# Steve Allen
**Steve Allen** (Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen; December 26, 1921 – October 30, 2000) was an American comedian, composer, pianist, author, and television personality who created and hosted the original *Tonight* show, establishing the late-night talk show format that later hosts built on. Born in New York City into a vaudeville family, he worked in radio before moving to television, where his career spanned more than fifty years.[1](https://www.emmys.com/bios/steve-allen) • [2](https://aspace.lib.asu.edu/repositories/3/resources/727)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Full name and dates | Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen; born December 26, 1921, New York City; died October 30, 2000, Encino, California[1](https://www.emmys.com/bios/steve-allen) |
| Signature achievement | First host of *The Tonight Show*; he launched a local Manhattan late-night show in June 1953, and NBC took the format national in 1954[3](https://time.com/3599738/stephen-colbert-report-david-letterman-late-show/) • [1](https://www.emmys.com/bios/steve-allen) |
| Other television | *The Steve Allen Show* (1956-1960 on NBC), the game show *I've Got a Secret*, and the PBS series *Meeting of Minds* (1977-1981)[2](https://aspace.lib.asu.edu/repositories/3/resources/727) • [4](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/steve-allen/) |
| Music | Composed several thousand songs (estimates range from more than 4,000 to more than 8,500), including "This Could Be the Start of Something Big"; won the 1964 Grammy for Best Original Jazz Composition[2](https://aspace.lib.asu.edu/repositories/3/resources/727) • [1](https://www.emmys.com/bios/steve-allen) |
| Writing | Author of more than 50 books, including *Funny People* (1981) and the posthumous *Vulgarians at the Gate* (2001)[1](https://www.emmys.com/bios/steve-allen) |
| Major honors | Peabody Award for *Meeting of Minds*; Television Academy Hall of Fame (1986); two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame[5](https://peabodyawards.com/award-profile/personal-award-steve-allen-for-meeting-of-minds/) • [1](https://www.emmys.com/bios/steve-allen) |
| Family | Married the actress and comedienne Jayne Meadows in 1954[2](https://aspace.lib.asu.edu/repositories/3/resources/727) |
## Early life and radio
Allen was the son of Carroll and Isabelle Allen, a husband-and-wife vaudeville team. His father died before Allen reached the age of two, and he was raised on Chicago's South Side by his mother's family. His mother performed as a comedienne under the stage name Belle Montrose.[4](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/steve-allen/) • [2](https://aspace.lib.asu.edu/repositories/3/resources/727)
**Radio years.** After briefly attending [Drake University](https://www.edgepedia.org/drake-university) in Des Moines on a journalism scholarship and then Arizona State Teachers' College in Tempe, Allen left school in the fall of 1942 to become a radio announcer for KOY in Phoenix.[2](https://aspace.lib.asu.edu/repositories/3/resources/727) • [4](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/steve-allen/) He was stationed at Camp Roberts, California, during Army service and was discharged because of asthma; back in Phoenix he returned to KOY in 1943.[4](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/steve-allen/) By the late 1940s he had moved to Los Angeles, where his half-hour nighttime show of music and celebrity conversation on the CBS affiliate KNX became one of the most popular on-air offerings in the city.[4](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/steve-allen/)
His early broadcasts contained the seeds of his later television style. On his show *Breaking the Records*, bored with playing music, he broke old records instead and drew a large audience by talking without it. When the singer [Doris Day](https://www.edgepedia.org/doris-day) failed to appear as a guest, he interviewed members of the audience instead; in his own retelling, this was how he invented the talk show.[6](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/steve-allen/hi-ho-steverino/)
## The Tonight Show and the late-night format
CBS brought Allen to New York, where he hosted his own half-hour television talk show, *The Steve Allen Show*, which debuted on Christmas Day 1950.[4](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/steve-allen/) • [7](https://www.tvencyclopedia.org/tvencyclopedia/steveallen) In June 1953 he launched a late-night variety program for local Manhattan television; its relatively small but passionate audience persuaded NBC to take the concept national, and *Tonight* debuted with Allen as host in September 1954.[3](https://time.com/3599738/stephen-colbert-report-david-letterman-late-show/) • [1](https://www.emmys.com/bios/steve-allen)
The format Allen established combined a comic monologue at a desk, guest interviews, skits, and recurring characters played by a repertory cast that included Louis Nye and [Tom Poston](https://www.edgepedia.org/tom-poston). PBS's *Pioneers of Television* credits him as largely responsible for developing the late-night format, a cross between a talk show and a variety program.[4](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/steve-allen/) • [8](https://www.pbs.org/wnet/pioneers-of-television/pioneering-programs/late-night-tv/) His original *Tonight* format was broader than the later versions of the show and, in one famous stretch, took on organized crime, a segment he said later inspired part of the film *My Favorite Year*.[6](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/steve-allen/hi-ho-steverino/) • [9](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/steve-allen?clip=20775) Among the regulars who went with the show was the young singer [Steve Lawrence](https://www.edgepedia.org/steve-lawrence), hired after guest appearances on Allen's television program, who later credited the nightly variety of the work with honing his comedic skills.[10](https://apnews.com/article/0d5716adcf8a4fd0a96f3f12854212d5)
