Henry Bushkin

Henry Bushkin is a lawyer living in Los Angeles. For eighteen years he was Johnny Carson’s personal legal advisor, fixer, confidant, and close friend. Bushkin's new memoir is Johnny Carson.

Highlights from his Q & A with Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg for the Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy blog:

Speakeasy: You parted ways with Mr. Carson in the late 1980s; why write about him now?

Henry Bushkin: I never intended to. I started writing a novel in 2008, and after telling a good friend about it, he said, you’re such a jerk. Why don’t you write the book about Carson that people really want to read?

Johnny Carson retired in 1992. Do you have any concerns that some viewers don’t know who he was?

Absolutely. It’s an ongoing issue. My hope is that Johnny Carson enjoys a renaissance, and that this book plays a part in that. Every comedian today would say that Carson was the best. Hopefully today’s generation will get that. If it takes a realistic portrait to bring him back in front of the public it’s worth it.

You became so close to Mr. Carson that you followed him to California. Eventually, you marriage ended, with your wife of the time blaming it in part your allegiance to Mr. Carson. Why were you so frank about this?

One of the concerns was that people would automatically think that this was a book trashing Johnny Carson. That was...[read on]

--Marshal Zeringue