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Speaker 1: It's KMF.

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Speaker 2: I Am sixty and you're listening to The Conway Show

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Speaker 2: on demand on the iHeartRadio app.

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Speaker 1: Mark Thompson's sitting in for Tim Conway Junior. Many loved

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Speaker 1: Johnny Carson. The Tonight Show was an institution, and I'd say,

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Speaker 1: as entertainers go, he was iconic at a time when

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Speaker 1: late night TV was so very relevant. You could say

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Speaker 1: it's relevant now, even in a different way, just the

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Speaker 1: way that the late night slots have been redefined and

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Speaker 1: have become relevant in a political way. But what I'm

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Speaker 1: talking about is sort of a cultural relevance, and Johnny

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Speaker 1: Carson was one of a kind. One obsessive fan has

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Speaker 1: a podcast all about Johnny Carson and The Tonight Show

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Speaker 1: and now his first book called Love Johnny Carson. Mark Malkoff,

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Kfiser.

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Speaker 3: Mark, it's good to help you.

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Speaker 1: Thank you. Of course, I grew up with Carson and

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Speaker 1: so very much intrigued. Oftentimes we'll watch you know, the

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Speaker 1: clips are everywhere now, but I remember when yes, yeah,

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Speaker 1: go ahead, yeah yeah.

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Speaker 4: Freak no, I was gonna say the clips. They have

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Speaker 4: over a million subscribers on Johnny Carson's YouTube channel, the

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Speaker 4: Official One and thirty years later people are still talking

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Speaker 4: about him. It shows you how amazing he was as

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Speaker 4: a performer.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's funny, this is how dominant he was.

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Speaker 1: I remember as a kid, they came out with a

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Speaker 1: Tonight Show album, a record album. It was on vinyl, yes,

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Speaker 1: and you could play this album. It was like clips

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Speaker 1: from the Johnny Carson was like YouTube, but think of

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Speaker 1: it as a record album sort of.

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Speaker 4: And yeah, it was Rickles and it was Dangerfield in

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Speaker 4: the best of the Tonight Show.

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Speaker 1: You're right, yeah, And I'd forgotten until this very moment.

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Speaker 1: Then you and I are talking and I remember getting

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Speaker 1: it and playing it over and over and over again.

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Speaker 1: So your love of Johnny Carson is something that you

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Speaker 1: have played out in this podcast for a while. In

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Speaker 1: the podcast, do you discuss like different episodes of The

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Speaker 1: Tonight Show or how do you handle it there?

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Speaker 4: I do. I touched to over four hundred people that

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Speaker 4: worked for Johnny Carson, people that were guests like mel

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Speaker 4: Brooks on Johnny's first show. We talk about iconic moments

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Speaker 4: like Johnny's writer Pat McCormick streaking and running naked across

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Speaker 4: the stage during Johnny's monologue in nineteen seventy four or

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Speaker 4: seventy five, and it's a lot of what actually happened,

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Speaker 4: the backstories of I was with Ed Eames, for example,

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Speaker 4: and Beverly Hills. Eddames was in his nineties and he's

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Speaker 4: telling me about throwing a tomahawk and he told his

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Speaker 4: wife that night when he went back home, it's.

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Speaker 3: Never going to air.

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Speaker 4: He throws the tomahawk on to a wooden outline of

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Speaker 4: a cowboy and.

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Speaker 3: It hits the cross area.

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Speaker 4: Back then in nineteen sixty five, that was scandalous, and

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Speaker 4: he was convinced it with an air. But Carson told NBC,

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Speaker 4: you were airing this, I am Johnny Carson, and it

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Speaker 4: was history.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it sure was. Became like one of the clips

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Speaker 1: that ran every Anniversary show. And this would have been

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Speaker 1: his one hundredth birthday.

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Speaker 4: It would have been October would have been one hundred.

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Speaker 4: And you know, his brother Dick lived a very long

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Speaker 4: life and passed away just.

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Speaker 3: A few years ago.

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Speaker 4: But Carson was smoking two paths of Paul Malde a

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Speaker 4: day unfiltered.

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Speaker 3: His dad was a chainsmoker.

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Speaker 4: Johnny started when he was fourteen, did not quit until

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Speaker 4: he left the Tonight Show, and by then he had mphysema,

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Speaker 4: and he just the rest of his life was just

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Speaker 4: health challenges.

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Speaker 1: How old a man was he when he passed away.

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Speaker 4: Who was seventy nine years old, and the last year

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Speaker 4: he was writing jokes for David Letterman. Secretly he was

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Speaker 4: still having lunch with his writers. He was still in

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Speaker 4: his poker game with Steve Martin and Chevy Chase and

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Speaker 4: Barry Diller and Carl Reiner. He had friends, which I

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Speaker 4: talk to the friends, and you know what, the one

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Speaker 4: thing Mark that they all told me is that the

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Speaker 4: people that really knew Johnny told me that he was

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Speaker 4: almost the same Johnny you would see on the tinanio

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Speaker 4: on and off camera, a little less gregarious, but he

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Speaker 4: had to be comfortable with you. It was a small

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Speaker 4: group of friends like Newhart, Rickles, David Steinberg, and they

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Speaker 4: would say that he was almost the same Johnny, which

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Speaker 4: is very calenter culture to the media's cold and aloof

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Speaker 4: Moniker of Carson.

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Speaker 1: Well, it's absolutely true that the media picture narrative around

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Speaker 1: Carson is not that it's that he was so different

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Speaker 1: off camera. You're saying that those closest to him anyway

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Speaker 1: found him the same, found him engaging found him warm, right,

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Speaker 1: that's what you're saying.

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Speaker 4: That's what they said. They said there was no one

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Speaker 4: more loyal. But at the same time the guy was

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Speaker 4: there were always threats to his life, and for self

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Speaker 4: preservation reasons, he had to shut down a little bit.

