Steve Allen Biography

Fast Facts

• Started out as a radio disc jockey in the '40s; in 1954, he landed a gig as the first host of what became The Tonight Show and single-handedly invented the late-night talk show genre, mixing monologues, interviews, musical guests, skits, audience interaction and on-the-street pranks
• A prolific songwriter with over 8,500 tunes to his credit, he once bet singer Frankie Laine $1,000 that he could write 50 songs a day for a week
• He did---in the window of a Hollywood music store
• One of them, "Let's Go to Church (Next Sunday Morning)" was recorded by Perry Como
• "This Could Be the Start of Something Big" is among his other standards
• Penned more than 50 books
• An outspoken social and political activist, he was a vocal opponent of capital punishment and nuclear proliferation, and considered running for Congress in the 1960s
• Was inducted into the TV Academy Hall of Fame in 1986 along with Fred Coe, Walt Disney, Jackie Gleason, Mary Tyler Moore, Frank Stanton and Burr Tillstrom
• Has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: one for TV and one for Radio