Podcast: Speaking of Quality: Wealth Management Insights with Hank Smith
Season 3 Episode 2 Title: Going Beyond the Headlines with Broadcast Legend Larry Kane – Part 2

Episode Transcript:

00:05 Maxine Cuffe
You’re listening to Speaking of Quality: Wealth Management Insights with Hank Smith, a podcast by the Haverford Trust Company. On Speaking of Quality, Hank chats with authors, influencers and wealth management experts to bring a sense of clarity and calm to the complexity and stress of personal finance. And now, here’s your host, Hank Smith. 

00:26 Hank Smith
Hello, and welcome to another episode of Speaking of Quality: Wealth Management Insights. I’m your host, Hank Smith, Director and Head of Investment Strategy at The Haverford Trust Company. On this podcast, we explore topics ranging from quality investing, retirement resilience, stock market trends, estate planning, small business ownership, behavioral psychology, and more. 

This episode is the second half of my conversation with broadcast television legend, Larry Kane. I’m excited to have Larry back on to talk about the importance of philanthropy in the United States and the significance of local elections.

I have a belief that one of the secret sauces of the United States is philanthropy because America does philanthropy like no other country in the world. It’s not just the big names like the Rockefellers, Fords, DuPonts, Gates. It’s the average citizen donating to churches, community foundations, civic organizations, both with their time and with their money. 

Larry, the work you’ve done throughout the past 40 years with the Delaware Valley Multiple Sclerosis Society, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, and the National Adoption Center to find homes for waiting children is so impressive. Can you share what you have gotten out of this? 

2:29 Larry Kane
There are several things. First of all, you pick and choose where you want to help. As a broadcaster, I did a series for many years, which continues today. First, it was Wednesday’s child, then it was Thursday’s Child, then it was Sunday’s child, went back to Wednesday. It was adoption, and it’s very difficult for hard-to-place children to get adopted. If we got maybe four or five or six or seven every year, we considered it a gigantic success. Meeting the kids, covering the stories, seeing the volunteers, was a heartwarming experience. I can’t tell you how many times I would do the pieces and come back wanting to take that child home. If I had taken every child home, I would have had a family of 35 children, and we really couldn’t do that. We wanted to have our kids and take care of them, but adoption itself is an extraordinary movement.

The other the other thing is, with the MS Society. When my mother had MS, they knew nothing. Today, they know a lot more. There are better medications, but they still have not found the cure. I was devoted to that. We started the bike trip in 1981, which had 70 people, including my wife and I – I finished last. My excuse for finishing last was that I had to sign autographs, which was true. At that time, I was at the height of my career, and people recognized me. Today, people only hear my voice when they look at me. They have no idea why, which is great, magnificent, being anonymous. Those trips were outstanding. I was also involved so many other organizations, Big Brothers Big Sisters, synagogues, churches. They used to say there wasn’t a synagogue or church that I hadn’t been inside of in the Philadelphia area. That might be true. My good friend Oran Reed helped introduce me to church community here. The concept of helping people by being on the scene is more powerful than you can imagine, gives you a gratification of what life is all about. Today in politics, you can mention all the big money that’s out there, but it’s little contributions that are climbing up to make a difference. And when it comes to charity, Saint Jude’s and the local children’s hospitals like Penn or Jefferson, all the health providers are very important, and people are very generous. Americans are very generous. With all their controversies, I’m telling you that they’re probably the same people who support one candidate and support another candidate are probably giving to the same causes without knowing about it. That’s great. I just think that when you look at the generosity of people, especially in this area, it’s pretty remarkable.

6:04 Hank Smith
I had the pleasure of podcasting with Madeline Bell, the CEO of Children’s Hospital, and it is amazing what she has done in expanding the mission of not just treating kids in the hospital, but actually going into neighborhoods and trying to improve the environments, to create a healthier environment. It goes beyond just medicine.  

6:36 Larry Kane
When Cherelle Parker became the mayor, she understood more than anybody the impact of giving and the impact of the business community, but even more so the individual giving and individual helping. The stress she’s made on the neighborhoods may make a large difference over the next couple of years, but all these mayors find this out. Wilson Goode found this out. He had a bad scene that happened. He was reelected. He did what he felt was right. Frank Rizzo was a lot different than people portray him as. Bill Green sued us because of a story that was not correct, targeted me, and can’t talk about it in detail, but he was a good mayor, decided not to seek a second term, and all the mayors I’ve met have been very interesting. Some of them have let ego get in the way. Some of them have been real leaders. Real leadership takes guts. Real leadership takes the ability to speak out to let people know how you’re feeling. And so far, Mayor Parker, who’s got one of the most unique voices in Philadelphia history, has made quite an impact on her caring. Now you can pretty well judge a mayor by the way people respond to them. So far people have responded to her. She’s done a lot of work, she’s got a lot of work to do, but I’m very impressed by the generosity of people. Whether it’s the United Way, or the hospitals, churches, synagogues, mosques, places of worship. People are very, very, very, very, very generous in this community. Even people who don’t have a lot try to give as much as they can. I really respect that.

