Steve Allen RIP
RFCSAC627N
television with the original ``Tonight Show,'' composed more than 4,000 songs
and wrote 40 books, has died at 78. Allen also starred as the King of Swing in
the 1956 movie ``The Benny Goodman Story.'' He appeared in Broadway shows, on
soap operas, wrote newspaper columns, commented on wrestling broadcasts, made
40 record albums, wrote plays and a television series that featured guest
appearances by Sigmund Freud, Clarence Darrow and Aristotle.
ros...@dslextreme.com
he and his zany cohorts would have silly skits, the major one being "This is The
Nit Wit Net Work".
During early 80's my daughter was doing temp office work and had the privilege of
working in Allen's office. Her desk and typewriter were in the same room with a
piano and Steve Allen, most likely working on one of his 4000 original songs!
Rosanne
Helen & Bob
RFCSAC627N wrote:
Oh damn. One of the truly inventive minds around. Damn, I'm going to miss him.
Bob
W. Lydecker
Ernie Kovacs.
Dean Eaton
Sullivan or Steve Allen? So we'd alternate. I remember how much laughter
came from the living room when Allen, Don Knotts, Tom Poston, Louis Nye,
Gabe Dell and Bill Dana were doing their "Man on the Street" sketches, the
comedy bits, and seeing such standup comics as Lenny Bruce for the first
time. And of course we loved it when Allen would blow a line or start
laughing uncontrollably over some stupid thing his supporting cast would do.
Funny nights, good memories - a large talent. TV hasn't been the same since.
Dean
Helen & Bob <chil...@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message
news:39FF42FA...@ix.netcom.com...
Guard Hewitt
Dean Eaton <dce...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
news:eAHL5.16156$xJ4.7...@bgtnsc06-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
Bill Warren
>Steve Allen *made* the "Tonight" show! Even if he did borrow from
>Ernie Kovacs
Yes, he did borrow from Kovacs for some things -- and more people, including
Johnny Carson, borrowed from Steve Allen.
Wull
people in show business.
He was a comic genius.
Wull
Joe Gillis
wrong. comedy central showed reruns c. '90 & they were hilarious.
another real talent has been taken away. soon there will be nothing left but
adam sandler...
-- "Life is never interesting enough somehow. You people who come to the
movies know that." -- Dolly Levi, in The Matchmaker
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Steve Oldham
Steve
Steven W Blackwood
of the best ad-libbers around and his Main in the Street segments were
hilarious. My memories of him only go back to the sixties when he had a late
night show which was syndicated against Carson. Left him (Carson) in the
dust.
Too back his last years were spend nattering on about what a "sewer" the
popular arts had become. Many of his concerns were valid but I think he
could have better approached it with humor.
Steve
Caro
Dean Eaton <dce...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
news:eAHL5.16156$xJ4.7...@bgtnsc06-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
> Sullivan or Steve Allen? So we'd alternate. I remember how much laughter
> came from the living room when Allen, Don Knotts, Tom Poston, Louis Nye,
> Gabe Dell and Bill Dana were doing their "Man on the Street" sketches, the
> comedy bits, and seeing such standup comics as Lenny Bruce for the first
> time. And of course we loved it when Allen would blow a line or start
> laughing uncontrollably over some stupid thing his supporting cast would
do.
> Funny nights, good memories - a large talent. TV hasn't been the same
since.
> Dean
So many great memories have come flooding back to me, just reading
your post, Dean. You penned a fine tribute.
Do you remember how Steve could write an original song - complete
with lyrics - from a phone number? He'd assign numbers to the notes
in a musical scale, run through the numbers quickly once or twice and
then arrange a little ditty, chords, lyrics and all, in a matter of seconds.
We've lost one of the genius comic minds of our time. The angels are
laughing their wings off tonight...
~ Caro Eta.C...@worldnet.att.net
Send a beautiful, musical postcard
and help stop hunger too:
http://www.postcards.org/go/postcards/qcard
no...@webtv.net
A Steve Allen Q. & A. joke:
Q. How many hamburgers did Butterfield eat?
A. BUtterfield 8-1000.
---
norton shawn
. .. .. .. ..
