Johnny Carson Tell All in the Works (Wizbang Pop!)

Johnny Carson's longtime lawyer is blowing the lid off the secret life of the beloved "Tonight Show" host - painting him as a sad, depressed man who cheated on his wives, was tormented by his mom and refused to visit his son in a mental hospital.

Henry Bushkin - who was jokingly dubbed "Bombastic Bushkin" by Carson on his late-night NBC gabfest - told Page Six about a 'warts and all' memoir he's pushing about the late night king.

Among the revealing details:

Was so miserable at the top of his game that he constantly "questioned his own ability to have happiness in his life."

Enjoyed the use of a 10,000-square-foot penthouse with a private pool at Caesars Palace when he played Vegas and routinely entertained the "18 beautiful girls in the chorus line that opened his act . . . and he was certainly involved with some of them."

Refused to visit his son, Rick, when he was committed to Bellevue with severe emotional problems. "The kid was there for 4½ months and he never went. I had to take care of everything and was there almost every day. Rick [who died in a car crash in 1991] was a lovely human being."

Abandoned many of his closest friends, including Bushkin, who says, "At one time we did everything together. At the end, he treated me like everybody else - like I didn't exist. At the end, it was like I was an irritant. In many respects, he was the saddest guy I ever knew."

Comments (1)

Looking forward to reading ... (Below threshold)

1. Posted by Al Clamente | November 3, 2008 3:35 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)

Al Clamente:

Looking forward to reading your book Mr. Bushkin. It's about time you told your side of the story. All the other books on Carson I've read to date amount to nothing more than fluff pieces. Since nobody else in the world was closer to Carson than you, I look forward to reading what you have to say. Maybe now we'll finally get an accurate account of what the night show host was really all about. Al Clamente