8:37 Hank Smith
Again, I truly believe it is one of the secret sauces of what makes this country great, what brings people together, and no one does it like the United States. I would be remiss if I didn’t end on this topic. You’ve covered 23 political conventions, all the Presidential cycles going back to the 60s. Are you glad you’re retired for this one? 

9:15 Larry Kane
No – in some ways. Being at the political conventions, they’re a lot more than they seem to be. The reason that political conventions are so powerful is that you see people from all the 50 states and territories. They’re all coming together in one building, and the one thing that you notice over the years is the crowd and who they are and who they represent. The diversity of the crowd tells you a lot about the party. I have been fascinated over the years by the stories that have emerged from political conventions. The one thing we don’t cover well is the local in town politics, the county politics, the tax policy politics. To me, the most important elections are the ones that are not paid attention to. When you elect school board directors, when you elect city council members, township councils, and all of government is in the darkness. They claim they’re telling everybody what they do. But do you know the contracts that are being let out in your community? You know why zoning changes are there? The two gigantic supermarkets right next to each other, and you have no traffic left. These are important things, and the people who teach your children are very important. There was a controversy in Bucks County a couple of years ago at Central Bucks. There was literally one side that wanted to ban books, another side that didn’t. It was an extraordinary battle with your kids right in the middle, and nobody voted. And then they started to come out when they realized the consequences. Don’t underestimate local voting. 

10:59 Hank Smith
I had a wonderful podcast last season with Lauren Cristella, the CEO of Committee of 70, and she said the exact same thing that you’re saying. It is these local elections, the school boards and what have you, that are just critical and so many people don’t even know about it. 

11:22 Hank Smith
Larry you’ve written five books. Talk about your first one. 

11:26 Larry Kane
The first one was really a pleasure. It’s called Larry Kane’s Philadelphia, and it has my picture on the front. They took a lot of pictures of me by major studios in town. The one picture my wife dropped in was on what used to be called the West River Drive, now Martin Luther King Drive. She said, “Stand by the river.” I stood by the river. She took these pictures. And all these big-time photographers had submitted pictures, and they used hers, just a nice little picture for me, standing with the skyline behind me. The most gratifying book was Ticket to Ride, which was my daily description of life on the Beatles Tour. It was a very, very big sell, and unfortunately, it was sold to one company, then to another, then they didn’t do anything with it. And I don’t want to sue them, but I told them, I want this book to be available. So now it’s available for the first time in reprint, in a different version, and if you want to know anything about it and how to buy it, go to www.larrykane.com. It’s not a moneymaker. This is just something I want people to read. 

12:37 Hank Smith
Can our viewers access all your books on that website?

12:41 Larry Kane
Amazon sells just about everything. For example, the Philadelphia book will go for $80. Don’t do that. Buy the cheap version. Buy the paperback. It’s called Larry Kane’s Philadelphia. It’s not worth spending $80. It might be 50 years from now, but not now. The other thing is the Beatles book Ticket to Ride. It’s published by Backbeat Books, and it’s on Amazon, but if you go for it, well, they bring up used books. This is a brand-new book. You can get it through my site. It’s worthwhile. There’s also a link to 45 minutes of interviews with the Beatles that you can get yourself. This is not a CD, this is a digital link. If you’re interested in the Beatles, you can buy the $4.95 edition, which is a digital book. The reason I was able to own that book is because when the book came out, Ticket to Ride, they didn’t have any digital books. I put something in there about digital. It’s the cheap version of the book. Most Beatles fans want something in their hands, and it’s got all the pictures in it too.

14:03 Hank Smith
Thank you for sharing that. I’m sure our viewers will enjoy that book.

14:08 Larry Kane
Believe me Hank, it is not an income producer, believe me.

14:13 Hank Smith
Larry, I could listen to your stories about news and philanthropy all day. To our first-time listeners, be sure to check out the first part of our conversation to hear about Larry’s legendary broadcast career.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Speaking of Quality Wealth Management insights. Our next episode will be released shortly. In the meantime, please send suggestions or questions to marketing@haverfordquality.com and don’t forget to subscribe, rate, review and share this podcast.  

Until next time, I’m Hank Smith. Stay bullish.

14:48 Maxine Cuffe 
Thanks for listening to this episode of Speaking of Quality, Wealth Management Insights with Hank Smith. To hear future episodes of speaking of quality, please subscribe on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. To learn more about the Haverford Trust Company, please visit www.haverfordquality.com. This podcast is provided as general commentary and market overview and should not be relied upon as research a forecast or investment advice and is not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or to adopt an investment strategy. Any opinions expressed are as of the date this podcast was recorded and may change at any time, and are the opinions of that commentator, not Haverford’s. Any opinion or information provided are believed by Haverford to be reliable at the time of this podcast recording, but are not necessarily all inclusive or guaranteed for accuracy. Before making any financial decisions, please consult with an investment professional.