Steve Oldham
Steve
Cadillac Jones
<stev...@rocsoft.net> wrote:
>A great mind and a warm witty man. Damn.
>
My grandfather said today, "He was the Thomas Edison of Showbiz...but
not as big of an a*$hole" :)
We got a good laugh out of it esp. since my grandfather's 94 and I
never heard him use the term a**hole in 35+ years.
RIP
"This is everybody's fault but mine"
Cheemsson1
One of the greatest wits of our time or any time has left us. A man who
excelled in any field he tried.
I always thought that a battle of wits--perhaps a "Heavenly Meeting of the
Minds" (from Mr Allens old TV show) would
include Steve Allen and Groucho Marx.
A "debate" between those men would be a WHOLE heap better than these
soporific political debates--GUARANTEED!!!
DC
DD
Allen here on Channel 13 NYC...and I watched the whole thing recalling
the many talents of this man; who was gracious and helped a lot of stars
get their start and most significant, a genuinely nice guy as well.
Jackie Gleason
Red Skelton
Steve Allen
Thanks for the memories
RIP
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
"...A brave man once asked me,
to answer questions that are key,
'Is it to be or not to be?'
and I replied: 'Oh, why ask me?'..."
Sawfish
>I remember the big debates on Sunday nights - were we going to watch Ed
>Sullivan or Steve Allen? So we'd alternate. I remember how much laughter
>came from the living room when Allen, Don Knotts, Tom Poston, Louis Nye,
>Gabe Dell and Bill Dana were doing their "Man on the Street" sketches, the
>comedy bits, and seeing such standup comics as Lenny Bruce for the first
>time. And of course we loved it when Allen would blow a line or start
>laughing uncontrollably over some stupid thing his supporting cast would do.
>Funny nights, good memories - a large talent. TV hasn't been the same since.
>Dean
>Helen & Bob <chil...@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message
>news:39FF42FA...@ix.netcom.com...
He did this funny thing on a late afternoon show he had in the 60s. He'd
take people from the audience and bring them up onstage and talk to them.
For all I know, they were all shills, but they didn't appear to be such to
me.
Anyway, this one guy came up and Allen asked him his name. The guy was
going to respond as people sometimes do with his first name, then
repeat his first name followed by his last name, as in, "Fred. Fred
Murphy."
Well when Allen as asked him his name, the guy said,
"Jack. Jack"...and BANG! Allen cut him off by responding quickly,
"Ah. Jack-Jack. I see. Tell us, Jack-Jack, what do you do for a living?"
It made the guy seem like a simple bumpkin. He continued to insist on
calling the guy Jack-Jack for the rest of the dialog.
Anyway, you had to be there.
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. But give a man a boat,
a case of beer, and a few sticks of dynamite..." -- Sawfish
Sawfish
>Watch it today. I guarantee it wasn't that funny.
Of course not.
...and a four minute mile is not fast, today, either. However, bith fit
the times rather well.
GrapeApe
>
>"Jack. Jack"...and BANG! Allen cut him off by responding quickly,
>
>"Ah. Jack-Jack. I see. Tell us, Jack-Jack, what do you do for a living?"
>
>It made the guy seem like a simple bumpkin. He continued to insist on
>calling the guy Jack-Jack for the rest of the dialog.
>
>Anyway, you had to be there.
It pretty much melds with Allens character of being a self absorbed arrogant
asshole. I thought you were going to say he immediately wrote a song called
Jack Jack.
Despite this observation I do actually still enjoy the life work of Steve
Allen, but I do sometimes wish he had a bit more humility. Perhaps he does now.
--cut and paste to adopt this sig file---
Make Deja a useful Usenet Archive again!
Susan Umpleby
news:C2IL5.897$ve1....@e420r-sjo2.usenetserver.com...
> Watch it today. I guarantee it wasn't that funny.
---------You'd be wrong.