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Speaker 4: I mean, they couldn't want down the screen that someone

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Speaker 4: grabbing his arm. Mark David Chapman, who assassinated John Lennon,

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Speaker 4: had a short list of people to kill if it

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Speaker 4: wasn't Lenin, and Johnny Carson was on that list. The

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Speaker 4: FBI was protecting him from threats, so he had to

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Speaker 4: shut down sometimes, and that's what his friend said.

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Speaker 3: It was just self preservation.

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Speaker 4: The people that knew him the best told me he

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Speaker 4: was almost the same Johnny on and off, which I

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Speaker 4: couldn't believe.

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Speaker 1: You have a new book called Love Johnny Carson, and

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Speaker 1: in the book you have a bunch of things that

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Speaker 1: sort of dispel these rumors that you're talking about, or

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Speaker 1: dispel these kind of notions that were out there in

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Speaker 1: the media. And just because you're talking about, you know,

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Speaker 1: wanting to kill Johnny Carson, all this stuff, it seems

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Speaker 1: so extraordinary. There is a real story behind the story

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Speaker 1: that was kind of out there, that Joe Gallo, who

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Speaker 1: is a mobster who wanted to kill Carson, and how

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Speaker 1: Frank Sinatra saved Carson's life. Can you tell that story.

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Speaker 4: That did happen in nineteen seventy one at Jailay's. I'm

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Speaker 4: here in New York City. I live in New York City, Carson.

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Speaker 4: We talk on the tonight Joe about his struggle with drinking.

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Speaker 4: He would say he'd be fine, he'd have one more

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Speaker 4: drink too many, and he'd turn into Attila the Han.

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Speaker 4: Johnny would say, some people get fun loving when they drank.

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Speaker 4: Johnny admitted he would want to fight the room. Johnny

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Speaker 4: had drank too much. Didn't remember this, but he and

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Speaker 4: Joe Gallo had just gotten out of prison after a decade.

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Speaker 4: Joe Gallo was in the bathroom and Johnny did something

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Speaker 4: inappropriate that Joe Gallow's girlfriend, Jilly Rizzo got ed McMahon

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Speaker 4: and Johnny out of there, and Gallo flipped out, and

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Speaker 4: Sinatra was the one. Johnny and Dave Tebbitt was the

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Speaker 4: NBC Vice president went to Sinatra and Sinatra is the

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Speaker 4: one the broker peace deal with Gallo, and Gallo said,

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Speaker 4: only because you for you know Johnny Carson, you're friends

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Speaker 4: with Johnny Carson. Does he live and breathe? And Gallo

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Speaker 4: died less than a year later. He was a who

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Speaker 4: was still down shot by downtown in little Italy.

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Speaker 3: I believe. Wow.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, he was a dangerous, dangerous guy. But Johnny, when

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Speaker 4: he drank ed McMahon would be his bodyguard and just

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Speaker 4: try to get him back home. But it was something

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Speaker 4: that Johnny would talk about on the TINANTIRA. You would

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Speaker 4: talk about his problem with being overly competitive. Like in

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Speaker 4: nineteen seventy one, he would have four television show, four

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Speaker 4: TV sets going on in his apartment. At eleven thirty,

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Speaker 4: He'd be watching his show, Dick Haviot's show, David Brost

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Speaker 4: had a show up at the same time, and then

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Speaker 4: he'd be watching it was either Merv Griffin or Joey Bishop,

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Speaker 4: but he'd be studying them like a coach, like a

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Speaker 4: football coach. I mean, he was so competitive that something

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Speaker 4: was going to suffer, and it was his marriages and

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Speaker 4: it was his kids unfortunately.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's really a reminder, you know, you forget because

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Speaker 1: just the era. Now you can time shift, you can

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Speaker 1: record things that just didn't exist back then. And so

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Speaker 1: you see these shows in real time and I forget

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Speaker 1: that he did. You know, we think of him as

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Speaker 1: this dominant personality, and he was. His show was dominant.

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Speaker 1: It was cultural dominance, media dominance. But for him there

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Speaker 1: was competition. The Cabot was on, as you say, Frost

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Speaker 1: was on, et cetera. It's fascinating to hear that. Mark

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Speaker 1: Malkoff's book is Love Johnny Carson, One obsessive fans journey

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Speaker 1: to find the genius behind the legend. It's on sale now, Mark,

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Speaker 1: can you hang through the break and just can we

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Speaker 1: finish up? I'd love to just ask you a couple

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Speaker 1: of more things. Great. I grew up with Carson and

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Speaker 1: The Tonight Show, and I remember never missing an episode

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Speaker 1: when I was in high school, and it was just

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Speaker 1: one of those things that for me was an institution

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Speaker 1: of my life, kind of an organizing principle, and that's

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Speaker 1: why I think late night television was that way for

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Speaker 1: a lot of people. Anyway, more with Mark Malkoff, and

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Speaker 1: we'll talk more of his book, Love Johnny Carson as

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Speaker 1: we continue, Thompson here for Conway.

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Speaker 5: You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFI

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Speaker 5: Am six forty.

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Speaker 1: Mark Thompson's sitting in for Tim Conway Jr. Talking to

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Speaker 1: Mark Malkoff. His new book is Love Johnny Carson, One

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Speaker 1: obsessive fans journey to find the genius behind the legend.

