Name: Steve Allen Talks About How "The Tonight Show" Started | Letterman
Uploaded: 2022-02-01T16:05:47.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Steve Allen Talks About How "The Tonight Show" Started | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-02-01. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Steve Allen Talks About How "The Tonight Show" Started | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-02-01. Transcript available.

Nice to see you, sir.
Thank you. It's nice to be seen.
Thank you very much for being here. I certainly appreciate it.
This time slot is now an hour later than the one that you started in, isn't it?
So it would appear, yes.
What I meant by that was the original Tonight Show came on here at 11.30.
Yes, live. As a matter of fact, at one point we were starting at 11.15
because it had been a local show before it was a network show
and we still had to do 50 minutes of that and then the 90 minutes,
which adds up to a lot of minutes.
Now, what did you do before the Tonight Show? How did you get the job?
I had done essentially the same sort of things on CBS for three or four years
and for CBS and radio in Los Angeles.
Now, what was occupying that space before the Tonight Show came on?
There was a show called Broadway Open House and before that, I don't know.
I wasn't in New York before that.
And what kinds of things were you doing?
Because everybody says to you, Steve Allen is the one who started this
particular form.
That's just because I did it first.
Seriously.
If you had done it first, you would have done that same kind of stuff.
But what were you doing?
You had a...
Sort of like what you do here.
I would go out with the studio audience with a hand mic sometimes and talk to
people.
I would read letters, as you just did, from...
As a matter of fact, you're under arrest.
No, it would...
Sometimes, seriously, people say, you know, hey, you did that stuff and then
other people...
It was actually because I was there first because I think everybody would have
gotten around
to the same general kinds of things on this lucid show.
And we have some press releases that I inadvertently left in my office.
Oh, here they are now.
Speaking of inadvertent...
Press releases of what?
About what?
About the press.
About the original Tonight Show.
And I wanted to ask you a couple of questions about the show.
First here, it makes reference to your band leader, Skitch Henderson.
Yes.
And it said that he had grown a beard that became a fad among college boys, and
they called
their beards Skitchers.
That has never previously been brought to my attention, but I have no reason to
contest the...
Talk about being under arrest.
Also, Gene Rayburn had hepatitis.
Yes, I recall that.
Yeah.
He's better now.
But he...
Says that on page two.
But he did the weather.
Yes.
I must explain that.
The show was an enormous hit during its first year, during which, I repeat, it
was a local
program.
It was a smash.
And because it was a smash, the NBC people said, we must put this fine program
on the
network.
So I said, fine.
Who's going to stop you?
And then they said, however, we think we should make a few changes.
And I said, changes in a hit?
And they said, yes.
I said, what do you have in mind?
Because you should always keep your mind open.
Now, the show was 90 minutes of rip-roaring comedy, right?
And that's why they wanted to put it on the network.
So they said, well, we thought a nice weather report.
That's true.
I said, you mean a funny, a musical weather report, a musical report with naked
women or
something?
And they said, no, just a straight weather report.
That's so strange.
Yeah.
And believe it or not, for a few weeks, they actually had a weather report
which would stop
everything in its tracks.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then they finally got embarrassed and stopped that.
So you were actually lucky that Rayburn came down with hepatitis.
In the long run, it turned out that way.
They had another thing they insisted on having was ski condition reports.
Yeah.
Now, not even today, very many American skis, statistically speaking.
And in 1954, there were about nine skiers in the whole country.
It's valuable for places like Oklahoma, Kansas, that area.
You're the only guest who has ever brought his own noisemakers, and I certainly
appreciate
that.
Well, the least I can do.
As a matter of fact, there are more here than noisemakers.
I do impressions.
I don't know if that's ever been brought to your attention.
No, it has not.
Would you like to see one?
I certainly would.
All right.
That will require a close-up of the table surface in this area.
And as soon as I see a close-up, I'll go into my first impression, ladies and
gentlemen.
