Inventing Late Night:
Steve Allen and the Original Tonight Show
Before Jay, Johnny, or Jack,
there was Steve. It was Steve Allen who in 1954 created the Tonight
show, a pop culture institution that has become
Steve Allen invented this
formula. He revolutionized
Now, for the first time, the true story of how Tonight developed under Allen’s innovative leadership is told by the people who were there over fifty years ago, including members of the original production team, the first Tonight regulars, and Allen’s colleagues. In exclusive interviews, more than thirty of these entertainment legends share their insights about Allen and early television—including Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, Jonathan Winters, Don Knotts, Doc Severinsen, Louis Nye, Tom Poston, Bill Dana, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, Andy Williams, Tim Conway, the Smothers Brothers, Pat Harrington Jr., Diahann Carroll, Eartha Kitt, Bobby Short, Skitch Henderson, director Dwight Hemion, writer Larry Gelbart, and Allen’s widow, Jayne Meadows. In addition, the reflections of industry giants such as Jay Leno, David Letterman, Bill Maher, Bob Costas, Ed McMahon, Dick Clark, and others confirm Allen’s extraordinary influence.
Although the late-night template Allen pioneered still flourishes today, certain unique aspects of his Tonight show sprang from his desire to expose audiences to matters of cultural and social importance. A jazz aficionado and pianist, he launched a forum for jazz artistry with an array of artists from Louis Armstrong and Count Basie to Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald. Driven by his social conscience, he created a groundbreaking showcase for performers of color during an era when they were seldom seen on television, and he even tackled controversial topics like organized crime and the death penalty, sometimes at great professional and personal risk. On Tonight and on his 1956–60 NBC prime-time series, Allen’s keen eye for talent gave an enormous boost to future icons like Jonathan Winters, Jack Kerouac, Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, Jackie Mason, Elvis Presley, and the Muppets.
Inventing Late Night is
an invaluable, entertaining, and revealing behind-the-scenes look at the
birth of an original American art form and its brilliant inventor, whose
influence continues to make
Ben Alba is an author, a trial lawyer, a law professor,
a musician, and a classic television buff. He teaches legal writing and
co-directs the bar passage program at DePaul University College of Law in