After we got off welfare, my mother worked hard and raised her two kids. I moved her down to Miami, and she died in Miami.
Communications is the number one major in America today. CNN had 25,000 applicants for five intern jobs this summer.
Every one of my friends who are successful wanted it. If they didn't know what field they wanted, they knew they wanted to be somebody.
Getting your house in order and reducing the confusion gives you more control over your life. Personal organization some how releases or frees you to operate more effectively.
Gleason became like a mentor of mine. I had Gleason helping me on television, Godfrey on radio.
Gleason didn't like the set, so we broke into the general manager's office and changed the set.
Good writers are in the business of leaving signposts saying, Tour my world, see and feel it through my eyes; I am your guide.
Hoffa came in, and the show really caught on.
I came back to writing a newspaper column-it all came back. And I stayed in Miami, never went back to San Francisco.
I could walk out of here today, run into someone from 30 years ago, and if he was in trouble, I'd help him. A bonding developed.
I did all sorts of odd things. I was a PR director at a race track in Louisiana. I wrote some articles for Esquire magazine.
I didn't have a father, so my friend Herbie's father would tell me not to be in broadcasting. I really wanted a father.
I fantasized being a broadcaster.
I had no particular skills. I knew I was bright, and I was funny. Maybe I'd have been a comic.
I had that gift. I don't know what I would have been if I didn't have this gift. I couldn't tell you what I would have been.
I have great friends in the field, I love people in the field, and there's nobody in broadcasting who doesn't like it. Nobody.
I have lifelong friends. My oldest friend, Herbie, has been a friend since I was 9. I've had bonds for over 50 years with people.
I have never understood the Iowa caucus.
I hired people to handle money for me. I changed my whole lifestyle.
I know what a father means because I didn't have a father.
I like to put a stake in people, because I know people helped me.
I remind myself every morning: Nothing I say this day will teach me anything. So if I'm going to learn, I must do it by listening.
I was a big man in a small town.
I was always telling everyone, I want to be a broadcaster. They'd say, What, are you crazy? What, you're going to be Arthur Godfrey?
I was on relief after my father died. I was going to be 10. We were on relief for two years.
I was smoking at the same time. You smoked on television then all the time.
I worked on the United Parcel Service truck, I sold home delivery of milk. But always, in the back of my mind, I wanted to get into radio.
I'm having as much fun today as I did when I made $55 a week, because it is as much fun.
I'm sort of the comic relief after a hard day at work. My message is that it's OK to relax.
I'm the worst person to be stuck with in a traffic jam.
I've made a lot of mistakes. I've bonded with some people who use you, and some people that take advantage of you.
If I do something caring for a friend, I have no doubt in my mind they would do it for me.
If they asked me, I did two shifts. I did sports, I did news, because I loved it.
If you do something, expect consequences.
If you think, Well, I think I might want to be a broadcaster, then don't do it, because the competition is vicious.
In the early '70s I lost all the jobs I had.
It doesn't matter where you grew up. You've got want it.
It's joyful to give. But for people who want to take advantage of you, you're kind of an easy mark.
Les Miserables is one of my favorite stories.
My ethic was such that I don't think I would have ever stolen. We were raised in a pretty high moral code.
My first night on television was May of 1960. The radio show had really gotten popular. I was doing a morning show on another station.
My mother would take in sewing on the side and try to hide it. You know, to make some extra dollars.
New York City bought my first pair of glasses. It was wire frames, that's all you could get.
No, certainly not. No international satellite hookups, no CNN. Although I will tell you this:
People would pay money to work at CNN.
That show really took off because Gleason came to Miami. He did that show and stayed all night with me. We stayed till five in the morning.
The last time I was ever nervous was that first day.
The names are bigger, the show is worldwide, but I get a royal pass into life in the broadcasting business.
The only other time I was nervous was my first night on television. I was never nervous again.
The relief men would come and inspect the refrigerator, see what kind of meat your mother was buying. You don't buy Grade A.
They they had staff announcers. All they did was station breaks.
Those who have succeeded at anything and don't mention luck are kidding themselves.
We did not look around at 18 and say, Boy, don't we have a great childhood? In retrospect, we had a great childhood, friends for life.
We had a high ratio of success orientation.
We were all in the same neighborhood. Ernie Kovacs was in this neighborhood.
We'd have parties, I'd be the emcee. I'd participate in school plays. I was in the Speaker's Bureau.
What I would tell kids today is, persevere. This is a very tough business, and it's a business everybody wants to get into.
When I broke in, in 1957, it was wide open. Now you're up against strong competition.
When I was 22, I went to Miami and started knocking on doors.
When I was 5 years old I would lie in bed, look at the radio, and I wanted to be on the radio. I don't know why.
With 500 channels and the Internet available, you'd think a candidate could get the word out.
Larry was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1989.
Larry was featured in the 1996 paperback Mug Shots that includes many other celebrities who've been arrested for one reason or another.
Larry's son, Cannon Edward, was born May 22, 2000.
Larry has been married six times before his current wife, actress Shawn Southwick.
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