Allen left *Tonight* in early 1957 to concentrate on his other work, having split hosting duties for a time with the comic [Ernie Kovacs](https://www.edgepedia.org/ernie-kovacs). NBC experimented with other formats in the slot, and when the network returned to the talk format, Allen's successor [Jack Paar](https://www.edgepedia.org/jack-paar), by TIME's account, pretty much had to start from scratch.[3](https://time.com/3599738/stephen-colbert-report-david-letterman-late-show/) The series Allen originated continued under successive hosts including [Johnny Carson](https://www.edgepedia.org/johnny-carson) (1962-1992) and, later, Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, and Jimmy Fallon.[11](https://www.whattowatch.com/watching-guides/the-tonight-show-starring-jimmy-fallon-return-date-guests-and-everything-we-know-about-the-talk-show)
## The Steve Allen Show and the ratings war
On June 24, 1956, NBC debuted *The Steve Allen Show*, a Sunday-night primetime variety program scheduled directly opposite *The Ed Sullivan Show* on CBS; the Television Academy describes the resulting contest as one of the most famous ratings wars in television history.[12](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/steve-allen-show-the-1956-61) For a number of months in 1956 Allen was simultaneously hosting the 90-minute nightly *Tonight* show, the Sunday variety hour opposite Sullivan, and filming *The Benny Goodman Story* for Universal-International, in which he played the title role.[13](https://www.steveallen.com/biography/the_1950s.htm)
The variety show gave Allen a stage for the comedy bits that defined his style, including the first "man in the street" routine, an appearance by [Elvis Presley](https://www.edgepedia.org/elvis-presley) before his famous waist-up performance for Sullivan, and a night when the Three Stooges followed [Lenny Bruce](https://www.edgepedia.org/lenny-bruce) as guests.[14](https://www.deseret.com/1994/4/20/19104252/museum-honors-steve-allen-the-father-of-all-talk-show-hosts/) The Presley appearance, in which the singer in a tuxedo sang "Hound Dog" to a basset hound, drew fury from young fans; Allen insisted in later years that it had been in fun, while Presley reportedly called it the most ridiculous performance of his career.[4](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/steve-allen/) Despite its initial success, the show eventually lost the ratings contest to Sullivan's program, and Allen left NBC in 1960.[4](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/steve-allen/) He returned to the talk format with a new syndicated *Steve Allen Show* for Westinghouse Broadcasting that ran from 1962 to 1964 and that he called "the wildest talk show ever done," by which point it competed with Johnny Carson's *Tonight*.[15](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/news/steverinos-steve-allen-westinghouse-show-turns-50) • [4](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/steve-allen/)
## Meeting of Minds
From 1977 to 1981 Allen wrote, produced, and hosted *Meeting of Minds* on PBS, a series of imagined conversations among historical figures such as Plato, Shakespeare, and [Cleopatra](https://www.edgepedia.org/cleopatra), presented in a talk-show format.[2](https://aspace.lib.asu.edu/repositories/3/resources/727) • [4](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/steve-allen/) His wife [Jayne Meadows](https://www.edgepedia.org/jayne-meadows) often played historical characters in the productions, and the [Peabody Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/peabody-awards) citation for the show singled her out alongside Allen.[5](https://peabodyawards.com/award-profile/personal-award-steve-allen-for-meeting-of-minds/) The program won a Peabody Award, and Allen received Emmy nominations for it in 1978 and 1979.[1](https://www.emmys.com/bios/steve-allen)
## Music and writing
Allen composed prolifically. The Steve Allen Papers collection at [Arizona State University](https://www.edgepedia.org/arizona-state-university) credits him with more than 4,000 songs, the most famous being "This Could Be the Start of Something Big";[2](https://aspace.lib.asu.edu/repositories/3/resources/727) the Television Academy records his own estimate as more than 8,500 songs, and a 1997 *Discover* profile says about 6,000.[1](https://www.emmys.com/bios/steve-allen) • [16](https://www.discovermagazine.com/allen-encounters-14388) He also wrote lyrics for movie music including *Picnic*, *Houseboat*, and *On the Beach*.[2](https://aspace.lib.asu.edu/repositories/3/resources/727) Working as a lyricist he won the 1964 Grammy Award for Best Original Jazz Composition, for "The Gravy Waltz".[1](https://www.emmys.com/bios/steve-allen) The San Francisco Chronicle noted that he composed his thousands of songs without ever learning to read music.[17](https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/STEVE-ALLEN-1921-2000-Late-Night-TV-Pioneer-3236676.php)
