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| | birth_name = Joseph Fortgang | | birth_name = Joseph Fortgang | ||
| | birth_date = {{Birth date|1926|3|9}} | | birth_date = {{Birth date|1926|3|9}} | ||
| | birth_place=], U.S. | | birth_place = ], U.S. | ||
| | death_date = {{Death date and age|2015|1|24|1926|3|9}} | | death_date = {{Death date and age|2015|1|24|1926|3|9}} | ||
| | death_place=], U.S. | | death_place=], U.S. | ||
| | occupation = Television and radio personality | | occupation = Television and radio personality | ||
| | spouse = | |||
| | children = 1 | |||
| | alma_mater = Columbia University (ungraduated) <ref>{{cite web |title=Remembering Joe Franklin |url=https://www.emmys.com/news/features/remembering-joe-franklin |website=Emmys |publisher=Television Academy |access-date=5 September 2021 |language=en}}</ref> | | alma_mater = Columbia University (ungraduated) <ref>{{cite web |title=Remembering Joe Franklin |url=https://www.emmys.com/news/features/remembering-joe-franklin |website=Emmys |publisher=Television Academy |access-date=5 September 2021 |language=en}}</ref> | ||
| | known_for = Inventing the talk show format | |||
| }} | }} | ||
| ⚫ | '''Joe Franklin''' (March 9, 1926 – January 24, 2015), born '''Joseph Fortgang''', was an American radio and television host personality, author and actor from ]. Franklin is noted for having the first ] and inventing the format. His television series debuted in January 1951 on WJZ-TV (later ]), moving to WOR-TV (later ]) in 1962, remaining there until 1993, one of the longest running uninterrupted careers in broadcasting history.<ref name=Hinckley>{{cite news |first=David |last=Hinckley |title=Joe Franklin: Truth in Packaging |work=New York Daily News |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/1999/11/26/1999-11-26_joe_franklin_truth_in_packag.html |date=November 26, 1999 |access-date=2008-01-01 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090703060057/http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/1999/11/26/1999-11-26_joe_franklin_truth_in_packag.html |archive-date=July 3, 2009 }}</ref> | ||
| ⚫ | '''Joe Franklin''' (March 9, 1926 – January 24, 2015), born '''Joseph Fortgang''', was an |
||
| ==Early life== | ==Early life== | ||
| Franklin was born '''Joseph Fortgang''' on March 9, 1926, in ], New York, the elder of two children, to ] ]ish parents, Anna (Heller) and Martin Fortgang.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-25/joe-franklin-king-of-nostalgia-on-nyc-radio-tv-dies-at-88.html|title=Joe Franklin, 'King of Nostalgia' on NYC Radio, TV, Dies at 88|publisher=Bloomberg|date=January 25, 2015|access-date=January 26, 2015|author=Arnold, Laurence}}</ref> He acknowledged in his memoirs, ''Up Late With Joe Franklin,'' (which was written with R. J. Marx), that his press materials had long said, purposely, that he had been born in 1928,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/25/nyregion/joe-franklin-local-talk-show-pioneer-dies-at-88.html?_r=0|title=Joe Franklin, a Talk Show Institution in New York, Dies at 88|work= |
Franklin was born '''Joseph Fortgang''' on March 9, 1926, in ], New York, the elder of two children, to ] ]ish parents, Anna (Heller) and Martin Fortgang.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-25/joe-franklin-king-of-nostalgia-on-nyc-radio-tv-dies-at-88.html|title=Joe Franklin, 'King of Nostalgia' on NYC Radio, TV, Dies at 88|publisher=Bloomberg|date=January 25, 2015|access-date=January 26, 2015|author=Arnold, Laurence}}</ref> He acknowledged in his memoirs, ''Up Late With Joe Franklin,'' (which was written with R. J. Marx), that his press materials had long said, purposely, that he had been born in 1928,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/25/nyregion/joe-franklin-local-talk-show-pioneer-dies-at-88.html?_r=0|title=Joe Franklin, a Talk Show Institution in New York, Dies at 88|work=]|date=January 24, 2015|access-date=March 23, 2017|author=Barron, James}}</ref> but he planned to come clean about his real birth date. As a teenager, Franklin "followed around" ] and ], the latter of whom eventually began buying jokes from the young Franklin and whose ] show he later produced. At age 18, Franklin was drafted into the ], serving in ].<ref name=lat> '']'' via ]. Retrieved August 13, 2020.</ref><ref> ]. Retrieved August 13, 2020.</ref> | ||
| ==Career== | ==Career== | ||