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Speaker 1: And Mark has been the super fan of Carson and

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Speaker 1: has done a podcast for some time now talking to

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Speaker 1: past guests and producers and writers. I mean, you know Saget,

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Speaker 1: Larry King, Michael J. Fox, Paula Poundstone, all these interviews,

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Speaker 1: Carol Burnett, mel Brooks. So congratulations on all the work

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Speaker 1: you've done. And the book has a bunch of stuff

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Speaker 1: about Carson and the Tonight Show. One of the things

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Speaker 1: about the Tonight Show that was interesting Mark is I

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Speaker 1: guess they have these they there were banned guests from

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Speaker 1: the Tonight Show, and in your new book you talk

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Speaker 1: about I mean people I wouldn't have put on the list,

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Speaker 1: like William Shatner. What was William Shatner banned from the

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Speaker 1: Tonight Show?

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Speaker 4: For William Shatner for about two or three minutes on

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Speaker 4: his third appearance with Johnny, wouldn't let Johnny get a worded.

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Speaker 3: He was long winded.

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Speaker 4: He did not stick to the pre interview, which Shatner

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Speaker 4: supposed to tell him amusing story. Carson was bored, the

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Speaker 4: audience was bored. That was Strike one. Straight two is

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Speaker 4: Shatner turned his back to Carson and turned to the

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Speaker 4: previous guest Buddy Hacket, and they ignored Carson for some

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Speaker 4: a little bit of time. Strike three was back then

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Speaker 4: you were not allowed to say the network of your show.

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Speaker 4: So Shatner was on TJ.

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Speaker 3: Hooker.

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Speaker 4: He was allowed to promote that, but he wasn't allowed

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Speaker 4: to say it was on ABC. Carson would say it

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Speaker 4: was on another network, and Shatner in front of everyone

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Speaker 4: that I'm on ABC and had to beat that out.

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Speaker 4: So yeah, So basically Carson Carson deemed.

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Speaker 3: Somebody having bad manners. They were banned.

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Speaker 4: Jerry Lewis apparently was rude to one of Carson's Q

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Speaker 4: card guys, and Johnny said, you will never be on

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Speaker 4: the show again. He was the guest host that time,

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Speaker 4: and if anyone came into that show with bad manners.

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Speaker 4: Ellen DeGeneres with bands her I think a third time

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Speaker 4: because they asked her not to do a a joke

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Speaker 4: they deemed offensive to some audience members and she ended

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Speaker 4: up doing it and they never had her back so well,

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Speaker 4: I thought.

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Speaker 1: That's these are wild stories, I mean really wild. Never

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Speaker 1: would have thought, but yeah, and you remind me of

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Speaker 1: this time where they used to always say so and

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Speaker 1: says here and I know you've got a show on

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Speaker 1: another network. They would always say another network, and it

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Speaker 1: just was always weird. But Carl Sagan, I always thought,

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Speaker 1: was someone that Carson worshiped. And yet I've noted here

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Speaker 1: in the notes that in your book you discussed the

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Speaker 1: fact that he was on the band list. Carl Sagan.

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Speaker 4: It was really tough because Johnny and him were friends,

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Speaker 4: and when Carl Sagan would go on the show, Johnny

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Speaker 4: would have dinner with him after the show. I mean

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Speaker 4: that was very rare for Johnny to do that. He

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Speaker 4: wouldn't do that with movie starts. But he loved Sagan.

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Speaker 4: But during Sagan, I think it was his eighteenth appearance

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Speaker 4: he in the mid eighties. Sagan interrupted Johnny twice during

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Speaker 4: a segment to correct him, and Carson was just very

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Speaker 4: embarrassed for somebody that famous. Carson was leally sensitive. I mean,

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Speaker 4: David Letterman was the same way. You wouldn't make me

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Speaker 4: think somebody that makes fun of people. In the monologue,

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Speaker 4: would be that sensitive, but Johnny would just never have

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Speaker 4: him back. You thought it was rude being interrupted, and

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Speaker 4: he just, for whatever reason wouldn't put him on again.

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Speaker 4: Steve Allen was another person that was apparently rude to

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Speaker 4: one of the staff members, and Carson said, Steve Allen's gone.

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Speaker 4: So people came into Johnny's quote home and they weren't behaved.

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Speaker 4: He had just hit they were gone. I mean, he

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Speaker 4: was a guy from Nebraska. I was just actually in

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Speaker 4: Johnny's boyhood home in Norfolk, Nebraska, and his friends told

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Speaker 4: me also that he was very Midwestern and that never

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Speaker 4: really left him.

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Speaker 1: I see, yeah. I mean, I guess it was of

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Speaker 1: an era and consistent with the way he was, but

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Speaker 1: it just seemed so excessively sensitive. I also think of me.

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Speaker 1: It's wild to hear that in your book again, it's

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Speaker 1: called Love Johnny Carson One Obsession fans Journey to find

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Speaker 1: the Genius behind the Legend from Mark malcolf Mark, you

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Speaker 1: talk about out a drunken George Papard nearly coming to

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Speaker 1: blows with Paul Williams, and Paul Williams was a insanely

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Speaker 1: talented guy, but a diminutive guy like not a big

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Speaker 1: guy at all, and George Papart I got to think,

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Speaker 1: you know, crush him.

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Speaker 4: George Papard back then and he admitted it later had

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Speaker 4: an alcohol issue. He was an alcoholic. He was drunk

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Speaker 4: on the tonight show. It was clear, and he called

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Speaker 4: Paul Williams a midget. And Paul Williams told me that he,

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Speaker 4: you know, got stood up ready to fight George Purpard

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Speaker 4: and threatened to punch him. And it was Paul Williams

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Speaker 4: sat down with me and he looking back, he can

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Speaker 4: understand George was suffering from alcoholism and Paul Williams at

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Speaker 4: the time was suffering from that. And luckily both of

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Speaker 4: them were able to get cleaned up. But yeah, there

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Speaker 4: weren't these these times where it really looked like people

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Speaker 4: were going to fight, like a drunken Marlon Brando in

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Speaker 4: nineteen sixty four chugging champagne for ninety minutes in the

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Speaker 4: green room, McRae goes out and him and aah go

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Speaker 4: Bor go in at it and having to be separated.

