah, yeah, a lot of people know that.
Speaker 8 (26:06):
So it's about about halfway between the Skegan and Traverse
City on on the on the lake shore.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
And that's where you live most of the time. You're saying,
that's where, Well, that's what my driver's license is. But
I you know, I I live where I work.
Speaker 8 (26:18):
So so we spend actually a lot of time apart
and then I show you went back once a month
or whatever, and oh.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
That's this is really interesting. I never know this about
Chris Meryl. So where do you and so where do
you work? I mean, where do you work? Slash live?
Speaker 8 (26:31):
So I work at a state mall. You're going to
out me, now, I didn't know, all right, that's right. No,
I work at a at a station in Phoenix. Oh really,
this is wild. I didn't know that. I thought you
were in Michigan this whole time.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
No, No, when you and I were doing stuff together.
Speaker 8 (26:46):
I was, but no, I work in Phoenix every day
and I'm so blessed that I get to do this show.
And I've been doing I've been doing stuff on KFI
for uh for a long time, in the last five year, yeah,
a while.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
So this is really this is great. So I so
no wonder you're so happy Your wife lives in Michigan
and you live in Phoenix. That's very happy. Kidding, I'm kidding.
She's the one who's happy. Of course, that's her exactly. Yeah. Yeah.
And the thing is, and I'm one of those I'm
in the minority.
Speaker 8 (27:15):
It's it's about two thirds of people would rather be
hot than cold, but I would much rather be cold
than hot.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Oh.
Speaker 8 (27:20):
And the funny thing is she graduated high school in Phoenix,
and now she's living where I graduated high school and
I'm living where she graduated.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
This is why. Isn't that crazy? Really? Why? But we love.
Speaker 8 (27:31):
It's a cute little cottage that we have, and it's
just we just decided that's going to be our retirement home.
And and so right now, you know, we're still I mean,
she's we're ten to twenty years away from retirement.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
But we're we're doing it right now. Well, we'll say
along this last before. I mean, we tend to get
we tend to get a little love sick, so that
it's like, okay, I'm coming out. Oh that's I'm going home.
Yeah you got. I mean, you know, you've got to
miss somebody once in a while, you know what I mean.
And sometimes it's hard to do when you're close all
the time. That's what COVID did to us and made us,
you know, go crazy around each other. Sometimes. Oh that's
(28:05):
a great point too.
Speaker 8 (28:05):
But but then you know, actually we communicate really well
because we talk to each other a couple times a
day when I'm driving to work, when I drive home,
and sometimes when you're living with somebody, it's almost like
your ship's passing in the night. But now it's like
we have an appointment to communicate. That's really cool.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Yeah. Yeah, So we're trying to find the bright side.
And there are no kids in the marril of in
this Arrithmetrone. They're grown. Yeah, they're grown kids.
Speaker 8 (28:27):
And I have a daughter who was in Los Angeles
until last year she lived in Los Phelis and then
she she's now in Grand Rapids. And then I got
the two boys that live in Phoenix. One followed me
and one actually lived here already.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
And anybody in the broadcast or media business in your family,
thank god, thank god. Yeah, you discourage them.
Speaker 8 (28:46):
Yeah, my daughter, she she's got a degree from from
the cal State System in screenwriting. But it's like everybody
wants to be a screen right, everybody wants everybody wants
to be and they're like, well, I'm gonna follow my dreams.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
And she did, and then she's like, I'm.
Speaker 8 (29:01):
Broke, so well, yeah, it'll be a barista in the
Midwest for a while.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Listen. I can give you plenty of stories, but you
already know them of people who were struggling screenwriters until
they were forty nine years old and then they became
the biggest, you know, screenwriters in Hollywood. It does happen,
so so true. In meantime, you've got a barista a
little while. That's all. But yeah, really good. Well, this
has been great. I've learned all about Chris and I
(29:26):
didn't know anything about it. I've been working with him
and doing cross talk with him at KG already in
San Francisco, and then and and at KFI and finally
I've get toe you for years and finally get to
know you.
Speaker 8 (29:37):
Anyway, I was showing off your Instagram too, because you
were hanging out with the Dateline.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Guy right oh with Josh. We grew up together.
Speaker 8 (29:44):
So I love that I was showing that off because
if I if I got this right, you were recognized, yes,
and they were very excited because they recognized you.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Yeah, they were. They saw the Mankovich walks out and
they go, oh my god, that's a dayline guy. And
then they stepped on me to get to the Dateline guy.
It was really kind of rude. But that's just showing
that to everybody I knew. Would you gotta see this?
That's the Hollywood pecking order played out right there in
a deli outside of Delhi. All right, Chris Merrill's next. Everyone,
(30:13):
I will see you tomorrow or interact with you tomorrow.
It'll be fun. Thank you all the Conway kids for
hanging out and we will talk to you then.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Conway Show on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Now you
can always hear us live on kf I Am six
forty four to seven pm Monday through Friday, and anytime
on demand. On the iHeartRadio app,
Tim Conway Jr. on Demand News
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