Steve Allen

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Allen was born in New York City, the only child of a husband-and-wife vaudeville comedy team. His father died when he was an infant, and he was raised on the South Side of Chicago largely by his mother's Irish Catholic family. After leaving Arizona State Teachers College as a sophomore, he got his first radio job at station KOY in Phoenix, Arizona. He enlisted in the U.S. Army during World War II in 1943 but received a medical discharge after five months due to frequent asthma attacks. Allen gained national attention in early January 1951 as a guest host on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, where he comically prepared Lipton tea and soup on camera and poured both into a cup or pot. In 1954, he achieved further national fame as the co-creator and first host of The Tonight Show, which was the first late-night nationwide television talk show. He went on to host numerous game and variety shows, including 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? from 1953 and returned frequently until 1967. 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 prolific composer, writing more than 8,500 songs by his own estimate. He 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, with his final book being Vulgarians at the Gate: Trash TV and Raunch Radio (2001). In 1996, he received the Martin Gardner Lifetime Achievement Award from the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and The Steve Allen Theater in Hollywood named in his honor.

Reader's Guide

Steve Allen's significance lies in his role as a foundational figure in late-night television. As the co-creator and first host of The Tonight Show, he established the format of late-night talk shows, pioneering 'man on the street' comedic interviews and audience-participation comedy breaks that became staples of the genre. His career spanned radio, television, music, and writing, demonstrating versatility across entertainment media. Allen's influence extended to prime-time variety shows, game shows, and public broadcasting, where his series Meeting of Minds blended historical drama with talk-show format. His prolific songwriting, including a Grammy-winning composition, and his authorship of over 50 books further underscore his wide-ranging creative output. Allen's legacy is preserved through his Hollywood Walk of Fame stars and the theater named in his honor, reflecting his enduring impact on American popular culture.

Did You Know?

• Allen wrote more than 8,500 songs by his own estimate, winning the 1964 Grammy Award for Best Original Jazz Composition for 'Gravy Waltz.'
• In early January 1951, as a last-minute guest host on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, Allen comically prepared Lipton tea and soup on camera and poured both into a cup or pot.

From Radio to the Late-Night Stage

Steve Allen's path from a small Phoenix radio station to the co-creation of The Tonight Show in 1954 remains one of the most remarkable arcs in American broadcasting. After leaving Arizona State Teachers College as a sophomore to take a job at station KOY, he eventually landed on the Mutual Broadcasting System in 1946, where he talked his way into a five-nights-a-week comedy program called Smile Time. A move to CBS Radio's KNX in Los Angeles proved transformative: his half-hour music-and-talk slot gradually stretched into an hour-long late-night format that drew standing-room-only studio audiences. His first taste of a national television audience came in January 1951, when he stepped in as guest host on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. By 1954 he had become the co-creator and first host of The Tonight Show, the first late-night nationwide television talk show. He went on to helm I've Got a Secret, The Steve Allen Show, and The New Steve Allen Show, while serving as a regular panelist on What's My Line? from 1953 until the series concluded in 1967. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he wrote, produced, and hosted Meeting of Minds, an award-winning public broadcasting series presenting historical dramas in a conversational talk format.

The Prolific Composer and Author

Behind the television persona, Allen was a dedicated pianist and one of the most prolific songwriters in American entertainment. By his own estimate, he composed more than 8,500 songs over the course of his career, many of which were recorded by leading vocalists of the era. His creative range extended to lyric writing as well, as evidenced by 'Gravy Waltz,' for which he penned both the melody and the words. That piece earned him the 1964 Grammy Award for Best Original Jazz Composition, a distinction that affirmed his standing within the jazz world. His literary output was equally vast: Allen authored more than 50 books spanning novels, children's literature, and collections of personal opinions. His final published work, Vulgarians at the Gate: Trash TV and Raunch Radio, appeared in 2001, a year after his death in October 2000, offering a pointed critique of the media landscape he had helped shape decades earlier. This extraordinary breadth of creative work, from jazz compositions to children's stories to sharp cultural commentary, reveals a mind that refused to be confined to any single genre or medium.

Two Moments That Changed Everything

Two seemingly modest episodes in Allen's early career would reshape his entire trajectory. In 1949, he answered an advertisement seeking a television announcer for professional wrestling. Knowing nothing about the sport, he watched a few bouts to prepare, only to discover that announcers lacked consistent names for the holds. He improvised his own terminology on the fly, and once the first match got under way, he launched into comedic ad-libs that had spectators outside the arena cracking up. Lines comparing a nelson to a 'half-nelson or an Ozzie Nelson' became legendary. The second defining moment arrived in early January 1951, when Arthur Godfrey was unable to appear on his hugely popular Talent Scouts. Allen was pressed into last-minute guest hosting duty. He took one of Godfrey's live Lipton tea and soup commercials and turned it upside down, brewing tea and instant soup on camera before pouring both into Godfrey's iconic ukulele. The audience erupted, and Godfrey himself, watching from Miami, was thoroughly entertained. Variety editors who saw the broadcast declared him a natural for the big time, and the performance catapulted him into the national spotlight.

A Legacy Etched in Hollywood and Beyond

Steve Allen's influence on American entertainment reaches well past the shows he hosted. He holds two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the Steve Allen Theater in Hollywood bears his name as a permanent tribute to his contributions to the industry. In 1996, the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSICOP) presented him with the Martin Gardner Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing his broader contributions to public discourse and skeptical thinking. His final book, published posthumously in 2001, Vulgarians at the Gate: Trash TV and Raunch Radio, served as a pointed critique of the lowbrow media environment that had largely supplanted the thoughtful variety programming he helped pioneer. His early innovation of walking into a studio audience with a microphone to ad-lib on air became a commonplace feature of live television performance for many years. The names he coined for wrestling holds in 1949 remain in use to this day. From the very format of late-night talk television to the casual audience interaction that defines modern hosting, Allen's fingerprints are visible across the medium he helped build.