Gorby 2: Audacious Impostor

Los Angeles Times
December 4, 1987
“In Turning it Around, You Might Say Gorbachev Looks Like Ronald Knapp: He Could Cause Tremblin in the Kremlin.”

In December of 1988, Mikhail Gorbachev, Secretary General of the Soviet Union, came to address the United Nations. Ronald Knapp went to New York for one day to do a segment on Fox TV with Gordon Elliott’s "Good Day, New York." Fox thought it would be fun to see what would happen if they took Gorby 2 to New Jersey knocking on doors the same day Gorbachev was arriving. He was so successful that Fox said, "Let's hire limos and turn him loose on New York- totally unplanned and serendipitous. The Gorbachev motorcade was on one street, and Gorby 2 was on another. Gorby 2 shook hands with 100,000 New Yorkers who thought they shook hands with Gorbachev. The prime moment was when Donald Trump came out of Trump Tower to greet him in front of about 5000 people. The Fox TV cameras captured it for the evening news on Maury Povich’s “Current Affairs.” Trump denied he had been fooled, but New Yorkers were convinced otherwise. Gorby 2 had 2200 media write-ups overnight and raised the Nielson rating for Fox TV 7 points in one day. When the Armenian Earthquake happened, the Gorbachevs returned to the Soviet Union. All kinds of events had been planned for their visit. Gorby 2 filled in and ended up staying in NYC for 18 days. Everywhere he went in Manhattan, people would stop him on the street and say, "You're the guy who got Trump." This was just the beginning of the outrageous adventures he shares in this book.