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Speaker 4: So back then, those things would happen sometimes on this show.

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Speaker 4: I mean, it doesn't happen anymore, but when you're doing

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Speaker 4: that live television, live to tape. People would get into it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, there was a sense of kind of looking in

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Speaker 1: a Hollywood cocktail party. I remember that kind of a

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Speaker 1: Hollywood party, you know, that's what and people would stop

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Speaker 1: through and I remember as a kid thinking it was

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Speaker 1: so much fun when Don Rickles would come on or

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Speaker 1: just walk on, or Sinatra, Dean Martin or any of

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Speaker 1: these sort of old Hollywood personalities.

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Speaker 3: You know, it was so glamorous.

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Speaker 4: And one thing I do want to mention in the

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Speaker 4: that I put in the book that I find very

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Speaker 4: very funny as well as when you turn on the

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Speaker 4: Tonight Show, you never knew who you were going to get.

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Speaker 4: You wanted Johnny Carson, but at the same time, it

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Speaker 4: might be Arnold Palmer guest hosting the Tonight Show, or

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Speaker 4: it could be Kirk Douglas or Kermit the Frog, it

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Speaker 4: could be Diana Ross. You never knew who was going

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Speaker 4: to guest host the Tonight Show, and they would pick

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Speaker 4: odd people like cass Elliott was guest hosting the Tonight Show,

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Speaker 4: and it was one of those things where you wanted Carson,

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Speaker 4: but Carson would be home watching the show. And that

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Speaker 4: was hilarious that some of these people thought that they

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Speaker 4: could easily host the show, and they some of them

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Speaker 4: were really good, like McClean Stevenson that a lot of

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Speaker 4: people like Lord Green from Bonanza. Come on, you can't

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Speaker 4: have somebody like that host the Tonight Show. Yet people

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Speaker 4: like that would try.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess you know. They put eyeballs in front

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Speaker 1: of the sets, just kind of a what did you think?

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Speaker 1: Mark Malcoff? As we finish up, don't have another miner

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Speaker 1: of show. But you know the tell All books. The

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Speaker 1: guy the Carson's lawyer wrote a book that was you know,

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Speaker 1: what did you How did you digest all of that

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Speaker 1: as a fan of Carson?

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Speaker 2: You know what I mean?

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Speaker 4: I didn't know until I started talking to all of

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Speaker 4: Carson's president the.

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Speaker 3: People that worked for him.

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Speaker 4: The reason the book is called Love Johnny Carson is

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Speaker 4: because the people kept telling me I love Johnny Carson.

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Speaker 4: It was completely opposite of Johnny Carson's lawyer's book, which

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Speaker 4: was pretty negative, I have to say.

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Speaker 3: And he would make these.

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Speaker 4: Claims that are untrue, that Johnny Carson died all alone,

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Speaker 4: and that's not true. Johnny died he had his wife

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Speaker 4: Alex there, two of the sons were there.

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Speaker 3: He had family with him.

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Speaker 4: He had friends, and I really do feel like with

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Speaker 4: Bushkin and his book made it out to be like

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Speaker 4: Carson didn't have friends, and from talking to these people,

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Speaker 4: it's just a completely different Johnny Carson. And yes, people

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Speaker 4: like Wayne Newton and there's a couple people like Joan

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Speaker 4: Rivers had problems with him, but it was only a

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Speaker 4: handful of people.

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Speaker 3: And I do go into that.

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Speaker 4: I mean, Joan Rivers tried to take Johnny's producer Peter

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Speaker 4: with Sally to Fox, tried to take every one of

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Speaker 4: Johnny Carson's talent coordinators, offered a double their salary. There's

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Speaker 4: more to the story, and I go into that in

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Speaker 4: the book.

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Speaker 1: Well, the book is Love Johnny Carson, One obsessive fans

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Speaker 1: journey to find the genius behind the legend. It's from

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Speaker 1: super fan Mark Malkoff, and congratulations on the book. It

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Speaker 1: sounds great. I'm going to pick it up. I was

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Speaker 1: a huge fan of the Tonight Show and I liked

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Speaker 1: all the iterations. You know, of course Jay's a friend

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Speaker 1: of the show, and oh, I loved it with Leno

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Speaker 1: kept it number one on and you know, and had

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Speaker 1: a monologue that I think exceeded anything that preceded him,

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Speaker 1: and I just the history is part of our many

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Speaker 1: of our a certain vintage people. It is a part

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Speaker 1: of our personal history. And I just love that you've

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Speaker 1: immersed yourself in it. I look forward to get into

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Speaker 1: the book, Love Johnny Carson. Thanks Mark, Thank you, sir.

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Speaker 3: This was fun.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I really enjoyed it. Mark Malkoff Again, the book

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Speaker 1: is Love Johnny Carson. Thompson. Here for Tim Conway Jr.

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Speaker 5: You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFI

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Speaker 5: Am six forty.

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Speaker 1: Mark Thompson Here for Tim Conway Junior. My show is

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Speaker 1: called the Mark Thompson Show. A lot of politics and

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Speaker 1: news on YouTube. Great to come over here to KFI.

