We usually start these interviews by asking the MythBusters to tell us about their lives, who had an impact on them, and if that shaped their attitude towards aging. So tell us something about yourself. Are you a native Clevelander?
No. I came here in 1950 from Memphis, Tennessee. I've been in radio and televsion for 51 years, and I've won all the awards you can win. I went to California in 1965 after having a huge success in Cleveland with Dorothy Fuldheim with a show called the One o'Clock Club. Ms. Fuldheim and I had a big program that started the Mike Douglas show. They got their idea from us, they copied us and did it better.

I stayed in California 20 years. I've been back here ever since.

Why did you go to California?
Regular television; KGO in San Francisco. I'm a radio/televisoin performer; I'm not a disc jockey. I hate disc jockeys.What's the big deal about playing a record? I sit on the radio; I'm on 1300 on the AM radio dial every Thursday between 1 and 3 p.m.

So you want to know, what makes me what I am today?

Yes, that's one of my questions.
O.k. I'm an only child. My mother and father loved me, I loved them. I had an idyllic childhood, I grew up in Memphis.

You don't have much of a southern accent.
I do when ahm in Maymphis, honay (laughs).

And I was in the Navy in World War II.

Where did you serve?
In a little island you've never heard of, Okinawa. I got a purple heart. Have you ever seen a purple heart? Let me show you (he asks his wife, Donna Belle, to get the medal from down the hall). You know, you get this for saving your own fanny. You save yourself from getting killed.

(He pulls his a framed set of photos of the explosion at Bunker Hill off the wall. The purple heart is separate. He looks at Donna Belle, and jokes, "It's my purple heart, and she wears it as costume jewelry.")

Bunker Hill was an eye opener for me because I was 20 years old when that happened. So many guys around me were killed right away, some later. It should have happened to me, but I somehow got away. It's like playing poker, I got my money and I'm now playing with their chips. So I'm already ahead of the game. Over 55 years of playing with their chips. It's amazing I came out of it.

I was raised Jewish. I don't believe in any religion. I see all the problems being caused today by different beliefs. I think my lack of faith was sealed in on May 11, 1945, when I saw all those guys around me, with 5 lb. shells on their feet, dead bodies floating in the water ... But those are just my beliefs.

How long have you and Donna Belle been married?
Oh, I don't know, about five years tops. We both have previous marriages and have dozens of dozens of grandchildren. Donna Belle had five grandsons and finally got a girl.

I know what I wanted to show you (reaches into his back room). This is the most important part of this interview. (He returns with his "TrashBuster" t-shirt.) There were these little kids waiting for the bus. and they watch me every morning as I go jogging by. So one day I said, "good morning, ladies." They said, "We're not ladies, we're girls!" I said, "O.k., girls, how ya doin'?" They were about in the fourth or fifth grade. They said, "how come you pickin' up all that trash?"

I said, "It's interesting you should ask me that, because I used to ask my mother the same thing in front of my house in Memphis Tennessee at 1955 Poplar Street. I said, "Mama, how come you're picking up all that trash?" And she said, "Billy honey, I live here." So that's the purpose of this shirt. "Because I live here." Bill Gordon, TrashBuster. I told (Euclid) Mayor Oyaski about it; he'd offered to buy the shirts, but I was able to get them donated from Daffy Dan's. Home Depot donated the trash bags, and Thomas Jefferson Elementary School, where Miss Watson is the principal, is where the girls go to school. The kids put on their little t-shirts, and we all go out 15 minutes before school on Mondays and pick up trash. Maybe people all over the country want to do this.

Isn't that a great legacy my mother left? "Because I live here." You silly goose. You can't just throw something on the ground.

Where does your name Smoochie come from?
I was doing a show in Memphis, and MCA Music Corporation said they needed a tape for one of my shows. They said, "We want you to come to New York and be a big star because we know that you can talk and talk and say nothing forever." I said, "That's right."

So I put Sarah Vaughn's record in 78 on, "I Feel So Smoochie." At the end if the song I said, "Hey it's 5:00, we've gotta get out of here. Thanks, Sarah for singing that song, it was so nice. And by the way, Sarah and anyone else, (simulates a smacking kiss), stay "smoochie." I forgot about it. I sent the tapes to New York and never thought about it. MCA called me and told me they couldn't get me in New York, but that they had a gig for me in Cleveland.

