The Joe Franklin Show

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.
Cause of death	Prostate cancer
Alma mater	Columbia University
Occupation	Television and radio personality

Joseph Fortgang (March 9, 1926 – January 24, 2015), widely known as Joe Franklin, was an American radio and television host personality, author and actor from New York City noted for his sandpapery voice and old-fashioned show business razzle-dazzle in six decades as a talk show host. His television show began in January 1951 on WJZ-TV (later WABC-TV) and moved to WOR-TV (later WWOR-TV) from 1962 to 1993.

Franklin was born Joseph Fortgang on March 9, 1926, in The Bronx, New York, the oldest of two children, to Austrian–Jewish parents, Martin Fortgang and Anna Heller. He admitted in his memoirs, Up Late With Joe Franklin, (which was written with R. J. Marx), that his press materials had long said that he had been born in 1928. 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. His father sold pushcarts and bags to shoppers on Manhattan's East Side and moved his family there to the neighborhood known as Yorkville. Franklin said his father called him "crackpot" because of his passion for vaudeville, silent movies and early radio. Franklin went to the movies primarily with his childhood friend Tony Curtis, who would later become an actor. After graduation from Benjamin Franklin High School in 1944, he was drafted into the U.S. Army. He was found to have flat feet and sent home from training in Texas.

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.