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Speaker 1: Talked to that guy about the Carson legacy and the

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Speaker 1: Carson Show, his new book, Love Johnny Carson. Mark Malkoff,

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Speaker 1: the author and podcaster. He does the Carson Podcast. You know,

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Speaker 1: there's a story about Freddie Decore, who was the executive

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Speaker 1: producer of the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. I think

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Speaker 1: I may have mentioned this on kffive before because I've

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Speaker 1: always thought this is an extraordinary thing. Apparently, he was

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Speaker 1: the son of a guy who was kind of a grifter,

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Speaker 1: sort of always on the run. I guess Freddy at

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Speaker 1: Kordova as a kid, they were going from town to

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Speaker 1: town kind of. His father was sort of a con man,

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Speaker 1: grifter guy. And as a result, Fredday de Kordovo, who

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Speaker 1: achieved great fame and great stature in Hollywood as the

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Speaker 1: executive producer of The Tonight Show, instead of having bank accounts,

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Speaker 1: would have hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash in

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Speaker 1: his home in Truesdale Estates. And for those of you

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Speaker 1: who are listening on the iHeartRadio app it may not

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Speaker 1: be a Los Angeles, Trusdale Estates, is this very bougie

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Speaker 1: place is just right above Beverly Hills. It's Beverly Hills equivalent.

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Speaker 1: And it's where many stars lived. Elvis lived there. I

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Speaker 1: mean many, you know, hugely wealthy people live in Trusdale Estates.

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Speaker 1: And among them was this guy, for the court of

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Speaker 1: that the executive produced the Tonight Show. So that he

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Speaker 1: had one hundred thousand dollars in cash, or hundreds of

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Speaker 1: thousands of dollars in cash, and all this money in cash,

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Speaker 1: tens of thousands of dollars everywhere in the house in

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Speaker 1: itself is I don't know. It's interesting. I don't know

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Speaker 1: if I would mention it to you, except for the

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Speaker 1: fact that he kept it inside the walls and in

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Speaker 1: the floorboards of the house. It was literally in the house.

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Speaker 1: So worried was he that he was going to get

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Speaker 1: ripped off. He was raised with that bizarre I guess

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Speaker 1: insecurity that you know, for whatever reason you he had

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Speaker 1: this sort of unmoored childhood and that it was somehow

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Speaker 1: played out that way as an adult. And so when

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Speaker 1: the time came to sell the house, they had to

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Speaker 1: get his wife, Janet I think her name was Janet,

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Speaker 1: had to get all that money out of these places

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Speaker 1: in the house where the money was literally like nailed

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Speaker 1: under floorboards. A bizarre twist to an interesting life. And

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Speaker 1: the article I read it was Invanity Fair some years ago,

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Speaker 1: detailed the wife's fall from grace. She was sort of

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Speaker 1: Miss Hollywood and Miss Beverly Hills, sort of queen of

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Speaker 1: the town, a socialite enjoyed dining out, essentially on the

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Speaker 1: power that Freddy de Kordova had as executive producer of

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Speaker 1: this old Tonight show, that Johnny Carson Show. Were just

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Speaker 1: talking about Johnny Carson before the break and as that

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Speaker 1: ebbed as that power ebbed as he after his death,

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Speaker 1: and she no longer could, you know, live in this

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Speaker 1: lifestyle that she'd become accustomed to. It's so wild sort

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Speaker 1: of descent into normalcy, like she just became a normal

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Speaker 1: civilian instead of this Beverly Hills socialite. Think like Jazacabor.

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Speaker 1: She was kind of like that sort of person coming

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Speaker 1: into the room hot, you know, wearing some stole, pulling

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Speaker 1: up in some expensive car. And she ultimately moved to

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Speaker 1: Mexico with her maid, with the like the housekeeper. It's

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Speaker 1: an extraordinary thing. But that's one of the people connected

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Speaker 1: to the Tonight show, connected by marriage, but married to

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Speaker 1: the executive producer Ready to Cordova always thought that was

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Speaker 1: a wild story, and I leave you with this wild

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Speaker 1: story too. Discovered in the Attic, perhaps one of the

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Speaker 1: most valuable comics that you could have.

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Speaker 6: A rare Superman comic founded an attic just became the

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Speaker 6: most expensive comic book in the world. Auctioneer Lawn Allen

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Speaker 6: shares how it happened.

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Speaker 1: A few months ago.

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Speaker 7: A form was submitted through our website saying they had

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Speaker 7: a Superman number one and a few other comic books,

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Speaker 7: and as you can imagine, we get a lot of

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Speaker 7: requests like that. There's a lot of reprints of Superman one,

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Speaker 7: and luckily they had some nice pictures. So I immediately

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Speaker 7: called them and they told me they found it in

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Speaker 7: the attic in San Francisco area, and it ended up

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Speaker 7: being an unbelievable condition. So I jumped on the next

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Speaker 7: flight and flew out to San Francisco and went and

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Speaker 7: saw it in person.

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Speaker 6: The comic book question was Superman number one.

437
00:23:03,440 --> 00:23:07,520
Speaker 1: And I'll just cut to the chase. Superman number one,

438
00:23:08,520 --> 00:23:11,639
Speaker 1: unearthed by three brothers cleaning out their late mother's attic,

439
00:23:12,200 --> 00:23:17,240
Speaker 1: went to auction. It sold for nine point one two

440
00:23:17,520 --> 00:23:22,160
Speaker 1: million dollars this month at a Texas auction sale. Crazy

441
00:23:23,359 --> 00:23:28,159
Speaker 1: check your addicts this holiday season. Mark Thompson here for

442
00:23:28,200 --> 00:23:29,080
Speaker 1: Tim Conway Jr.

443
00:23:31,320 --> 00:23:35,040
Speaker 5: You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFI

444
00:23:35,320 --> 00:23:37,040
Speaker 5: AM six forty.

445
00:23:40,280 --> 00:23:43,840
Speaker 1: Mark Thompson hanging out for Tim Conway Junior returns next week?

446
00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:48,400
Speaker 1: Does Timmy? And Uh? Chris Merrill is coming up next.

