Larry King died last week at the age of 87, a month after being hospitalized with COVID-19. King, who was born Lawrence Zeiger to Jewish immigrants from Belarus, had a more than six decade career in television, radio, and digitial media, conducting thousands of interviews with actors, presidents, sports figures, world leaders, and so many others. Early in his career, what gaffe did King commit during an interview?

Starmus2017_LarryKing_Trondheim Spektrum by NTNU – Norwegian University of Science and Technology is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

A. King’s first broadcasting job was at a radio station in Miami Beach. He did interviews with local people, discussing their daily lives. For one show, he invited on a Black man who was a member of the station’s cleaning crew. The broadcast was cut off almost immediately, as King had no idea that in Miami in 1957 it was not acceptable to interview a Black man on a white radio station.

B. In the mid-1960’s, King interviewed the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Trying to be funny, Larry King asked, “Is it true that we’re related?” Dr. King responded, “Well, sir, many of my people are related to your people. Do you really want to discuss why that is?”

C. King’s first celebrity interview was with singer Bobby Darin. King asked him about his recording of Roses Are Red (My Love), which was in fact a Bobby Vinton song.

D. In the late 1950’s King moved to Miami Beach where he got a job at WAHR radio. One of his first interview guests was the president of the Kiwanis Club of Little Havana. At one point in the interview King said, “I’m pretty new to Miami. Can you recommend a place to get tacos,” not realizing that tacos are not part of traditional Cuban cuisine.

E. When King was 23 years, old, he interviewed a Catholic priest and asked him how many children he had.

Click here for the answer.

✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