| At 14, Franklin began writing skits for ''The ] Hour''; and at 16, Franklin officially began his entertainment career as a record picker on radio sensation ]'s ''Make Believe Ballroom'' where he became known as "The Young Wreck with the Old Records". {{citation needed|date=January 2015}} By the time he was 21, he embarked on a radio career. He was also considered to be an authority on popular culture of the first half of the 20th century, including silent films. He was called "The King of Nostalgia" and "The Wizard of Was" for focusing on old-time show-business personalities. Franklin was also a pioneer in promoting products such as Hoffman Beverages and ] ginger ale on the air. ]'s documentary ''It's Only Talk, The Real Story Of America's Talk Shows'' credits Franklin as the creator of the television talk show. Franklin was listed in the '']'' as the longest running continuous on-air TV talk show host, more than a decade longer than ]'s run. | At 14, Franklin began writing skits for ''The ] Hour''; and at 16, Franklin officially began his entertainment career as a record picker on radio sensation ]'s '']'' where he became known as "The Young Wreck with the Old Records". {{citation needed|date=January 2015}} By the time he was 21, he embarked on a radio career. He was also considered to be an authority on popular culture of the first half of the 20th century, including silent films. He was called "The King of Nostalgia" and "The Wizard of Was" for focusing on old-time show-business personalities. Franklin was also a pioneer in promoting products such as Hoffman Beverages and ] ginger ale on the air. ]'s documentary ''It's Only Talk, The Real Story Of America's Talk Shows'' credits Franklin as the creator of the television talk show. Franklin was listed in the '']'' as the longest running continuous on-air TV talk show host, more than a decade longer than ]'s run. | ||
| In 1999, Franklin partnered with Producer Steve Garrin and Restaurant Mogul Dennis Riese to open Joe Franklin's Memory Lane Restaurant on West 45th Street in Broadway's theater district.<ref>, JoeFranklin.com; accessed January 26, 2015.</ref> After the restaurant closed in 2003 it reopened the following year as ''"Joe Franklin's Comedy Club"'' on West 50th Street. Many name comedians came to the club and performed on stage to break in their new material, and many aspiring comics got their first stage time there. It closed in 2005. | In 1999, Franklin partnered with Producer Steve Garrin and Restaurant Mogul Dennis Riese to open Joe Franklin's Memory Lane Restaurant on West 45th Street in Broadway's theater district.<ref>, JoeFranklin.com; accessed January 26, 2015.</ref> After the restaurant closed in 2003 it reopened the following year as ''"Joe Franklin's Comedy Club"'' on West 50th Street. Many name comedians came to the club and performed on stage to break in their new material, and many aspiring comics got their first stage time there. It closed in 2005. | ||
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| Franklin's guests included an eclectic mix of actual celebrities and low level performers, sometimes on the same panel. He claimed to have had ] on his program, a dubious statement since Chaplin left the United States in 1952, shortly after Franklin's TV debut. Franklin took credit for discovering or giving early exposure to ], ], ], ], ] and ]. He interviewed ] and ], ] and ], ] and ], ] and ].<ref name=lat/> | Franklin's guests included an eclectic mix of actual celebrities and low level performers, sometimes on the same panel. He claimed to have had ] on his program, a dubious statement since Chaplin left the United States in 1952, shortly after Franklin's TV debut. Franklin took credit for discovering or giving early exposure to ], ], ], ], ] and ]. He interviewed ] and ], ] and ], ] and ], ] and ].<ref name=lat/> | ||