You ready?
Okay.
My impression of Claude Rains in The Invisible Man, ladies and gentlemen.
That's amazing.
Truly amazing.
Now, do you actually, as a grown human adult, do you travel with these things?
Yes.
Do you pull them out in other occasions?
Rarely, but there was a reason, a rationale of why we did that originally.
I happened to be present when television first started to get dirty.
Television now is dirty.
Occasionally, there's a little clean stuff on it, but not too often.
And when I first noticed that happening, I thought, I must take a position
against this.
You must fight the whatever.
Fight the filth.
Yeah.
So, that's good.
Thank you.
Fight the filth.
So, anyway, I had a police whistle at one time, but a policeman stole it, which
is another
problem.
And then, when anybody would say anything off-color, I'd go, here now.
That's right.
And if something was really raunchy, I would lay a little on them.
Yeah.
But that sounded like I was approving it, so that didn't work out too well.
Well, it's wonderful work, and I'm proud to be associated with the man who's
doing it.
As an adult, well, you were an adult then, but would you be jumping into Jell-O
these
days?
I would not consider it beneath my dignity.
Anything for a laugh is my motto.
Oh, is it really?
Yeah.
What can I tell you?
No.
I don't know.
There must be something that would be beneath my dignity, but there is a
separate part of
me that is basically Jell-O jumping something.
Yeah.
There's something about watching you jump into a vat of Jell-O that makes it
seem okay, whereas
I can think of other folks getting into Jell-O, and you'd go, oh, this is
cartoon time.
It's too silly if Jerry Lewis jumped into Jell-O, you mean.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
I see what you mean.
Or Rosalind Carter, even.
It wouldn't work.
And she used to be one of the best.
That's true.
But it's my Eric Severide side that makes it seem inappropriate for me to be
jumping into Jell-O,
and hence.
I'm sorry.
This is going to be one of the most awkward transitions anyone has ever made in
North American
television, but I'm going to do it nonetheless.
This book that you have recently authored, Beloved Son, A Story of the Jesus Cults,
what
can you tell us of this work?
Well, I can tell you it's for sale in bookstores all across this great land of
ours, as you were
saying.
Now, it is a serious book, although there are some laughs in it, largely
because I relate
some of the amusing things that my son, Brian, who is now an adult of 35, said
when he was
growing up.
He used to say funny things.
And about 11 years ago, seriously, I got a letter from my son telling me that
he had changed
his name and had joined a religious community and was turning his back on the
world, which
we assumed meant us, and at that time, which did.
So, the book is the story of the last 11 years of our relationship and how it
has evolved.
And then I draw back and take a broader view of many of the religious cults, as
they're
called.
Now, this was a common experience for a lot of people and may still be.
It still is.
Yes.
Thousands of families are affected.
Brian's group happens to be a rather small one, only maybe 250 or 300 people,
but there
are large groups, the Scientologists, the Hare Krishna, the Munis, and so forth,
children of
God.
Yeah.
And that must have been a devastation for you at the time, huh?
Well, the part of it that hurt was his, as I say, saying goodbye to us,
apparently permanently,
although that turned out not to be the case, fortunately.
We took no real exception on principle to his religious conversion.
We are a Christian family ourselves, and we knew nothing about his religion, so
we could
be neither for it or against it in the early stages.
But it's too long to go into here.
But anyway, that's what the book deals with.
Okay.
And you're at Michael's Pub in New York City for anyone planning a vacation?
Yes, for those of you who do.
Well, actually, there's no sense plugging that.
I don't think you can get in.
I'm only there for three more nights, and they're sold out.
But it's been more fun than I've had doing anything in a long time.
Terrific.
Just playing jazz and having a lot of fun.
Fist fights, a lot of drinking?
Oh, yeah.
Several people pass out cold in the men's room every night.
I'm always excited to be with you anywhere, and I appreciate you being here
with us tonight.
My pleasure.
Thank you.