Baird Jones interviews Joe Franklin, the "King of Nostalgia" at The 3rd Annual Artery Festival launch party on 8-14-2007. Franklyn hosted the first TV talk show interviewing over 10,000 guests over 43 years including 5 U.S. presidents. Julia Roberts appeared on TV for the first time on Franklin's show. A hulking dreadlocked security guard tries repeatedly to block the interview without success. John F. Kennedy's reputation as a humanitarian is somewhat tarnished.
The interview appeared in Ben Widdecombe's NY Daily News Gatecrasher column: Deadly serious presidential debate Sunday, November 25th 2007 Next October's presidential candidate debate in Hempstead, L.I., will be the first in the state for 48 years. And let's hope nobody dies this time! Broadc
asting legend Joe Franklin was recording his talk show in the studio next to Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy when they squared off in 1960. "I had a man drop dead on my program once," he told Webster Hall's Baird Jones. "I think I said I was so old I went back to when the Dead Sea was only sick.
It was a bad joke. I thought [the guest] was laughing; he started to snort and then he fell on the floor. "Nixon and Kennedy came racing in and tried to revive him. It was at the Channel 7 building. They tried to revive the man from the floor, but he was gone." So who seemed more concerned, the D
emocrat or the Republican? "Nixon and Kennedy could not have cared less about the heart attack," Franklin shrugged. "They were so used to it."

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