| Other guest claims include ], ] (with whom Franklin co-authored "The Marilyn Monroe Story" in 1953), ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ] and ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ] and five US presidents (including ] and ]).<ref>, Theaterpizzazz.com. January 25, 2015.</ref> As with the Chaplin claim, some of these appearances were unable to be independently confirmed based on a lack of evidence, since still pictures taken on the set do not exist for several of the people listed, and little video from before the 1970s survives. Bette Midler was the show's in-house singer for a time, and ] her accompanist. Elizabeth Joyce was his in-house psychic/astrologer. Franklin never employed a co-host, but his producer, Richie Ornstein, was a standard feature on the ''Joe Franklin Show'' who interacted with guests and discussed trivia.<ref name="Hinckley"/> | Other guest claims include ], ] (with whom Franklin co-authored "The Marilyn Monroe Story" in 1953), ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ] and ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], and five US presidents (including ] and ]).<ref>, Theaterpizzazz.com. January 25, 2015.</ref> As with the Chaplin claim, some of these appearances were unable to be independently confirmed based on a lack of evidence, since still pictures taken on the set do not exist for several of the people listed, and little video from before the 1970s survives. Bette Midler was the show's in-house singer for a time, and ] her accompanist. Elizabeth Joyce was his in-house psychic/astrologer. Franklin never employed a co-host, but his producer, Richie Ornstein, was a standard feature on the ''Joe Franklin Show'' who interacted with guests and discussed trivia.<ref name="Hinckley"/> | ||
| Woody Allen, ], ], Barbra Streisand, ], ], ], ] |
Woody Allen, ], ], Barbra Streisand, ], ], ], ], ], and ] got their first television exposure on ''The Joe Franklin Show''. ] reportedly appeared four times. Franklin frequently appeared at his restaurant, where he conducted live, in-person interviews with entertainers such as ], ] and ], who impersonated Franklin on '']''. | ||
| ==In media== | ==In media== | ||
| Franklin appeared as himself in such New York-based films as '']'', '']'', and '']''. Franklin appeared on the first episode of '']'' giving host ] advice on how to have a successful show. He was also a guest on an early episode of '']''. He also made appearances in various works by New York low-budget film company ], making a cameo as himself in their 1999 meta-fictional slasher film '']'', as well as the 1993 ] ''The Troma System'' as the result of the commercial's host transforming into "the ultimate talk show host". Franklin appeared as himself in comedian ]’s 1993 ] comedy special '']'', interviewing character Linda Granger on his talk show. | Franklin appeared as himself in such New York-based films as '']'', '']'', and '']''. Franklin appeared on the first episode of '']'' giving host ] advice on how to have a successful show. He was also a guest on (4th) an early episode of '']''. He also made appearances in various works by New York low-budget film company ], making a cameo as himself in their 1999 meta-fictional slasher film '']'', as well as the 1993 ] ''The Troma System'' as the result of the commercial's host transforming into "the ultimate talk show host". Franklin appeared as himself in comedian ]’s 1993 ] comedy special '']'', interviewing character Linda Granger on his talk show. | ||
| Franklin's show was first parodied by ] during the 1984–1985 season of '']''. | Franklin's show was first parodied by ] during ] of '']''. | ||
| On the locally produced program ''The Uncle Floyd Show'', host ] parodied Franklin as "Joe Frankfurter". | On the locally produced program ''The Uncle Floyd Show'', host ] parodied Franklin as "Joe Frankfurter". | ||
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| Also in 1997, Franklin was satirized by Drew Friedman in * ''Any Similarity to Persons Living or Dead is Purely Coincidental'' (with Josh Alan Friedman) (Fantagraphics Books, 1997) | Also in 1997, Franklin was satirized by Drew Friedman in * ''Any Similarity to Persons Living or Dead is Purely Coincidental'' (with Josh Alan Friedman) (Fantagraphics Books, 1997) | ||
| Franklin appears in the 2005 documentary '']'', an anthology of absurdly crude humor.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/10/24/quiet-depravity|title=Quiet Depravity|last=Goodyear|first=Dana|magazine=The New Yorker|date=October 24, 2005}}</ref> | |||
| In 2014, Franklin starred in Owen Kline and Andrew Lampert's comedic short film ''Jazzy for Joe'', which featured Franklin raising an abandoned baby discovered on his doorstep. The film was programmed by ] and run as the finale of a 2014 retrospective of his own filmography at the late West Hollywood theater ]. |
