![]() 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. ![]() It ran until 1952, after which CBS tried several different formats to showcase Allen's talent. The new show required him to relocate, with his family, from Los Angeles to New York. on Christmas Day, 1950, and was later moved to a thirty-minute, early evening slot. The Steve Allen Show premiered at 11 a.m. Īfter 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. Now the boys go into a double pretzel bend with variations on a theme by Veloz and Yolanda. Leone gives Smith a full nelson now, slipping it up from either a half-nelson or an Ozzie Nelson. After the first match got underway, Allen began ad-libbing in a comedic style that had audiences outside the arena laughing. 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. 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.Īllen's first television experience came in 1949, when he answered an advertisement for a television announcer for professional wrestling. This became a commonplace part of his studio performances for many years. ĭuring a show's segment, Allen went into the audience with a microphone to ad lib on the air for the first time. 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. Afterward, he returned to Phoenix, before moving back to California.Ĭareer Early career Radio The handprints of Allen in front of Hollywood Hills Amphitheater at Walt Disney World's Disney's Hollywood Studios theme parkĪllen 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. He served his enlistment period at Camp Roberts, California. He enlisted in the United States Army during World War II and was trained as an infantryman. Īllen'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. Milton Berle called Allen's mother "the funniest woman in vaudeville."Īllen ran away from home at 16 and described in interviews the ease with which he descended into begging. He was raised on the South Side of Chicago largely by his mother's Irish Catholic family. Early life Īllen was born in New York City, son of Billy (Carroll Abler) and Isabelle Allen (née Donohue), a husband-and-wife vaudeville comedy team. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a Hollywood theater named in his honor. In 1996, Allen was presented with the Martin Gardner Lifetime Achievement Award from the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSICOP). 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). Allen won the 1964 Grammy Award for Best Original Jazz Composition for "Gravy Waltz," for which he wrote the lyrics. By his own estimate, he wrote more than 8,500 songs, some of which were recorded by numerous leading singers. ![]() 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.Īllen was a pianist and a prolific composer. ![]() 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 gained national attention as a guest host on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. Though he got his start in radio, Allen is best known for his extensive network television career. 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. Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen (December 26, 1921 – October 30, 2000) was an American television and radio personality, comedian, musician, composer, writer and actor.
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