Opencity
made so few films), but he was a much beloved figure on the small screen. As a
kid in the 70s, I loved his PBS series "Meeting of Minds"--what an original and
amazing show.
RIP Steverino...and thanks for so many warm and happy experiences!
Opencity
Lenny Bruce on his program when the comic was going through his many, many
legal woes. Kudos to Allen for standing up to the censors and giving Bruce a
voice at a time when others wanted to shut him up.
Polar
Indeed he was. A true Renaissance man.
Here's a sort of obit from the Skeptics, a group which valued
clear-thinking Steve Allen and vice-versa:
To: "Skeptics Society" <skep...@lyris.net>
Subject: E-SKEPTIC: ADIEU STEVE ALLEN
From: Skeptic Mag Hotline <skepti...@lyris.net>
Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 15:08:14 -0700
E-SKEPTIC FOR OCTOBER 31, 2000
Copyright Skeptics Society, Skeptic magazine, Michael Shermer
www.skeptic.com or skept...@aol.com
------------------------------
ADIEU STEVE ALLEN
As I'm sure most of you have heard by now, skeptic, humanist, free
thinker,
song writer, comedian, author, scholar, gentleman, and a Renaissance
man for
our time, Steve Allen, died in his sleep yesterday. I spoke to his
publicist
at his office here in Burbank this morning, and he informed me that
Steve's
last two days were wonderful. He played to a sold-out house Sunday
night,
rocking the audience with humor, music, and creative thinking for an
hour and
a half, then spent Monday with his grandchildren, carving pumpkins and
enjoying life. He was tired, so he lay down for a short nap, and
simply never
woke up. I suppose it doesn't get much better than that as a way to
go. He
didn't think an autopsy would be performed and that it was assumed a
heart
attack was the cause of Steve's death.
Steve Allen will be missed by all skeptics and free thinkers of all
stripes,
for his wit and humor in the face of nonsense and irrationalism. His
many
books on the subject, most notably DUMBTH, focused on the declining
thinking
skills of people, while his many television shows, most notably
MEETING OF
THE MINDS, focused on the triumph of the human mind. Steve was the
keynote
speaker/performer at the Skeptics Society conference in 1997, served
on the
Editorial Advisory Board of Skeptic magazine, and most recently
submitted a
letter to be read in honor of Stephen Jay Gould at our Festschrift at
Caltech. The letter was vintage Allen, mixing humor with an important
message
about clear thinking.
We will miss you Steve . . . .
What follows is the press release from his publicist's office.
Television's Renaissance Man Steve Allen Dies At 78.
Multi-talented television pioneer Steve Allen passed away suddenly
Monday night October 30th at the home of his youngest son, Bill, in
Encino, California.
Mr. Allen was resting after a visit with four of his twelve
grandchildren when he lost consciousness and died of an apparent heart
attack.
Widely recognized for his renaissance talents as an author, composer,
musician, poet, playwright and performer, Allen was the creator and
first host of NBC's Tonight Show. He also won Peabody and Emmy awards
for his PBS series Meeting of Minds and starred in the memorable
motion
picture The Benny Goodman Story. The composer of over 8,500 songs,
including the popular standard This Could be the Start of Something
Big
and the Grammy award winning Gravy Waltz, Steve Allen was recognized
by
the Guinness Book of World Records as the "most prolific composer of
modern times."
Only the day before his death Mr. Allen had performed before a sold
out
audience at Victor Valley College, one of the scores of music and
comedy
concerts he continued to give around the country each year during his
seventh decade of life.
Mr. Allen was also the author of more than 50 published books
including
comedies and mysteries as well as more serious tomes on subjects as
diverse as education, morality, China and the farm worker movement of
Caesar Chavez. On the day of his death, Mr. Allen was working on the
promotional plans for the December release of his 53rd book Steve
Allen's Private Joke File, and adding the final touches to his
manuscript for his 54th book, Vulgarians at the Gate concerning the
rising tide of violence and vulgarity in the popular media.
