_Inventing Late Night: Steve Allen and the
Original Tonight Show_ is a 2005 hardcover
book. Author: Ben Alba. The late Allen
was a comedian and talk show host during
the early days of television.
The book includes a black-and-white photograph
of Steve Allen playing a piano. Both Allen
and the piano are levitating. Bob McCarthy
is mentioned in the caption. The grand piano
"rotated a full 360 degrees on live TV."
Also in the book:
* Steve Allen was 16 years old during the Welles
Mars broadcast (radio, not television).
At the time Allen was living in Chicago.
Near North side. His reaction to the
CBS program is described.
* Gene "The Match Game" Rayburn served
as an announcer and sidekick. (Some
cinemagoers who screened "A Man, A
Woman, and a Bank" may, to this day,
think that they saw a scaled-down replica
of Mr. Rayburn on the big screen. In the
form of a small, three-dimensional prop.)
* The book provides a sense of the
pressures of live television. And a cost-cutting
move by network decisionmakers. Much
of what we see on television and in
major motion pictures seems lavish. Of
course, frequently, behind the scenes,
mindless cost-cutting is pervasive. (Often,
even successful film directors have to
put up with this.) Young performers
take note.
* One chapter is devoted to who-invented-what-
and-when controversies.
--Chris Roth