44 | JULY 9 • 2020 

Soul
of blessed memory

continued from page 43

My Carl Reiner Story

ALAN MUSKOVITZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER
L

egendary writer, actor, 
comedian, director and 
producer Carl Reiner 
passed away peacefully from 
natural causes at his Beverly 
Hills home on June 30. He 
was 98. 
I had the high honor of 
interviewing and meeting the 
beloved creative genius 19 
years ago, Sept. 6, 2001, just 
five days before 9/11. 
Reiner traveled to Detroit 
to entertain a gathering of 
the Detroit American Friends 
of Bar-Ilan University (BIU) 
in Israel. I was a member of 
the local young leadership 
committee overseen by 

the late Les Goldstein, the 
Midwest director of BIU. 
Prior to his arrival from 
Los Angeles, Reiner called 
into the Dick Purtan show on 
WOMC to promote the event. 
He could not have been more 
engaging or humble, a real 
mensch. At the time, the then 
nearly 80-year old Reiner 
reflected on the aging process 
saying: “I check on people 
who are older than me to find 
out what’
s in store for me.” 
When directing George 
Burns in the movie Oh God, 
Reiner recalled: “I used to 
question him every day about 
every part of his life when 
he was 83-4, knowing that 

hopefully I would get there 
some day and know what to 
expect.” You can listen to the 
interview on my Laugh with 
Big Al YouTube channel.
The photograph of Reiner 
and myself was taken the 
evening of the Bar-Ilan 
event. At the time, Carl was 
nearing 80 and I was nearing 
50, both in age and pounds 
overweight. 

My only regret that night 
was missing an opportunity 
to impress Carl Reiner’
s 
agent who had tagged along 
with him from L.A.: George 
Shapiro, the executive 
producer of Seinfeld. I was 
certain Shapiro would see me 
as the next George Costanza. 
Nineteen years later, I’
m still 
the same old Alan 
Muskovitz. 

Carl Reiner and
Al Muskovitz

