Mike Douglas Recounts Years As Talk-Show Host

LOS ANGELES - Mike Douglas, who spent 22 years asking questions on his successful television show, finds himself on the other side of the microphone as he plugs his warm and funny memoir, "I'll Be Right Back: Memories of TV's Greatest Talk Show."

TV's greatest talk show? Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin and Jack Parr may take issue with that, although Carson always regarded his show as more variety than talk.

In fact, "The Mike Douglas Show" offered as much entertainment as talk. But during his chat segments, there was no one better than Douglas - a genial yet exacting host, sensing when to draw out a guest or cut off a verbose, boring visitor, always in a gentlemanly way.

And Douglas was never one to parade his own ego, inviting a different celebrity to act as a co-host each week. It was a clever gimmick that only a secure individual would go near and it stimulated a lot of give and take on the show.

From 1961 to 1975, "The Mike Douglas Show" featured all the big stars of the time (with one notable exception), as well as figures from sports (a 2-year-old Tiger Woods showing his golfing skills), politics (seven U.S. presidents), books, journalism, science and more.

The one star who did not appear: Frank Sinatra.

Douglas explained that Sinatra agreed to come on the show as long as his comedian, Pat Henry, could appear as co-host for the week. Sinatra said he would join Douglas and Henry on Friday.

So far so good, but then came the blowup.

"Frank was a wonderful man, but he also did strange things," Douglas observed. "Once he blew his stack, there was no turning back."

A local broadcaster reported that Sinatra had failed to appear on "The Mike Douglas Show." The singer heard the erroneous story in his hotel room, and, according to his associates, "went ballistic." He blamed Douglas and refused to appear.

"When I saw him in Vegas later, it was as though nothing had happened," Douglas said. "When Frank was charming, there was no one more charming."

Why did Douglas write "I'll Be Right Back"?

"I read a lot of newspapers every morning," Douglas replied. "I turned the page of our local paper and I read a headline: `Mike Douglas Is My Idol.' I assumed they were talking about Michael Douglas, the actor.

"I went on reading and it was an interview with Rosie O'Donnell. She said all these wonderful things about me, and she said she was going to pattern her show after mine . . .

"After reading this, I began to get calls from my agents about interviews. Everywhere I went, people would pump for things about the show. At least a hundred people said, `You ought to write a book; these stories are marvelous!' "

And so he did, with help from Thomas Kelly and Michael Heaton. It's published by Simon and Schuster, and Rosie O'Donnell wrote the introduction.

Douglas was born Michael Delaney Dowd Jr. in Chicago and broke into show business as a band and radio singer. His most notable gig came with Kay Kyser's band. Back in Chicago and singing on WGN, he played the Ed McMahon role on a talk show with a man who had a drinking problem.

"I could always think of something to say to get him out of his pickle, because he wasn't much of an ad libber," Douglas recalled. "He didn't show up one day. The boss came in and said, `Kid, you sit there today' (meaning the host's seat).

"Stars used to come and plug their motion pictures. I'd be talking to Tony Curtis and I'd look over my shoulder and see a sign: `Your next guest is Charles Laughton.' No preparation. I had to pull all this out of the wind."

He moved on to Cleveland, where he developed the format that would build his fortune. Westinghouse syndicated the show, first to its own stations, then to other parts of the country. "The Mike Douglas Show" moved to Philadelphia, then to Hollywood.

"I wouldn't believe this if someone hadn't counted it up," he remarked. "I did over 6,000 programs and interviewed more than 40,000 people."

Nearing the end of the book tour, Douglas and Gen, his wife for 55 years, were staying at the Beverly Hills Hotel, across the street from their former home, the mansion film tycoon Harry Cohn built.

The Douglases now live in Palm Beach, Fla., and the years of golf, sun and leisure make him seem far younger than his 74 years.

The syndicated show finally ended at the peak of its ratings when Westinghouse decided it needed a younger host: John Davidson. After a year on PBS, Douglas closed up shop. His feelings?

"It's frightening when the phone doesn't ring; people had no reason to call me," he admitted. "Two people phoned: Burt Reynolds and Don Rickles, both good friends. No one else called."