Steve Allen (other)

Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen (December 26, 1921 – October 30, 2000) was an American television personality, radio personality, musician, composer, actor, comedian, and writer. In 1954, he achieved national fame as the co-creator and first host of '' The Tonight Show'', which was the first late-night television talk show.

Though he got his start in radio, Allen is best known for his extensive network television career. He gained national attention as a guest host on '' Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts.'' After he hosted '' The Tonight Show'', he went on to host numerous game and variety shows, including his own '' The Steve Allen Show'', ''I've Got a Secret'', and ''The New Steve Allen Show''. He was a regular panel member on CBS's '' What's My Line?'' and, from 1977 until 1981, he wrote, produced, and hosted the award-winning public broadcasting show '' Meeting of Minds'', a series of historical dramas presented in a talk format.

Allen was a pianist and a prolific composer. By his own estimate, he wrote more than 8,500 songs, some of which were recorded by numerous leading singers. Working as a lyricist, Allen won the 1964 Grammy Award for Best Original Jazz Composition, for "Gravy Waltz," for which he wrote the lyrics. He also wrote more than 50 books, including novels, children's books, and books of opinions, including his final book, ''Vulgarians at the Gate: Trash TV and Raunch Radio'' (2001).

In 1996, Allen was presented with the Martin Gardner Lifetime Achievement Award from the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSICOP). He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a Hollywood theater named in his honor.

Early life

Allen was born in New York City, son of Billy (Carroll Abler) and Isabelle Allen (née Donohue), a husband-and-wife vaudeville comedy team. His father died when he was an infant. He was raised on the South Side of Chicago largely by his mother's Irish Catholic family. Milton Berle called Allen's mother "the funniest woman in vaudeville."

Allen ran away from home at 16 and described in interviews the ease with which he descended into begging.

Allen's first radio job was on station KOY, in Phoenix, Arizona, after he left Arizona State Teachers College (now Arizona State University), in Tempe, while a sophomore. He enlisted in the United States Army during World War II and was trained as an infantryman. He served his enlistment period at Camp Roberts, California. Afterward, he returned to Phoenix, before moving back to California.

Career

Early career

Radio

Allen became an announcer for radio KFAC in Los Angeles, then moved to the Mutual Broadcasting System in 1946, talking the station into airing his five-nights-a-week comedy show ''Smile Time'', co-starring Wendell Noble. After Allen moved to CBS Radio's KNX in Los Angeles, his music-and-talk half-hour format gradually changed to include more talk in an hour-long late-night format, boosting his popularity and creating standing-room-only studio audiences.

During a show's segment, Allen went into the audience with a microphone to ad lib on the air for the first time. This became a commonplace part of his studio performances for many years. His program attracted a huge local following; as the host of a 1950 summer replacement show for the popular comedy '' Our Miss Brooks'', he found himself in front of a national audience for the first time.

Television

Allen's first television experience came in 1949, when he answered an advertisement for a television announcer for professional wrestling. Knowing nothing about wrestling, he watched some shows to gain insight and discovered that the announcers did not have well defined names for the wrestling holds: when he got the job, he created names for many of the holds, some of which still are in use. After the first match got underway, Allen began ad-libbing in a comedic style that had audiences outside the arena laughing. An example:

After CBS radio gave Allen a weekly prime time show, CBS television believed he could be groomed for national television stardom and gave him his first network show. ''The Steve Allen Show'' premiered at 11 a.m. on Christmas Day, 1950, and was later moved to a thirty-minute, early evening slot. The new show required him to relocate, with his family, from Los Angeles to New York. It ran until 1952, after which CBS tried several different formats to showcase Allen's talent.Ben Alba, ''Inventing Late Night: Steve Allen and the Original Tonight Show'' (Prometheus Books, 2005), pp. 40–42

He achieved national attention in early January 1951, when he was pressed into last-minute service to guest host the hugely popular '' Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts'' when Godfrey was unable to appear. He turned one of Godfrey's live Lipton tea and soup commercials upside down, preparing tea and instant soup on camera, then pouring both into Godfrey's iconic ukulele. With the audience (including Godfrey, watching from Miami) laughing uproariously and thoroughly entertained, Allen gained major plaudits both as a comedian and as a host. ''Variety'' magazine editors who had seen the show wrote, "One of the most hilarious one-man comedy sequences projected over the TV cameras in many a day ... The guy's a natural for the big time."

Allen also was a regular on the popular panel television game show '' What's My Line?'' from 1953 to 1954, and returned frequently as a panelist

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