In 2014, Franklin starred in ] and Andrew Lampert's comedic short film ''Jazzy for Joe'', which featured Franklin raising an abandoned baby discovered on his doorstep. The film was programmed by ] and run as the finale of a 2014 retrospective of his own filmography at the late West Hollywood theater ].<ref>Gayne, Zach, ''Screenanarchy'', December 5, 2014, ; accessed January 2, 2021.</ref> | ||
| ==Personal life== | ==Personal life== | ||
| {{expand section|date=January 2021}} | {{expand section|date=January 2021}} | ||
| Franklin married Lois Meriden, a onetime performer with Sally Rand's burlesque-style "fan dancers". They had a son, Bradley. Later, Franklin's longtime companion was Jodi Fritz.<ref name=lat/> | Franklin married Lois Meriden, a onetime performer with ]'s burlesque-style "fan dancers". They had a son, Bradley. Later, Franklin's longtime companion was Jodi Fritz.<ref name=lat/> | ||
| Franklin died of ] at a Manhattan hospice on January 24, 2015, aged 88.<ref name=obit>{{cite news|author=James Barron|title=Joe Franklin, Local Talk Show Pioneer, Dies at 88|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/25/nyregion/joe-franklin-local-talk-show-pioneer-dies-at-88.html?_r=0|quote=Joe Franklin ... died on Saturday in at the ary Manning Walsh Hospice Center in Manhattan. He was 88. Steve Garrin, Mr. Franklin's producer and longtime friend, said the cause was prostate cancer. ...|newspaper=]|date=January 24, 2015|access-date=January 26, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Sharpio|first=Rich |date=January 24, 2015|title=Joe Franklin 'King of Nostalgia' dead at 88|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/joe-franklin-dead-88-article-1.2090911|newspaper=New York Daily News|location= New York|access-date=2015-01-25}}</ref> | Franklin died of ] at a Manhattan hospice on January 24, 2015, aged 88.<ref name=obit>{{cite news|author=James Barron|title=Joe Franklin, Local Talk Show Pioneer, Dies at 88|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/25/nyregion/joe-franklin-local-talk-show-pioneer-dies-at-88.html?_r=0|quote=Joe Franklin ... died on Saturday in at the ary Manning Walsh Hospice Center in Manhattan. He was 88. Steve Garrin, Mr. Franklin's producer and longtime friend, said the cause was prostate cancer. ...|newspaper=]|date=January 24, 2015|access-date=January 26, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Sharpio|first=Rich |date=January 24, 2015|title=Joe Franklin 'King of Nostalgia' dead at 88|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/joe-franklin-dead-88-article-1.2090911|newspaper=New York Daily News|location= New York|access-date=2015-01-25}}</ref> | ||
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| ==Selected books== | ==Selected books== | ||
| * 1953 ''The Marilyn Monroe Story'', R. Field Company; Greenberg. | * 1953 ''The Marilyn Monroe Story'', R. Field Company; Greenberg. | ||
| * 1959 ''Classics of the Silent Screen: A Pictorial Treasury'', The Citadel press (reprinted in 2013 by Literary Licensing, LLC); attributed to Franklin but actually written by noted film historian ]<ref>{{citation|title=Obituary: William K. Everson|first=Kevin|last=Brownlow|work=]|date=16 April 1996|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/obituary-william-k-everson-5619936.html|access-date=2020-07-20}}</ref> | * 1959 ''Classics of the Silent Screen: A Pictorial Treasury'', The Citadel press (reprinted in 2013 by Literary Licensing, LLC); attributed to Franklin but actually written by noted film historian ]<ref>{{citation|title=Obituary: William K. Everson|first=Kevin|last=Brownlow|work=]|date=16 April 1996|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/obituary-william-k-everson-5619936.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220609/https://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/obituary-william-k-everson-5619936.html |archive-date=2022-06-09 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=2020-07-20}}</ref> | ||
| * 1974 ''Joe Franklin's Memory Lane Cookbook'', Lion Books, {{ISBN|9780874602425}} | * 1974 ''Joe Franklin's Memory Lane Cookbook'', Lion Books, {{ISBN|9780874602425}} | ||
| * 1978 '' A Gift for People '', M. Evans Company, {{ISBN|0-87131-244-1}} | * 1978 '' A Gift for People '', M. Evans Company, {{ISBN|0-87131-244-1}} | ||
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| == External links == | == External links == | ||
| * {{IMDb name|id=0291460}} | * {{IMDb name|id=0291460}} | ||
