The Amazing Kreskin

Having been a Yankee fan since I was a kid, when my father would take my brother and Your’s Truly to a Yankee games to watch the classic Mickey Mantle and his teammates play; I have special, personal memories of Phi Rizzuto.

It was on the evening of July 22, 1988, that I had a break in a series of appearances in Kansas City and decided to attend a Yankee game that in the east coast was being broadcast on WPIX out of New York City.

Yours Truly sat it the press box and got a kick out of the various sports writers who kept saying to me “Kreskin tell us who is going to win the game, we can write the story now and go home early.” Rizutto decided to excuse his co-broadcaster and have Yours Truly cover the game. For a person who is not sophisticated in the technology of sports including baseball. It was one of the fun experiences of my life as Yours Truly sat with Phil Rizzuto and covered the rest of the game. Read the rest of this entry »

Whenever I met with Chet Collier I reminded him of a pivotal role he played in my career.

During my earlier appearances on the Mike Douglas Show, an issue arose with a government broadcast agency as to whether or not my work was in conflict with then existing regulations against psychics, spiritualist, etc. Representing the Mike Douglas show, Chet Collier met with key officials and championed my right to appear on television. I will never forget his action and will continue to remember him as one of the kindest and astute leaders in the broadcast industry.

My sympathy and thoughts are with his family.

The Amazing Kreskin

The passing of Merv Griffin has been a particularly sad moment in my life. There were three prominent broadcasters early in my career, that is in the sixties and seventies who played pivotal roles of support to my work and the development of my success.

One was Mike Douglas, with whom I did approximately 118 television shows. The second was Johnny Carson with whom I did 88 shows. Now there is Merv Griffin. My last show with him not long before his series, “The Merv Griffin Show” had ended was my 99th show with him and it is hard to believe that all three talk show giants have left us in approximately a year and a half.

There was an excitement in working with him; he was able to handle almost any situation with ease and nonchalance. He was quite conscious of the impact a performer was having on his viewers. In conversations I had with him at Sardis restaurant and in private performances that I did for him off television, became clear that he was a brilliant and astute businessman and a visionary as far as talent as the broadcast field was evolving. He could place anybody at ease. Unlike Johnny Carson who said he would like on his tombstone “I’ll be right back,” Merv quietly said that what he wanted on his in effect was “I will not be right back.”