Work is the Easiest Thing I Do

Lawrence Harvey Zeiger was a nice Jewish boy born in 1933 to Eastern European immigrants who ran a bar and grill in Brooklyn. Things got tough when his father died while Lawrence was just a boy, and his early years were destitute and somewhat troubled. Things could have turned out badly.

But Lawrence had a dream. He had always adored such radio stars as Arthur Godfrey and various radio comedians, and he pictured himself as a famous broadcaster. Somebody told him that Miami was the place to break into radio, so Lawrence packed up his worldly belongings and made his way south. In 1957 he landed his very first job in broadcasting– sweeping floors in a nondescript AM radio station.

Luck smiled on Lawrence. One day the DJ quit. The manager, desperate, gave Lawrence the microphone, a dream come true!

But not as Lawrence Harvey Zeiger. The station manager featured his new DJ as “Larry King”, having decided that Zeiger sounded, well, just too Jewish.

We all know the rest of the Larry King story, the man who interviewed something over 50,000 on-air guests, including royalty, presidents, movie stars, sports figures, and shoeshine boys, ultimately earning seven million dollars per year. Larry was known for his engaging, easy-going, no-agenda approach, with guests more often reaching out to him to be interviewed rather than his inviting them.

Larry King was a legend, and he was one of a kind. He would be the first to admit that he didn’t really work that hard at preparing for his interviews– he just followed his instincts and used his empathy to bring out the personality and the true individuality of each guest. He was an artist. It was, for him, effortless and elegant. As he put it, “Work is the easiest thing I do.”

No one can argue with Larry King’s professional success, and we’d all do well to emulate him: he knew exactly what he was born to do, and that’s what he did.

He died in Los Angeles on January 23, 2021 of COVID complications at the age of 87.