**Books.** He wrote fiction, nonfiction, essays, plays, and poetry. Notable titles include the autobiography *Mark It and Strike It* (1960), the television memoir *Hi-Ho, Steverino!* (1992), which he reckoned as his 38th book, *Funny People* (1981), the comedic-mystery novel *The Talk Show Murders* (1982), the corruption survey *Ripoff* (1979), and *Dumbth: The Lost Art of Thinking*.[6](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/steve-allen/hi-ho-steverino/) • [18](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/steve-allen-10/ripoff-2/) • [19](https://skepticalinquirer.org/authors/steve-allen/) His final book, *Vulgarians at the Gate: Trash TV and Raunch Radio*, an attack on what he saw as declining standards in popular entertainment, was published posthumously in 2001.[4](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/steve-allen/)
## Skepticism and public causes
**Council for Media Integrity.** Concerned about what he saw as the decline of critical thinking in America, Allen agreed in 1997 to serve as chairman of the Council for Media Integrity, a watchdog group that rebutted television programs presenting scientific myths; its council members included [Carl Sagan](https://www.edgepedia.org/carl-sagan), Stephen Jay Gould, and the Nobel laureate chemist Glenn Seaborg.[16](https://www.discovermagazine.com/allen-encounters-14388) He was a CSICOP Fellow and a contributor to its magazine *Skeptical Inquirer*.[19](https://skepticalinquirer.org/authors/steve-allen/) The San Francisco Chronicle also lists him as a public advocate for the plight of farmworkers, nonsmokers' rights, and a cleanup of vulgarity on television.[17](https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/STEVE-ALLEN-1921-2000-Late-Night-TV-Pioneer-3236676.php)
## Death and recognition
Allen died of an apparent heart attack on October 30, 2000, at the home of his son in Encino, California, at age 78.[20](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2000/11/01/comic-songwriter-author-steve-allen-dies/8e5cacc2-57fe-4f72-b64c-e0d0ce3bea38/) Arizona State University awarded him an Alumni Achievement Award in 1966 and an honorary doctorate in 1982.[2](https://aspace.lib.asu.edu/repositories/3/resources/727) He was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1986, won the American Comedy Awards' Lifetime Achievement Award in Comedy in 1987, and has two stars on the [Hollywood Walk of Fame](https://www.edgepedia.org/hollywood-walk-of-fame) and a Hollywood theater named in his honor.[1](https://www.emmys.com/bios/steve-allen) • [21](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006752/awards/) His papers, ranging from 1951 to 2000, are held in 29 boxes at Arizona State University's Archives and Special Collections.[2](https://aspace.lib.asu.edu/repositories/3/resources/727)
## References
1. [Steve Allen, Television Academy biography](https://www.emmys.com/bios/steve-allen)
2. [Steve Allen Papers, Arizona State University Libraries](https://aspace.lib.asu.edu/repositories/3/resources/727)
3. [Stephen Colbert, David Letterman and the History of Late-Night Torch Passing, TIME](https://time.com/3599738/stephen-colbert-report-david-letterman-late-show/)
4. [Steve Allen, TV Insider](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/steve-allen/)
5. [Personal Award: Steve Allen for "Meeting of Minds", The Peabody Awards](https://peabodyawards.com/award-profile/personal-award-steve-allen-for-meeting-of-minds/)
6. [Hi-Ho, Steverino! review, Kirkus Reviews](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/steve-allen/hi-ho-steverino/)
7. [Allen, Steve, Encyclopedia of TV & Radio](https://www.tvencyclopedia.org/tvencyclopedia/steveallen)
8. [Late Night TV, Pioneers of Television, PBS](https://www.pbs.org/wnet/pioneers-of-television/pioneering-programs/late-night-tv/)
9. [Steve Allen interview, Television Academy Interviews](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/steve-allen?clip=20775)
10. [Steve Lawrence obituary, AP News](https://apnews.com/article/0d5716adcf8a4fd0a96f3f12854212d5)
11. [The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon guide, What to Watch](https://www.whattowatch.com/watching-guides/the-tonight-show-starring-jimmy-fallon-return-date-guests-and-everything-we-know-about-the-talk-show)
12. [The Steve Allen Show (1956-61), Television Academy Interviews](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/steve-allen-show-the-1956-61)
13. [The 1950s, steveallen.com](https://www.steveallen.com/biography/the_1950s.htm)
14. [Museum Honors Steve Allen, the Father of All Talk-Show Hosts, Deseret News](https://www.deseret.com/1994/4/20/19104252/museum-honors-steve-allen-the-father-of-all-talk-show-hosts/)
15. [Steverino's "Steve Allen Westinghouse Show" Turns 50, Television Academy Interviews](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/news/steverinos-steve-allen-westinghouse-show-turns-50)
16. [Allen Encounters, Discover Magazine](https://www.discovermagazine.com/allen-encounters-14388)
17. [Steve Allen 1921-2000, San Francisco Chronicle](https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/STEVE-ALLEN-1921-2000-Late-Night-TV-Pioneer-3236676.php)
18. [Ripoff review, Kirkus Reviews](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/steve-allen-10/ripoff-2/)
19. [Steve Allen, Skeptical Inquirer author page](https://skepticalinquirer.org/authors/steve-allen/)
20. [Comic, Songwriter, Author Steve Allen Dies, The Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2000/11/01/comic-songwriter-author-steve-allen-dies/8e5cacc2-57fe-4f72-b64c-e0d0ce3bea38/)
21. [Steve Allen Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006752/awards/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Screen people and creators › Television presenters and hosts › Talk show hosts*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license