One of the most legendary musical satirists of the 20th century, pianist and comedian Steve Allen was born Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen on December 26, 1921 in New York City. His mother and father were Vaudeville comedians with the stage names Belle Montrose and Billy Allen. In fact, Milton Berle once stated that he considered Belle Montrose the funniest woman in Vaudeville.
Steve Allen was raised by the Irish Catholic family of his mother on the south side of Chicago. Allen attended college in Tempe, Arizona through his sophomore year, when he dropped out to enlist in the U.S. Army during World War II. He became an infantryman, but he served his time domestically in California instead of overseas. After the war, he lived for a brief time in Arizona and then moved to California.
Shortly after he moved to California, Allen began a career in radio. By 1946, he managed to talk the Mutual Broadcasting System into giving him a five night a week radio show with co-star Wendell Noble. Allen had quite a bit of local success, and he was pushed into the national limelight when a show called Talent Scouts needed a stand-in host for Arthur Godfrey. He was a huge success, and CBS picked him up to host a local show in New York City called The Tonight Show.
In fact, Johnny Carson was a guest on The Tonight Show with Steve Allen. Following his tremendous success with the NYC show, NBC offered him a prime-time Sunday night slot aimed to dethrone The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956. He had acts like Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis on his show in its early episodes, but Allen really disliked rock and roll music. He instead wanted to showcase comedy and jazz, since he was an ardent lover of the piano. He beat out Sullivan for ratings on a couple occasions, but ultimately another show called Maverick beat out them both.
Allen left Sundy night television for LA in 1959. In 1962, Allen revived his late night show and broadcasted it from Hollywood. This time around, it featured a substantially larger amount of jazz played by Allen and his musical accompaniment, the Donn Trenner Orchestra. It was influential on nearly every big and aspiring comedian of the day. Steve Martin, David Letterman and Robin Williams cite the show as a big influence on their careers.
In later decades, Allen appeared frequently on several game shows as a regular guest. He also managed to write over 10,000 songs. He was extremely prolific, having once bet another songwriter he could pen 50 songs a day for a week. He won the bet. He even won a Grammy award in 1963 for Best Jazz Composition.
On October 30, 2000, Allen was in a minor traffic accident on the way to the home of his son in Encino, California. He did not believe he was injured, but later that afternoon he did not feel well and took a nap. During his nap, he suffered a major heart attack and passed away. His autopsy results concluded that the accident caused a blood vessel in his chest to rupture.
Over the course of his long career, Allen had great success in music, radio, television and comedy. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for television and one for radio. His prolific songwriting catalog and contribution to the legacy of comedy will live on for decades to come.
Author Resource:-
Duane Shinn is the author of a free newsletter on piano chords & chord progressions available at "Pedaling Dynamics"
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