So I drove to Cleveland from Memphis with my then-wife and two little children, Chris and Bill, on August 7, 1950. As I drove into town in that yellow Pontiac with the Indian on the hood-it lit up at night-I didn't know where I was. I drove past this long, skinny billboard that had a caricature of a person upside down. It said, "He'll turn the town upside down. Smoochie." I paid no attention to it.

Then I got to this great big building, the Terminal Tower. I got out of the car with the wife and kids. I said, "How do I find this station called WHK?" They came out of the window above Higbees. Lou Oswald, the first guy I ever met in town, said, "Hey, Smoochie!" I got up there and said, "what are you guys talking about?" He asked, "don't you sign off as "Smoochie"? I said, "Once I did." But that's what they picked up on. Even today, people say to me, a 77-year old man, "Stay Smoochie!"

How did you get on the radio?
Navy. And before that I was in high school. I was the only Jew in a Christian school. Every day I got beat up. Then I started to tell jokes. And they stopped, 'cause they liked my jokes.

What do you look for when you sit down with someone?
The name of the program is "Can We Talk It Over?" We just sit and talk. I don't plan it out. My producer gets the people. I interview them for 25 or 35 minutes. I want to talk about that Segue Machine soon; it's going to be bigger than computers. I hope I'm alive long enough to get one of those machines. It's a form of transportation that you stand on. It's done in such a way you can't lose your balance. It will also eliminate a lot of car traffic.

Have you kept with the technology?
I love anything digital. I can't live without my computer. How did I ever live without a computer, I'll never know. I'm glad I'm here. So many of my friends-they're brilliant-don't want to go on computers.

Are you a vegetarian?
Oh yeah, for 30 years. In fact, I can't remember the last time I had any animal products at all. I do it strictly for practical reasons. I know what I can digest.

What led to you becoming such a health nut?
It started out with an interview I had with Adele Davis. I had a program, "Apartment 13," it was really great, broadcast from my apartment at 30th and Euclid. I'd interview all these people who'd written all these books on health and nutrition. I picked up something from all of these different health books. I have been a health nut, as opposed to being a disease nut, which most people are.

We keep treating the symptom and not the cause. The cause is the groceries; that's what causing all the problems. It's SAD: the Standard American Diet. It's screwed up, we're not biologically meant to eat that stuff and that's why we have all these problems, like "Arthur," as my mother used to call arthritis. They have that and heart attacks and cholesterol. McDonald's reign supreme. It's a shame. People judge health by length of time you live rather than quality. I'd rather die at 48 and feel great than live to 93 and have all sorts of problems.

My little TrashBusters wanted me to buy them candy yesterday morning. I told them absolutely not. I was so frustrated they would even want that for breakfast.

What are your views on aging?
I want this interview to be different from your other (MythBusters). I'm not like anybody else. I'm just plain old Bill Gordon. I'm not an actor, this is the way I am.

I don't like to be interviewed. I was wondering: What the hell am I going to tell those people from Benjamin Rose? If anybody wants the answer in one word, I can summarize the secret to staying young at heart in one word-I decided today while jogging-ENTHUSIASM. People get old when they lose their enthusiasm.

Yesterday Donna Belle and I went to see an old friend who used to live in this building. He's in a nursing home now, in a wheelchair. He's 97. I said, "Joe, are you going to go for 100?" He said, "Oh, yeah." That's it: It's not a question of how long you live. It's how you live.

With aging, you have to go through stages of life. What's that September song? "The days whittle down to precious few, September, October, November..." There's nothing wrong with aging. You're at the end of the trail; this is where you should be. I quote Satchel Paige: "Don't look back, something may be gaining on you."

What is aging?
You're born and you die. You're young, then you're middle aged and then you're old. And I'm old. I'm not trying to be young. To me old people are so silly when they talk about trying to be 22 years old. Old age is not for sissies. My mother saw that when I had to put her in the B'nai Brith home. She said, "Billy, you know, that's true; it is hard work."

You've got to live and laugh at it all.