447
00:23:48,480 --> 00:23:51,720
Speaker 1: I think he's on the line now. Indeed, sir, indeed,

448
00:23:52,080 --> 00:23:54,880
Speaker 1: how are you, sir? I'm well, I'm doing very how's

449
00:23:54,920 --> 00:23:59,960
Speaker 1: your holiday week go, it's how's it done? A little chopping?

450
00:24:00,160 --> 00:24:04,600
Speaker 1: I'd say, yeah, yeah, a little shopping. No, but I

451
00:24:04,600 --> 00:24:07,000
Speaker 1: heard the show. I I mean, I'm with you. No,

452
00:24:08,200 --> 00:24:09,800
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, the one thing that's gone well

453
00:24:09,960 --> 00:24:13,200
Speaker 1: is this show? But all right, no, it's always solid.

454
00:24:13,440 --> 00:24:16,639
Speaker 1: What is this? What is the what is the Merrill clan?

455
00:24:16,800 --> 00:24:20,119
Speaker 1: Do you have kids who come to the house or

456
00:24:20,160 --> 00:24:21,960
Speaker 1: you go elsewhere? How does it work?

457
00:24:22,080 --> 00:24:24,639
Speaker 8: I'm so glad you asked this, mark because everyone cares

458
00:24:25,040 --> 00:24:29,840
Speaker 8: my uh, my, my wife. So a few years ago,

459
00:24:29,880 --> 00:24:31,399
Speaker 8: when I was unemployed, I don't know if you know,

460
00:24:31,440 --> 00:24:33,080
Speaker 8: there was a station in the Bay Area where I

461
00:24:33,160 --> 00:24:34,160
Speaker 8: was doing a lot of work.

462
00:24:34,800 --> 00:24:37,040
Speaker 1: You may be familiar with it. And then they up

463
00:24:37,080 --> 00:24:41,159
Speaker 1: and the range if somebody shift, yeah, yeah, exactly. Always

464
00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:43,520
Speaker 1: the last voice imagine that you could hear on this

465
00:24:43,640 --> 00:24:46,399
Speaker 1: legendary radio station is incredible. And they just changed. It

466
00:24:46,520 --> 00:24:46,920
Speaker 1: was weird.

467
00:24:47,600 --> 00:24:50,000
Speaker 8: So my wife and I at the time, we decided,

468
00:24:50,040 --> 00:24:52,440
Speaker 8: you know what, we've been radio long enough, been fired

469
00:24:52,520 --> 00:24:55,160
Speaker 8: enough times. Let's let's let's buy a place somewhere where

470
00:24:55,160 --> 00:24:56,399
Speaker 8: we want to be and this is gonna be our

471
00:24:56,400 --> 00:24:59,199
Speaker 8: home base from now on. And uh and so we

472
00:24:59,240 --> 00:25:01,439
Speaker 8: bought a place at in my in my hometown in

473
00:25:01,440 --> 00:25:04,040
Speaker 8: northern Michigan. It's it's it's a it's a little house

474
00:25:04,160 --> 00:25:06,040
Speaker 8: just above a lake and it's near Lake Michigan. It's

475
00:25:06,040 --> 00:25:08,000
Speaker 8: beautiful and it's wonderful and we love it now and

476
00:25:08,119 --> 00:25:11,760
Speaker 8: my wife is there, and so, uh, you know, that's right.

477
00:25:11,800 --> 00:25:14,400
Speaker 1: With my wife. And then I go live in Palm Springs.

478
00:25:14,040 --> 00:25:17,480
Speaker 8: And everybody says, yeah, right, and everybody says everybody's like,

479
00:25:17,600 --> 00:25:20,480
Speaker 8: are you guys Okay, yeah, we're actually we're doing great.

480
00:25:21,160 --> 00:25:22,679
Speaker 1: I think it's the best thing for a marriage. You

481
00:25:22,720 --> 00:25:26,000
Speaker 1: put her in northern Michigan and you go live in California.

482
00:25:26,119 --> 00:25:28,800
Speaker 1: It's it's a it works for us, it works great.

483
00:25:29,280 --> 00:25:33,040
Speaker 8: But she's not here for Thanksgiving, but her family is here,

484
00:25:33,440 --> 00:25:35,120
Speaker 8: and so she says, well, you can go spend time

485
00:25:35,160 --> 00:25:37,920
Speaker 8: with my with my family. Oh yes, that's what I want.

486
00:25:37,960 --> 00:25:40,120
Speaker 8: I want to spend time with the in laws. Well,

487
00:25:40,359 --> 00:25:42,320
Speaker 8: now you much like them. But but but wait a

488
00:25:42,320 --> 00:25:43,800
Speaker 8: minut I'm going to go back to the to where

489
00:25:43,800 --> 00:25:46,639
Speaker 8: she is. But right now, yeah yeah, yeah, so so

490
00:25:46,720 --> 00:25:49,160
Speaker 8: explain that I'm sorry, where is she when you're you're

491
00:25:49,280 --> 00:25:52,600
Speaker 8: ware and she's where? So so uh, I'm I'm here

492
00:25:52,680 --> 00:25:54,840
Speaker 8: and then she is in this my hometown. It is

493
00:25:54,880 --> 00:25:56,600
Speaker 8: a I call it. It's kind of the it's the

494
00:25:56,640 --> 00:25:59,000
Speaker 8: Malibu with the Midwest, all right, uh, and it's a

495
00:25:59,119 --> 00:26:01,680
Speaker 8: it's northern Michigan and it's a little town called Luddington,

496
00:26:02,080 --> 00:26:03,560
Speaker 8: and it's south of Traverse City.

497
00:26:04,240 --> 00:26:06,359
Speaker 1: Traverse City, Okay, yeah, yeah, a lot of people know that.

498
00:26:06,400 --> 00:26:08,679
Speaker 8: So it's about about halfway between the Skegan and Traverse

499
00:26:08,720 --> 00:26:10,200
Speaker 8: City on on the on the lake shore.

