JOE FRANKLIN

'Joseph Fortgang' (born March 9 1926, Bronx, New York) is an American radio and television personality who uses the stage name 'Joe Franklin'. From New York City, Franklin hosted the first television talk show. The show began in 1950 on WJZ-TV (later WABC-TV) and moved to WOR-TV (later WWOR-TV) from 1962 to 1993.
Known as "the king of nostalgia", Franklin's highly-rated show, especially a cult favorite to cable television viewers (WOR/WWOR was a superstation during the latter part of his tenure), focused on old-time show-business personalities. Franklin would delight his audience with trivia about the most obscure entertainers from past generations and equally unknown up-and-comers from the present. His guests ranged from novelty performers like Tiny Tim to popular entertainers like Bill Cosby to radio and TV personality Rich Stevens, who was not only a frequent guest but also was Joe's co-host on several occasions. A great many of today's well known talents such as Woody Allen, Barbra Streisand and Julia Roberts got their first television exposure on ''The Joe Franklin Show.'' Frankin's show was often parodied by Billy Crystal during the 1984–1985 season of ''Saturday Night Live''.
After retiring from the television show, Franklin concentrated on an overnight radio show, playing old records on WOR-AM on Saturday evenings. He currently interviews celebrities on the Bloomberg Radio Network.
Franklin interviewed over 10,000 guests during his 43-year TV run. These included five U.S. Presidents, and screen legends such as Charlie Chaplin, John Wayne, Marilyn Monroe and Cary Grant.
An author, Franklin has written 23 books, including his popular ''Classics of the Silent Screen.'' His 1995 autobiography, Up Late With Joe Franklin
chronicles his long career and includes the astounding revelations that he had dalliances with Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield, and that Veronica Lake "threw herself at me, but I always refrained." He has appeared as himself in countless films, notably ''Ghostbusters'' and ''Broadway Danny Rose''.
Often seen as a good omen for new talk shows due to the length of his show's run, Franklin appeared on the first broadcasts of ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' and ''This American Life.''

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★ [1] - Interviews with Franklin by Frank Sisco, Steve Serwatka and Tom Sullivan.