Steve Allen, the man who became a staple in the American diet of late night TV, who gave us The Tonight Show when it was still only available in New York, broadcasting to the Tri-State area because Network TV was in its infancy and hadn’t gotten the technology necessary to broadcast some 3,000 miles away yet, was just as much a staple in the diet of Angelenos in the 1940s with what would be an early version of The Tonight Show format as The Steve Allen Show, broadcast by KNX in Los Angeles.
It was a local show originating from Columbia Square in Hollywood with a live audience of late night stalwarts who would make the trek to Sunset Boulevard before Midnight to one o’clock in the morning. Sometimes the audience was sparse and sometimes it was packed and sometimes the laughter had a six Martini tinge to it. But Steve Allen was very much a beloved figure in L.A. and it was practically a day of mourning when he left the show to move east to start his career in Television.
Although virtually none of his early Tonight Show appearances have been preserved (save for a few Kinescopes made at the time) and the same paucity holds true of his Radio appearances; this being one of the few that still exist, Steve Allen went on to become a fixture on early TV, continuing his career all the way until his death in 1978.
To get an idea of what Steve Allen was like on Radio, here is an episode from November 18, 1949 as it was broadcast over KNX in Los Angeles.