| * {{cite web|title=Interviews with Franklin by Frank Sisco, Steve Serwatka and Tom Sullivan|url=http://www.videovoom.com/List_People_Celebrities.htm|date=2003-09-05}} | * {{cite web|title=Interviews with Franklin by Frank Sisco, Steve Serwatka and Tom Sullivan|url=http://www.videovoom.com/List_People_Celebrities.htm|date=2003-09-05|access-date=2007-08-01|archive-date=2007-09-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929223712/http://www.videovoom.com/List_People_Celebrities.htm|url-status=dead}} | ||
| * | * | ||
| * (7 mins, 2015) on NPR's '']'' | * (7 mins, 2015) on NPR's '']'' | ||
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| ] | ] | ||
| ] | ] | ||
| ] | ] | ||
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Latest revision as of 01:29, 16 November 2024
American radio and television host, author, and actor (1926–2015) This article is about the talk show host. For the public radio performance artist, see Joe Frank. For the professor of chemistry, see Joe L. Franklin.| Joe Franklin | |
|---|---|
 Franklin in 2007 | |
| Born | Joseph Fortgang (1926-03-09)March 9, 1926 The Bronx, New York, U.S. |
| Died | January 24, 2015(2015-01-24) (aged 88) Manhattan, New York, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Columbia University (ungraduated) |
| Occupation(s) | Television and radio personality |
| Known for | Inventing the talk show format |
| Children | 1 |
Joe Franklin (March 9, 1926 – January 24, 2015), born Joseph Fortgang, was an American radio and television host personality, author and actor from New York City. Franklin is noted for having the first talk show and inventing the format. His television series debuted in January 1951 on WJZ-TV (later WABC-TV), moving to WOR-TV (later WWOR-TV) in 1962, remaining there until 1993, one of the longest running uninterrupted careers in broadcasting history.
Early life
Franklin was born Joseph Fortgang on March 9, 1926, in The Bronx, New York, the elder of two children, to Austrian Jewish parents, Anna (Heller) and Martin Fortgang. He acknowledged in his memoirs, Up Late With Joe Franklin, (which was written with R. J. Marx), that his press materials had long said, purposely, that he had been born in 1928, but he planned to come clean about his real birth date. As a teenager, Franklin "followed around" Al Jolson and Eddie Cantor, the latter of whom eventually began buying jokes from the young Franklin and whose Carnegie Hall show he later produced. At age 18, Franklin was drafted into the United States Army, serving in World War II.
Career
At 14, Franklin began writing skits for The Kate Smith Hour; and at 16, Franklin officially began his entertainment career as a record picker on radio sensation Martin Block's Make Believe Ballroom where he became known as "The Young Wreck with the Old Records". By the time he was 21, he embarked on a radio career. He was also considered to be an authority on popular culture of the first half of the 20th century, including silent films. He was called "The King of Nostalgia" and "The Wizard of Was" for focusing on old-time show-business personalities. Franklin was also a pioneer in promoting products such as Hoffman Beverages and Canada Dry ginger ale on the air. A&E's documentary It's Only Talk, The Real Story Of America's Talk Shows credits Franklin as the creator of the television talk show. Franklin was listed in the Guinness World Records as the longest running continuous on-air TV talk show host, more than a decade longer than Johnny Carson's run.
In 1999, Franklin partnered with Producer Steve Garrin and Restaurant Mogul Dennis Riese to open Joe Franklin's Memory Lane Restaurant on West 45th Street in Broadway's theater district. After the restaurant closed in 2003 it reopened the following year as "Joe Franklin's Comedy Club" on West 50th Street. Many name comedians came to the club and performed on stage to break in their new material, and many aspiring comics got their first stage time there. It closed in 2005.
After retiring from his television show, Franklin concentrated on his overnight radio show, playing old records on WOR-AM on Saturday evenings and mentoring thousands of aspiring entertainers who for decades sought an audience with him at his notoriously cluttered Times Square office. Franklin's celebrity interviews, known as "Nostalgia Moments", appeared daily on the Bloomberg Radio Network until mid-January 2015, shortly before his death.
