Kane, Larry 1942–

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Kane, Larry 1942–

(Lawrence Kanowitz)

PERSONAL: Born Lawrence Kanowitz, October 21, 1942, in Brooklyn, NY; married, May 24, 1970; wife's name Donna (business owner and executive); children: Alexandra, Michael.

ADDRESSES: Home—PA. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Running Press, 125 S. 22nd St., Philadelphia, PA 19103-4399. E-mail—info@larrykane.com.

CAREER: Broadcast journalist and writer. WQAM, broadcast journalist; WAME and WFUN, broadcast journalist; WFIL Radio, Philadelphia, PA, anchor, 1966; WFIL Radio sister television station (now WPVI), Philadelphia, general assignment reporter, 1966; WPVI, Philadelphia, Action News anchor, 1970; WABC-TV, New York, NY, Eyewitness News anchor, 1977–78; WCAU, Philadelphia, primary anchor; KYW-TV, Philadelphia, anchor, 1993–2002.

Dynamic Images Incorporated (mentoring service for reporters and anchors), co-owner (with wife, Donna); consultant to corporations and media companies, Larry Kane Consulting (part of Dynamic Images Incorporated); hosted The Bulletin with Larry Kane, KYW-TV; contributor of commentary to KYW News Radio 1060; host of Larry Kane: Voice of Reason, Comcast's CN8 channel, 2006; campaign chairman of the Delaware Valley Multiple Sclerosis Society.

AWARDS, HONORS: Emmy Award, Academy of Television Arts and Sciences; Governor's Award for Lifetime Achievement, Mid-Atlantic Emmy Organization; Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award, 1985, for news coverage of the confrontation between the extremist group MOVE and the Philadelphia Police force; Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia Hall of Fame induction, 1994; Diamond in the Rough Leadership Award, Temple University Young Alumni Association Award, 2000; Person of the Year award, Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia, 2002.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

Larry Kane's Philadelphia, foreword by Dan Rather, Temple University Press (Philadelphia, PA), 2000.

Ticket to Ride: Inside the Beatles' 1964 & 1965 Tours That Changed the World (with compact disc), Running Press (Philadelphia, PA), 2003.

Lennon Revealed (with digital video disc), Running Press (Philadelphia, PA), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: Broadcast journalist Larry Kane is an Emmy-award winner with over four decades of experience in his field. Most of Kane's anchorage was based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which is why he has been called "the dean of Philadelphia television news anchors." As an anchorman, he covered local news and interviewed several important figures. Kane's experiences to this effect are disclosed in his first book, Larry Kane's Philadelphia.

Kane is perhaps best known, however, as the only journalist to accompany the British band the Beatles for the entirety of their first North American tours in the mid-1960s. Thus his second book, Ticket to Ride: Inside the Beatles' 1964 & 1965 Tours That Changed the World, is a story that only Kane can tell. The book is also accompanied by a compact disc containing some of the interviews that Kane recorded with the band members during the tours. In his book, Kane, who was only twenty-one years old when he joined the Beatles tour, relates how fans attacked the band members in unprecedented frenzies and describes the band's interactions with celebrities and groupies alike. It is interesting to note that Kane's experiences on the tour led him to view the Beatles mostly as four regular boys. Although a Kirkus Reviews critic called the account "heartfelt," the critic also commented that it is "threadbare of fresh material." Based on the singular nature of Kane's perspective, however, most reviewers disagreed with this view. A Publishers Weekly contributor stated that Ticket to Ride is "one of the few books on the band written in the past decade that can be considered indispensable." The same reviewer also commented on the in-depth interviews that "Kane skillfully uses throughout" the book to portray the Beatles' views. Gordon Flagg, writing in Booklist, concluded that Kane provides "terrific fly-on-the-wall stuff about a unique pop-cultural event."

After publishing Ticket to Ride Kane continued to explore the Beatles by writing Lennon Revealed, which was released around the twenty-fifth anniversary of Beatles bandleader John Lennon's death. The book calls on Kane's recollections of the early tours as well as later interviews with Lennon's friends and family. Unfortunately, Lennon Revealed was not as critically successful as its predecessor. Flagg, writing again in Booklist, called the book an "affectionate but dear-eyed look at the musician's life." While Library Journal reviewer James E. Perone felt that Kane "does not necessarily 'reveal' anything" about Lennon that fans don't already know, he did state, on the other hand, that Kane "does strike a nice balance" between biographers who are overly positive or overly negative. Additionally, a Publishers Weekly reviewer concluded that, while "there are certainly better books on Lennon,… readers should enjoy Kane's personal, honest recollections."