May 13, 1992
I made it. I'm part of history. Only 7 shows until one of the greatest entertainers ever retires from his job, and I witnessed it in person. Let's go back to the beginning.
The alarm went off at a tad past 5 this morning so I could be in line by 6. I arrived and took my place about 40 people from the front. Those in the very front had been there since 8 p.m. the night before. Those same two people ran from the ticket line to the show line at 8 a.m., tickets freshly in hand. I, instead, dragged my weary body and tickets back home to catch up on the sleep I had forgone.
After a lunch on the town I returned to Burbank and took my place far, far, far from the front, a solid 120 people between me and the front door. But there I made camp, at about 2 o'clock, well in advance of the 5:30 show time. There I sat playing Tetris and listened to the tales of the woman in line behind me, visiting from San Diego, with a son, John, in the music business. Eventually, Tessa Taylor arrived and shielded me from her verbal onslaught. Close to 5, we started moving. Before long, there we were, row "far away, high up", but there we were anyway.
The show was magic. I don't know why exactly; it's hard to explain, just the sensation of being there where it's been happening for 29 years. (It's like visiting Dad's office at IBM. Wow!)
The guests were George Carlin, and Gloria Estefan. Nothing
spectacular, but that didn't matter. I had done it. Seen it. Lived it.
Someday, I'll be retiring from my talk show and I hope there's
someone as thrilled as me about the whole thing. Great day.