Famous guests
Franklin's guests included an eclectic mix of actual celebrities and low level performers, sometimes on the same panel. He claimed to have had Charlie Chaplin on his program, a dubious statement since Chaplin left the United States in 1952, shortly after Franklin's TV debut. Franklin took credit for discovering or giving early exposure to Al Pacino, Bette Midler, Barbra Streisand, Michael Jackson, Garth Brooks and Woody Allen. He interviewed Andy Warhol and Howard Stern, William F. Buckley and Abbie Hoffman, Jack LaLanne and Muhammad Ali, Fred Astaire and John Wayne.
Other guest claims include Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe (with whom Franklin co-authored "The Marilyn Monroe Story" in 1953), Jayne Mansfield, The Beastie Boys, Cary Grant, Sam Levene, Lena Horne, Tony Bennett, Salvador Dalí, Rudy Vallee, Jimmy Durante, Madonna, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Bing Crosby, Jerry Lewis, Roger Williams, The Belmonts, Elvis Presley, The Ramones, Lou Albano, Anita O'Day, and five US presidents (including John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon). As with the Chaplin claim, some of these appearances were unable to be independently confirmed based on a lack of evidence, since still pictures taken on the set do not exist for several of the people listed, and little video from before the 1970s survives. Bette Midler was the show's in-house singer for a time, and Barry Manilow her accompanist. Elizabeth Joyce was his in-house psychic/astrologer. Franklin never employed a co-host, but his producer, Richie Ornstein, was a standard feature on the Joe Franklin Show who interacted with guests and discussed trivia.
Woody Allen, Andy Kaufman, Liza Minnelli, Barbra Streisand, Julia Roberts, Bruce Springsteen, Robin Williams, John Belushi, Richard Pryor, and They Might Be Giants got their first television exposure on The Joe Franklin Show. Frank Sinatra reportedly appeared four times. Franklin frequently appeared at his restaurant, where he conducted live, in-person interviews with entertainers such as Carol Channing, Anita O'Day and Billy Crystal, who impersonated Franklin on Saturday Night Live.
In media
Franklin appeared as himself in such New York-based films as Ghostbusters, Broadway Danny Rose, and 29th Street. Franklin appeared on the first episode of This American Life giving host Ira Glass advice on how to have a successful show. He was also a guest on (4th) an early episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast. He also made appearances in various works by New York low-budget film company Troma Entertainment, making a cameo as himself in their 1999 meta-fictional slasher film Terror Firmer, as well as the 1993 infomercial The Troma System as the result of the commercial's host transforming into "the ultimate talk show host". Franklin appeared as himself in comedian Tracey Ullman’s 1993 HBO comedy special Tracey Ullman Takes on New York, interviewing character Linda Granger on his talk show.
Franklin's show was first parodied by Billy Crystal during the 1984–1985 season of Saturday Night Live.
On the locally produced program The Uncle Floyd Show, host Floyd Vivino parodied Franklin as "Joe Frankfurter".
In 1997, Franklin was profiled in the documentary film 50,000,000 Joe Franklin Fans Can't Be Wrong (1997), directed by Joshua Brown.
Also in 1997, Franklin was satirized by Drew Friedman in * Any Similarity to Persons Living or Dead is Purely Coincidental (with Josh Alan Friedman) (Fantagraphics Books, 1997)
Franklin appears in the 2005 documentary The Aristocrats, an anthology of absurdly crude humor.
In 2014, Franklin starred in Owen Kline and Andrew Lampert's comedic short film Jazzy for Joe, which featured Franklin raising an abandoned baby discovered on his doorstep. The film was programmed by Robert Downey Sr. and run as the finale of a 2014 retrospective of his own filmography at the late West Hollywood theater Cinefamily.
Personal life
 | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (January 2021) |
Franklin married Lois Meriden, a onetime performer with Sally Rand's burlesque-style "fan dancers". They had a son, Bradley. Later, Franklin's longtime companion was Jodi Fritz.
Franklin died of prostate cancer at a Manhattan hospice on January 24, 2015, aged 88.
Selected books
- 1953 The Marilyn Monroe Story, R. Field Company; Greenberg.
