Arsenio Hall has revealed that he lost his cool after being stopped by security on Paramount grounds for stealing equipment, suggesting there was a racial motive.
In “Arsenio: A Memoir,” released March 31, the 70-year-old former talk show host recalls how in 1992, someone stole bandleader Michael Wolff’s “keyboard, other instruments, and several amplifiers” from the set of “The Arsenio Hall Show.”
Hall reported the theft to the studio. But that night, as he was leaving the premises with his assistant J. Dove, a security guard stopped him.
“We have to search your car,” the guard told him.
Hall was furious.
“‘Do you want to find my car?'” he spat. “‘Someone stole equipment from my show. I’m the owner of the show, so that means they stole my stuff. Do you think I stole my stuff?’
The ‘Coming to America’ star revealed he was so ‘furious’ that his eyes were ‘glaring’.
“I know that Johnny (Carson) was never charged with stealing Doc Severinsen’s equipment or held hostage on NBC property…” he wrote.
Ms. Hall also asked the security guard, “Did you search Ted Danson’s car when he left?” Ted stars in the hit comedy “Cheers,” which was filmed on Paramount property. I like Ted. we are friendly. But unlike me, Ted Danson is white. ”
J. Dove then got out of his car, walked up to the wooden gate, and said, “I bent the gate until it snapped…I’m not so proud of the fact that we broke through the gates of Paramount. I’m not so proud of the anger I feel all the time, swirling inside me like a living wire. I’m fighting to suppress it.”
Hall, who became the first black host of a late-night talk show, wrote that he regularly dealt with “outpourings of hatred, both blatant and thinly veiled racism,” including daily hate mail.
The show aired from 1989 to 1994 and was a huge hit for three years before ratings began to decline.
At that time, Hall heard from Paramount executives that focus groups felt the show was too black. He wrote that he was told not to call customers “bro” and not to wear ripped jeans.
Ms. Hall felt trapped: “Black people say I’m too white, white people say I’m too black…”
He submitted his resignation, but Paramount buried him. A few weeks later, they released a statement announcing that the show would end in May 1994.
