| |
“I always said that I should have created Trivial Pursuit, but
I was doing three TV shows a day, so this is a compensation
for the fact that I missed out on that,” says King of Nostalgia
Joe Franklin, who hosted the first television talk show and
has hosted half a million guests, including five US presidents.
“I interviewed everyone, John Wayne…Cary Grant. He was the epitome
of class style. His socks wouldn’t even fall down, they didn’t
have the nerve.”
The book, from the Buzztime Trivia Series at Square One Publishers,
offers trivia questions and answers on topics ranging from Old
Time Radio, Movies of the ’50s, Bob Dylan, and modern day TV.
The questions are interspersed with Franklin’s reminiscences,
including his cameo in Broadway Danny Rose and his
work with Marilyn Monroe on her biography. The answers are arranged
so that readers must turn a few pages to find them, preventing
the temptation to sneak a peek before guessing. Rudy Shur, president
of Square One Publishers, developed the game format, which allows
the reader either to play the games with a group or individually.
Throughout the book, Franklin’s signature warmth, humor and
love of trivia shine through, as his interviews, infused with
facts and details, show: “I was always curious about backgrounds
of people, little tips, how they got where they are, anything
unusual, off the beaten path.”
According to Anthony Pomes, marketing director for Square One
Publishers and chief research editor of Franklin’s trivia book,
“Joe truly loves the art and the heart of show biz, and show
biz loves him.”
This was evident to me when I first met Franklin at his book
signing at The Theatre Museum Awards Gala in 2008, at which
he received a Career Achievement Award: throughout the night,
individuals he met years ago came up to express how much they
enjoyed meeting. When I chatted with him on the phone, his other
line never stopped ringing. Franklin said, “I get about 800
calls per day.”
It was a perfect match for Franklin and Pomes. Says Pomes, “I
found we immediately connected when I told him about all the
old-time radio shows that I have collected and listened to since
I was a kid. We started talking about Orson Welles and Paul
Whiteman's band and the ‘Suspense’ radio show (with the Roma
Wine commercials), and within an hour we were totally connected
on the material.”
Franklin attests, “I do have a retentive memory. I’ll tell you
things about little-known people in 1931. And I have the largest
collection of memorabilia the world has ever known.” When it
came to guests for his long-running TV show, Franklin arranged
his own lineup. “I could feel in my mind who would go well together.
I would have Ronald Reagan on with a dancing dentist, I would
have Margaret Mead with a guy who whistles through his nose.”
He also never rehearsed a guest, “If you’re going to have dinner
with someone, you don’t rehearse your lines before.”
This book, Franklin’s 24th, provides the reader with a font
of knowledge from inside the mind of a man with insatiable curiosity.
In fact, when Franklin finishes a phone call, he never says
goodbye, because, according to Pomes, “Joe never wants to feel
he is closing the door on someone.”
Adds Pomes, “Being able to work with Joe on all that incredible
show-biz trivia as we did, whether about movies or TV or Broadway
songs or old radio plays or Tin Pan Alley standards recorded
back in the day, was a wonderful gift. In many ways, his trivia
book is a big collection of gifts—both in the questions and
answers, and also in the fun little anecdotes he has written
for his readers and fans.”
by Lisa Ferber
|
|