500
00:26:10,200 --> 00:26:13,440
Speaker 1: And that's where you live most of the time. You're saying,

501
00:26:13,680 --> 00:26:16,040
Speaker 1: that's where, Well, that's what my driver's license is. But

502
00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:18,280
Speaker 1: I you know, I I live where I work.

503
00:26:18,520 --> 00:26:22,440
Speaker 8: So so we spend actually a lot of time apart

504
00:26:22,800 --> 00:26:24,800
Speaker 8: and then I show you went back once a month

505
00:26:24,880 --> 00:26:26,040
Speaker 8: or whatever, and oh.

506
00:26:25,920 --> 00:26:27,400
Speaker 1: That's this is really interesting. I never know this about

507
00:26:27,440 --> 00:26:29,159
Speaker 1: Chris Meryl. So where do you and so where do

508
00:26:29,200 --> 00:26:31,080
Speaker 1: you work? I mean, where do you work? Slash live?

509
00:26:31,359 --> 00:26:33,520
Speaker 8: So I work at a state mall. You're going to

510
00:26:33,560 --> 00:26:37,480
Speaker 8: out me, now, I didn't know, all right, that's right. No,

511
00:26:37,600 --> 00:26:40,480
Speaker 8: I work at a at a station in Phoenix. Oh really,

512
00:26:40,760 --> 00:26:42,440
Speaker 8: this is wild. I didn't know that. I thought you

513
00:26:42,480 --> 00:26:43,760
Speaker 8: were in Michigan this whole time.

514
00:26:44,200 --> 00:26:46,399
Speaker 1: No, No, when you and I were doing stuff together.

515
00:26:46,480 --> 00:26:50,320
Speaker 8: I was, but no, I work in Phoenix every day

516
00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:54,000
Speaker 8: and I'm so blessed that I get to do this show.

517
00:26:54,040 --> 00:26:56,199
Speaker 8: And I've been doing I've been doing stuff on KFI

518
00:26:56,320 --> 00:26:59,080
Speaker 8: for uh for a long time, in the last five year, yeah,

519
00:26:59,480 --> 00:26:59,840
Speaker 8: a while.

520
00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:03,520
Speaker 1: So this is really this is great. So I so

521
00:27:03,640 --> 00:27:06,000
Speaker 1: no wonder you're so happy Your wife lives in Michigan

522
00:27:06,080 --> 00:27:08,960
Speaker 1: and you live in Phoenix. That's very happy. Kidding, I'm kidding.

523
00:27:09,160 --> 00:27:12,360
Speaker 1: She's the one who's happy. Of course, that's her exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

524
00:27:12,359 --> 00:27:14,320
Speaker 1: And the thing is, and I'm one of those I'm

525
00:27:14,320 --> 00:27:15,080
Speaker 1: in the minority.

526
00:27:15,160 --> 00:27:17,080
Speaker 8: It's it's about two thirds of people would rather be

527
00:27:17,119 --> 00:27:19,160
Speaker 8: hot than cold, but I would much rather be cold

528
00:27:19,160 --> 00:27:19,560
Speaker 8: than hot.

529
00:27:19,880 --> 00:27:20,400
Speaker 1: Oh.

530
00:27:20,440 --> 00:27:23,520
Speaker 8: And the funny thing is she graduated high school in Phoenix,

531
00:27:23,760 --> 00:27:26,440
Speaker 8: and now she's living where I graduated high school and

532
00:27:26,440 --> 00:27:27,600
Speaker 8: I'm living where she graduated.

533
00:27:27,760 --> 00:27:31,280
Speaker 1: This is why. Isn't that crazy? Really? Why? But we love.

534
00:27:31,119 --> 00:27:33,400
Speaker 8: It's a cute little cottage that we have, and it's

535
00:27:33,440 --> 00:27:35,520
Speaker 8: just we just decided that's going to be our retirement home.

536
00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:39,360
Speaker 8: And and so right now, you know, we're still I mean,

537
00:27:39,480 --> 00:27:42,520
Speaker 8: she's we're ten to twenty years away from retirement.

538
00:27:42,560 --> 00:27:45,320
Speaker 1: But we're we're doing it right now. Well, we'll say

539
00:27:45,359 --> 00:27:47,560
Speaker 1: along this last before. I mean, we tend to get

540
00:27:47,560 --> 00:27:49,440
Speaker 1: we tend to get a little love sick, so that

541
00:27:49,560 --> 00:27:52,080
Speaker 1: it's like, okay, I'm coming out. Oh that's I'm going home.

542
00:27:52,160 --> 00:27:53,840
Speaker 1: Yeah you got. I mean, you know, you've got to

543
00:27:53,840 --> 00:27:55,720
Speaker 1: miss somebody once in a while, you know what I mean.

544
00:27:55,760 --> 00:27:58,479
Speaker 1: And sometimes it's hard to do when you're close all

545
00:27:58,520 --> 00:28:01,239
Speaker 1: the time. That's what COVID did to us and made us,

546
00:28:01,280 --> 00:28:05,040
Speaker 1: you know, go crazy around each other. Sometimes. Oh that's

547
00:28:05,040 --> 00:28:05,880
Speaker 1: a great point too.

548
00:28:05,920 --> 00:28:08,560
Speaker 8: But but then you know, actually we communicate really well

549
00:28:08,600 --> 00:28:10,280
Speaker 8: because we talk to each other a couple times a

550
00:28:10,359 --> 00:28:12,040
Speaker 8: day when I'm driving to work, when I drive home,

551
00:28:12,520 --> 00:28:15,080
Speaker 8: and sometimes when you're living with somebody, it's almost like

552
00:28:15,080 --> 00:28:16,760
Speaker 8: your ship's passing in the night. But now it's like

553
00:28:16,800 --> 00:28:20,240
Speaker 8: we have an appointment to communicate. That's really cool.

