Larry King Reflects on His Youth

choi

Larry King, Before the Suspenders, a Tight Belt; The talk-show host reflects on growing up in Brooklyn below the poverty line, and his path to Beverly Hills. Wall Street Journal, May 27, 2016 (in the Friday section "Mansion").
http://www.wsj.com/articles/larr ... ly-hills-1464792203

Quote:

" When I graduated from high school, I didn't go to college. We didn’t have the money, and I wouldn’t have gotten in even if we did. I didn’t care. I was going to be a radio announcer.

In Miami: "My first job was at WAHR as a disc jockey.  But 10 minutes before I went on for the first time, the general manager said that my name, Zeiger, was too ethnic. In his office, the newspaper was open on a table. He looked at the paper, at an ad for King's Wholesale Liquors. He said, 'How about Larry King?'  I had always been ambitious, but once I was on the air that day, nothing came out of my mouth. I was so nervous I just kept playing records. Finally, the general manager came into the studio and insisted I get on the air [talked].  After 'Swinging Down the Lane' by Les Elgart finished, I turned on the mic and said, 'Hi, my name is Larry King. All my life I wanted to be on the radio. Well, here I am and I'm frightened.' Listeners responded by calling in.  That day, I learned a valuable lesson: Be yourself and it won't matter what the audience thinks. You only get nervous when you’re trying to be someone else.

Note:
(a) For "tight belt," see belt-tightening (n) "a reduction in spending"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/belt–tightening

(b) after the father died of a heart attack: "My mother moved my younger brother, Marty, and me to an attic apartment in a three-story walk-up in the Bensonhurst section. We were on welfare for two years. My mother took in seamstress work, but she had to hide it [job, which probably was paid under the table] whenever the relief inspector came around."
(i) Bensonhurst, Brooklyn
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bensonhurst,_Brooklyn
(section 1 Etymology)
(ii) You may go to www.google.com/maps to see where it is.