Henry Bushkin

Johnny Carson Henry Bushkin

From 1962 until 1992, Johnny Carson hosted the Tonight Show and permeated the American consciousness. At his unequaled peak, he performed to a nightly audience of 15 million. PBS's 2012 documentary special on Carson drew 6.3 million viewers, which made it the most popular entry in the "American Masters" series to date. A 2007 Carol Burnett special, in comparison, had 5.5 million viewers. In the '70s and '80s, he was the country's highest paid entertainer as well as its most enigmatic. He was as notoriously inscrutable and as mercurial (and sometimes cruel) off-camera as he was charming and spontaneously hilarious on his iconic show. During the height of his reign, Carson's lawyer and best friend was Henry Bushkin. In this memoir, Bushkin shows us his former boss with a breathtaking clarity and depth that nobody else could. From the moment Carson hired Bushkin till the moment 18 years later when they parted ways, the author witnessed and often took part in a continuous string of escapades that still retain their power to surprise and fascinate us. More than once, Bushkin helped his client avoid entanglements with the Mob. And Carson's adventures didn't just skirt the lower echelons of society. He socialized with Frank Sinatra, Jack Lemmon, Jimmy Stewart, Kirk Douglas, and dozens of other boldface names who populate this atmospheric and propulsive chronicle of the King of Late Night and his world. This memoir, though, isn't just dishy. It is a tautly rendered and remarkably nuanced portrait of Carson that not only reveals his true character but offers some reasons why he behaved as he did. Bushkin explains why Carson, a voracious and talented womanizer, felt he always needed to be married (and he shows us the trajectory of three of his bosss marriages); why he loathed small-talk even as he excelled at it; why he couldn't visit his son in the hospital and