Inventing Late Night: Steve Allen and the Original Tonight Show [Hardcover]

Ben Alba (Author), Jay Leno (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2005

"If you have ever turned on the TV after the 11 o'clock news and laughed, you owe Steve Allen a debt of gratitude." That's how "Entertainment Weekly" described Steve Allen's enormous contribution to American popular culture in a tribute to the legendary entertainer after his death on October 30, 2000. Steve Allen created the "Tonight" show - America's longest running entertainment show and most successful late-night TV show. In so doing he led the way for other American icons: Johnny Carson, Jack Paar, David Letterman, and Jay Leno. The formula we all now take for granted did not exist before Allen: the desk, the opening monologue, breezy chats with celebrities, wacky stunts, comedy sketches, cameras roaming down the hall and outside the theatre, off-the-cuff interviews with passers-by, and ad-lib banter with the studio audience. It's all great fun and it's all due to the incredibly witty, incurably silly, musically gifted, and ever-likeable Steve Allen. Based on exclusive interviews, Ben Alba has produced this wonderful history of the first "Tonight" show, complete with terrific photos from the show and revealing insights from over 30 entertainment legends who knew and worked with Steve Allen - including Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, Jonathan Winters, Don Knotts, Louis Nye, Tom Poston, Bill Dana, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, Andy Williams, Tim Conway, the Smothers Brothers, Diahann Carroll, Eartha Kitt, Bill Dana, and Doc Severinsen. In addition, Jay Leno, David Letterman, Bill Maher, Bob Costas, and other TV veterans reflect on Allen's contributions. Starting with Allen's early career in radio, Alba shows how the young radio talent developed many of the elements that would soon light up late-night television. He then highlights Allen's many innovations that made the "Tonight" show so appealing and enduring: the single-guest and single theme shows, road shows and live segments from across the country, Broadway shows visiting "Tonight", creating a forum for jazz artistry and a groundbreaking showcase for African-American talent, musical tributes, and the use of the studio audience as a comedy goldmine. Alba has created an invaluable, entertaining, and revealing behind-the-scenes look at the birth of an American television institution and its brilliant inventor, whose influence continues to make America stay awake and laugh - night after night.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Lest anyone think that late-night TV's zany characters and stunts began with Johnny, Jay or Dave, this love letter to original Tonight host Steve Allen will set them straight. Alba's portrait depicts Allen as a ground-breaking force in television whose brief stint (1954-57) on NBC's late-night show had a lasting influence on late night TV. Allen comes across as both a regular Joe and a multitalented Renaissance man whose knack for ad-libbing with audiences, loosely scripted gags and improvisational piano-playing in the days of live TV were as nimble as his commitment to progressive social causes. (Imagine Leno or Letterman devoting segments to discussions of drug abuse or organized crime.) Although only a few episodes of the Allen-era Tonight have survived, this book commendably captures the show's flavor in front of the camera and behind the scenes. That's largely thanks to interviews with Allen prior to his 2000 death and his numerous cohorts and admirers: Tonight producer Bill Harbach; regulars Steve Lawrence and Andy Williams; Don Knotts, Tim Conway and Tom Poston from Allen's prime-time variety series; and longtime friends Sid Caesar and Carl Reiner. Highlights include a blow-by-blow comparison between some of Allen's gags and those later adapted by Johnny Carson and others. The book would benefit from better structuring, and more than a few quotes are repetitious, continually praising Allen's wit and innovation without adding any fresh examples. Like Allen, whose sharp wit and genial demeanor appealed to a wide audience, Alba's detailed homage should resonate with a wide array of readers. 32 pages of b&w photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Steve Allen--not Johnny Carson, not Jack Paar--was the progenitor of the late-night TV yapfest, and Alba's tribute to his pioneering includes current midnight-oil-burning rivals Leno and Letterman acknowledging their indebtedness. Less known than his trailblazing is the fact that Allen was instrumental in bringing African American stars to network TV. On the other hand, and seemingly incongruous with championing black entertainers, hisTonight Show writers included Bill Dana, whose Jose Jimenez performing persona was a long-lived example of another kind of racial stereotyping in TV comedy. Also a dedicated jazz fan, Allen introduced a soupcon of hipness to TV, too, that for many was mitigated, however, by such tiresome routines as his dramatic readings of the lyrics of "Be-Bop-A-Lula" and other rock songs. Yet he perceptively interviewed an eclectic roster of guests. A complicated guy. Including the history of the Tonight Show band from Skitch Henderson to Doc Severinsen, this is great stuff for broadcasting and pop-culture collections, though sufficiently conversational and nostalgia-soaked for nonspecialist readers. Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books (October 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591023424
• ISBN-13: 978-1591023425
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,005,322 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inventing Late Night, August 8, 2006

