Johnny Carson’s hand was shaking. It was November 14th, 1985. The Tonight Show was taping live at NBC Burbank Studios. 300 people sat in that audience. Millions more watched from their living rooms across America. And Johnny Carson, the man who had made this country laugh for 23 years straight, could not speak. His face…
On a Tuesday afternoon in March of 1963, a 20-year-old woman named Margaret Hulkcom walked into Dennis’s John Deere dealership in Russell, Kansas, and asked to see their used tractors. Roy Dennison looked up from his desk, looked her over once, and laughed. Not a quiet laugh, the kind that carries across a showroom floor…
Clint Eastwood sat at the piano, played the first note, and Johnny Carson’s eyes filled with tears because that melody brought back a story no one had known for 15 years. It was March 1982, The Tonight Show, starring Johnny Carson, Studio 6B in Burbank. Another Thursday night, Clint Eastwood was the guest. Hollywood’s biggest…
first guest tonight. Incidentally, there’s a new motion picture out and the advertising says, I got to read this to get it right. It says, quote, “Winner, loser, lover, loudmouth, the man.” Unquote. The film is the greatest and the man, of course, is the heavyweight champion of the world, Muhammad Ali. [Music] You’re getting…
116th Street, Harlem. High noon. 300 people on the sidewalk. Frank Lucas walks up to a 270-pound gangster named Tango. He pulls out a .45, levels it right between Tango’s eyes, and before the big man can finish his sentence, Frank ends the argument permanently. Four shots ring out. Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! In broad…
They called him Mooney. For two decades, Sam Gianana ran the most profitable criminal empire in America. He fixed elections, shared a mistress with the president, and helped the CIA try to kill Fidel Castro. But on June 19th, 1975, the night before he was supposed to testify before Congress about all of it, someone…
The sound of a heavy rain hitting the asphalt is the only thing louder than the distant hum of the city. On the corner of Malbury and Canal, the steam rises from a silver cart smelling of onions, vinegar, and cheap charcoal. Behind it, S, a man whose face is a road map of 50…
For 50 years, one man ruled the Chicago outfit with absolute power. He survived Al Capone, outlasted Sam Gianana, and watched John Gotti burn out in a blaze of publicity. While FBY agents chased headlines and wiretapped social clubs, Tony Aardo sat in his River Forest mansion, pulling strings nobody could see. He never raised…
The Sands Hotel was packed on the night of November 3rd, 1955. Dean Martin was three songs into his set, the audience eating out of his hand when Anthony Big Tony Castiano walked in. Big Tony wasn’t just any customer. He was a capo in the New York crime family with ties to every major…
1991, 20 years. 20 years earlier, at a party in London, two young men had met. One was Elton John. The other was Freddy Mercury. Neither had yet become a full legend, but both knew they would. The friendship that began that night grew and deepened over 20 years, becoming one of the most precious…
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