554
00:28:20,359 --> 00:28:21,960
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, So we're trying to find the bright side.

555
00:28:22,080 --> 00:28:23,960
Speaker 1: And there are no kids in the marril of in

556
00:28:24,040 --> 00:28:27,120
Speaker 1: this Arrithmetrone. They're grown. Yeah, they're grown kids.

557
00:28:27,160 --> 00:28:29,280
Speaker 8: And I have a daughter who was in Los Angeles

558
00:28:29,359 --> 00:28:33,280
Speaker 8: until last year she lived in Los Phelis and then

559
00:28:33,359 --> 00:28:36,480
Speaker 8: she she's now in Grand Rapids. And then I got

560
00:28:36,520 --> 00:28:38,760
Speaker 8: the two boys that live in Phoenix. One followed me

561
00:28:38,800 --> 00:28:40,040
Speaker 8: and one actually lived here already.

562
00:28:40,080 --> 00:28:43,360
Speaker 1: And anybody in the broadcast or media business in your family,

563
00:28:43,600 --> 00:28:46,280
Speaker 1: thank god, thank god. Yeah, you discourage them.

564
00:28:46,360 --> 00:28:51,080
Speaker 8: Yeah, my daughter, she she's got a degree from from

565
00:28:51,080 --> 00:28:56,640
Speaker 8: the cal State System in screenwriting. But it's like everybody

566
00:28:56,680 --> 00:28:58,560
Speaker 8: wants to be a screen right, everybody wants everybody wants

567
00:28:58,600 --> 00:29:00,320
Speaker 8: to be and they're like, well, I'm gonna follow my dreams.

568
00:29:00,320 --> 00:29:01,920
Speaker 1: And she did, and then she's like, I'm.

569
00:29:01,760 --> 00:29:04,880
Speaker 8: Broke, so well, yeah, it'll be a barista in the

570
00:29:04,920 --> 00:29:05,800
Speaker 8: Midwest for a while.

571
00:29:05,920 --> 00:29:08,240
Speaker 1: Listen. I can give you plenty of stories, but you

572
00:29:08,280 --> 00:29:11,200
Speaker 1: already know them of people who were struggling screenwriters until

573
00:29:11,200 --> 00:29:13,600
Speaker 1: they were forty nine years old and then they became

574
00:29:13,720 --> 00:29:17,200
Speaker 1: the biggest, you know, screenwriters in Hollywood. It does happen,

575
00:29:17,360 --> 00:29:19,840
Speaker 1: so so true. In meantime, you've got a barista a

576
00:29:19,880 --> 00:29:23,719
Speaker 1: little while. That's all. But yeah, really good. Well, this

577
00:29:23,800 --> 00:29:26,840
Speaker 1: has been great. I've learned all about Chris and I

578
00:29:26,840 --> 00:29:29,040
Speaker 1: didn't know anything about it. I've been working with him

579
00:29:29,040 --> 00:29:31,320
Speaker 1: and doing cross talk with him at KG already in

580
00:29:31,360 --> 00:29:35,320
Speaker 1: San Francisco, and then and and at KFI and finally

581
00:29:35,360 --> 00:29:37,320
Speaker 1: I've get toe you for years and finally get to

582
00:29:37,360 --> 00:29:37,640
Speaker 1: know you.

583
00:29:37,720 --> 00:29:39,800
Speaker 8: Anyway, I was showing off your Instagram too, because you

584
00:29:39,800 --> 00:29:41,160
Speaker 8: were hanging out with the Dateline.

585
00:29:40,800 --> 00:29:44,000
Speaker 1: Guy right oh with Josh. We grew up together.

586
00:29:44,120 --> 00:29:46,160
Speaker 8: So I love that I was showing that off because

587
00:29:46,760 --> 00:29:49,480
Speaker 8: if I if I got this right, you were recognized, yes,

588
00:29:49,640 --> 00:29:52,240
Speaker 8: and they were very excited because they recognized you.

589
00:29:52,560 --> 00:29:56,640
Speaker 1: Yeah, they were. They saw the Mankovich walks out and

590
00:29:56,680 --> 00:29:58,440
Speaker 1: they go, oh my god, that's a dayline guy. And

591
00:29:58,440 --> 00:30:00,920
Speaker 1: then they stepped on me to get to the Dateline guy.

592
00:30:00,920 --> 00:30:03,440
Speaker 1: It was really kind of rude. But that's just showing

593
00:30:03,480 --> 00:30:05,200
Speaker 1: that to everybody I knew. Would you gotta see this?

594
00:30:05,320 --> 00:30:07,920
Speaker 1: That's the Hollywood pecking order played out right there in

595
00:30:08,000 --> 00:30:13,040
Speaker 1: a deli outside of Delhi. All right, Chris Merrill's next. Everyone,

596
00:30:13,360 --> 00:30:16,640
Speaker 1: I will see you tomorrow or interact with you tomorrow.

597
00:30:16,720 --> 00:30:19,320
Speaker 1: It'll be fun. Thank you all the Conway kids for

598
00:30:19,360 --> 00:30:21,440
Speaker 1: hanging out and we will talk to you then.

599
00:30:22,920 --> 00:30:27,040
Speaker 2: Conway Show on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Now you

600
00:30:27,080 --> 00:30:29,800
Speaker 2: can always hear us live on kf I Am six

601
00:30:29,920 --> 00:30:33,959
Speaker 2: forty four to seven pm Monday through Friday, and anytime

602
00:30:34,120 --> 00:30:36,800
Speaker 2: on demand. On the iHeartRadio app,