By 

Randall E. Jeffery - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Inventing Late Night: Steve Allen and the Original Tonight Show (Hardcover)

I normally read a book in about one week. It took me a day and a half to read "Inventing Late Night" - I could not put it down! Ben Alba's book is hilarious, insightful, impeccably researched, sensitive and portrays an accurate accounting of the genesis of late night TV. He gives full credit to the genius of Steve Allen and is loaded with transcripts from many of Allen's side-splitting comedy bits. As a fan of Allen for over fifty years, I've read every accounting possible concerning his numerous contributions to TV. None is more poignant, dead on precise, humorous and intelligent than Alba's "Inventing Late Night".

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars learning from the masters, December 2, 2005

By 

Richard D. Connolly "PIANO GUY IN NYC" (STATEN ISLAND NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Inventing Late Night: Steve Allen and the Original Tonight Show (Hardcover)

Ben Alba has written a masterpiece that magically brings you back to the roots of television entertainment.
I beleive that this book will not only remind older readers why they enjoyed Steve Allen & Company (what company!) but young readers will be left with a new appreciation of all those who have followed. It won't be long into this book before you realize that Leno, Letterman & Conan and many others did learn from the master.. Steve Allen.
The musical talents that were part of this show from the beginning all went on to long successful careers. This powerful musical ensemble included Doc Severinsen, Steve Lawrence, Eydie Gorme' and Andy Williams...
In Summary: A must read book will remind us how much enjoyment Steve Allen brought to our era and bring a hightened appreciation for all the shows that have followed.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great, Refreshing Read, October 5, 2005

By 

Daniel E. Ursini (Chicago, IL (USA)) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Inventing Late Night: Steve Allen and the Original Tonight Show (Hardcover)

"Inventing Late Night: Steve Allen and the Original Tonight Show," by Ben Alba evokes an exceptionally rich chapter in the history of popular culture even as it restores recognition to the accomplishments of host Steve Allen and his many gifted collaborators. "Inventing," is indeed the operative term. At that time, there were many blank areas in the tv program schedule, including late night; and the "national" network, in an early stage of growth, had yet to extend beyond the Eastern Seaboard. Under Steve Allen's direction, the Tonight Show was the first network program to create a late night viewership; the revenues it brought in encouraged the spread of the network across the nation. That same success afforded host Allen much creative freedom in both the format and content of his show. The former has pop culture iconic status: opening monologue; celebrity interviews at the desk; roaming cameras; insane stunts. However, the content of the show, rarely imitated, has arguably never been matched by any tv program in the range of its appeal to the mind.

A decade ago, the Lounge revival in music inspired a healthy reassessment of artists like Louie Prima, Keely Smith, as well as towering icons as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr. It is intriguing to read about performers who were every bit as spontaneous, witty and jazzy as the rat packers; but who were from another world - that of New York City when high culture was still vibrant, every other layer of culture had its own appealing energy; and central to it all was nightlife. Many of the most stimulating artists of the 20th century appeared on Allen's prototypical Tonight Show. Jazz immortals like Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus and Thelonius Monk did extended sets. Occasional programs were devoted to a particular songwriter, with the composer himself at the piano -- including Richard Rodgers, Johny Mercer and others. Vocals were provided a fabulous small group of resident singers that included Andy Williams, Steve Lawrence, and Eydie Gorme. Though Steve Allen was a young man during his Tonight Show years, he displayed inspired judgment time and again. He is revealed as an exceptionally creative person who was intrigued by the immediacy and intimacy of the television medium - especially its stastonishing capacity to transmit an addictive antic energy. He also comes through as a fully principled individual unafraid to take on serious issues like capital punishment and organized crime.



Author Alba writes in an engaging, transparent style. He has a mindful yet breezy perspective perfect for his subject matter. His book is filled with interviews with key figures from the early Tonight Show in which they are candid and fresh and sharp in their recollections. Though recurring editing problems are a minor annoyance, the book is a fully refreshing history of a show that provided virtually everybody connected with it with the best time in their lives.