- 1959 Classics of the Silent Screen: A Pictorial Treasury, The Citadel press (reprinted in 2013 by Literary Licensing, LLC); attributed to Franklin but actually written by noted film historian William K. Everson
- 1974 Joe Franklin's Memory Lane Cookbook, Lion Books, ISBN 9780874602425
- 1978 A Gift for People , M. Evans Company, ISBN 0-87131-244-1
- 1980 Joe Franklin's Awfully Corny Joke Book, Chelsea House Publishers, ISBN 9780877541424
- 1981 Seventy Years of Great Film Comedians: A Joe Franklin Memory Lane Scrapbook, Global Communications, ISBN 9780938294061
- 1985 Joe Franklin's Encyclopedia of Comedians, Bell Pub. Co., ISBN 9780517467657
- 1992 Joe Franklin's Movie Trivia, Hastings House, ISBN 9780803893481
- 2001 Up Late with Joe Franklin, Scribner, ISBN 978-0-02-540775-6
- 2012 The Marilyn Monroe Story: The Intimate Inside Story of Hollywood's Hottest Glamour Girl., Campfire Network, ISBN 1475004141.
References
- "Remembering Joe Franklin". Emmys. Television Academy. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
- ^ Hinckley, David (November 26, 1999). "Joe Franklin: Truth in Packaging". New York Daily News. Archived from the original on July 3, 2009. Retrieved 2008-01-01.
- Arnold, Laurence (January 25, 2015). "Joe Franklin, 'King of Nostalgia' on NYC Radio, TV, Dies at 88". Bloomberg. Retrieved January 26, 2015.
- Barron, James (January 24, 2015). "Joe Franklin, a Talk Show Institution in New York, Dies at 88". The New York Times. Retrieved March 23, 2017.
- ^ Joe Franklin dies at 88; interviewed 'plate twirlers' and stars. Los Angeles Times via Internet Archive. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
- Joe Franklin, NNDB Tracking the Entire World. NNDB. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
- "Joe Franklin's Memory Lane Bar & Restaurant is NOW OPEN...", JoeFranklin.com; accessed January 26, 2015.
- "Bloomberg Radio Shows: Bloomberg on the Weekend". Bloomberg. Retrieved December 17, 2011.
- "Joe Franklin Talk Show Icon Dies", Theaterpizzazz.com. January 25, 2015.
- "50,000,000 Joe Franklin Fans Can't Be Wrong". Paleycenter.org. The Paley Center for Media. 1998. Retrieved August 9, 2015.
- Goodyear, Dana (October 24, 2005). "Quiet Depravity". The New Yorker.
- Gayne, Zach, Screenanarchy, December 5, 2014, "Robert Downey Sr. On Truth, Soul, And Cinefamily"; accessed January 2, 2021.
- James Barron (January 24, 2015). "Joe Franklin, Local Talk Show Pioneer, Dies at 88". New York Times. Retrieved January 26, 2015.
Joe Franklin ... died on Saturday in at the ary Manning Walsh Hospice Center in Manhattan. He was 88. Steve Garrin, Mr. Franklin's producer and longtime friend, said the cause was prostate cancer. ...
- Sharpio, Rich (January 24, 2015). "Joe Franklin 'King of Nostalgia' dead at 88". New York Daily News. New York. Retrieved 2015-01-25.
- Brownlow, Kevin (16 April 1996), "Obituary: William K. Everson", The Independent, archived from the original on 2022-06-09, retrieved 2020-07-20
External links
- Joe Franklin at IMDb
- "Interviews with Franklin by Frank Sisco, Steve Serwatka and Tom Sullivan". 2003-09-05. Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2007-08-01.
- Theatre Museum Award
- Radio interview (7 mins, 2015) on NPR's Fresh Air
- Joe Franklin Interview NAMM Oral History Library (1995)
- 1926 births
- 2015 deaths
- American television talk show hosts
- Jewish American male actors
- Deaths from prostate cancer in New York (state)
- Radio personalities from New York City
- Writers from the Bronx
- United States Army personnel of World War II
- 21st-century American Jews
- American people of Austrian-Jewish descent
- 20th-century American Jews
- Jews from New York (state)