Steve Allen was married to television, film and stage actress Jayne
Meadows for more than 46 years. Miss Meadows described Allen as "my
best
friend and my partner on stage and off for more than 48 years. He was
the most talented man I've ever known and the one true love of my
life."
Steve Allen is survived by Miss Meadows, four sons, eleven
grandchildren
and three great grand children.
[Additional biographical information on Steve Allen may be found
at his official website at www.SteveAllenOnline.com]
------------------------------------------
Copyright 2000 by Michael Shermer and the Skeptics Society. Copies of
this
internet posting may be made and distributed in whole without further
permission. Credit: This has been another edition of E-Skeptic
Hotline, the
internet edition of Skeptic magazine and the cyberspace voice of the
Skeptics
Society. For further information about the magazine and society,
contact P.O.
Box 338, Altadena, CA 91001; 626/794-3119 (phone); 626/794-1301 (fax);
skept...@aol.com and www.skeptic.com or send your message
telepathically
and we will respond in kind.
For those of your not familiar with the Skeptics Society or have not
seen
Skeptic magazine, see our web page: http://www.skeptic.com
--
Polar
Sawfish
>>Well when Allen as asked him his name, the guy said,
>>
>>"Jack. Jack"...and BANG! Allen cut him off by responding quickly,
>>
>>"Ah. Jack-Jack. I see. Tell us, Jack-Jack, what do you do for a living?"
>>
>>It made the guy seem like a simple bumpkin. He continued to insist on
>>calling the guy Jack-Jack for the rest of the dialog.
>>
>>Anyway, you had to be there.
>It pretty much melds with Allens character of being a self absorbed arrogant
>asshole.
Of course! That was why he was funny!
Every comic has his own chops. The range is tremendously broad. It has to
be, to include Steve Martin's unwitting self-dperecation, Dennis Miller's
neo Mort Sahl one-upsman ship, or Andrew Dice Clay's unabashed amle
agression.
>I thought you were going to say he immediately wrote a song called
>Jack Jack.
>Despite this observation I do actually still enjoy the life work of Steve
>Allen, but I do sometimes wish he had a bit more humility. Perhaps he does now.
Perhaps...
--
--Sawfish
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I wouldn't want to belong to a club that would accept someone like me
as a member." --G. Marx
James L. Neibaur
airwaves (change the channel), but certainly respect his contribution to
television. As far as the idea that his shows weren't funny, I would disagree.
Lately we have been sitting through a succession of brash young upstarts who
try to be hip rather than funny, and are hardly original. Steve Allen's work
looks better now than it ever has.
JN
Please visit the most poorly designed web pages online:
my Favorite Movies web page:
http://hometown.aol.com/jimneibr/myhomepage/movies.html
and my Favorite Performers web page:
http://hometown.aol.com/jimneibr/myhomepage/rant.html
Steve Oldham
so with Steve. Sometimes I would laugh at his intense amusement more
so than at the skit or joke.
Steve
Brent McKee
Cheemsson1 <cheem...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20001031211204...@ng-fp1.aol.com...
It would be even better if Steve's uncle Fred was the third participant.
Steve Allen always said that the two comedians he admired most were Fred
Allen and Groucho Marx.
--
Brent McKee
To reply by email, please remove the capital letters (S and N) from the
email address
"If we cease to judge this world, we may find ourselves, very quickly, in
one which is infinitely worse."
- Margaret Atwood
Steve Reed
thought I'd add it to this thread as well. --SR]
The protean, comic intelligence of Steve Allen brightened my life, from when I
was almost too young to understand it. As he said himself, his humor was both
silly and hip, and the nine-year-olds could take in his silliness, and the
teenagers and older could appreciate the hipness.
I had both extremes of his work, enjoyed them both, and went on to be
fascinated by his love for making ideas come alive. Especially in "Meeting of
Minds," where he'd join Clarence Darrow, Emily Dickinson, and Aristotle at a
spirited discussion table. That one series -almost- managed to redeem the
statist remainder of PBS.
And much later, I applauded his support for skepticism of "the established
truths," at -The Skeptical Inquirer- magazine and at CSICOP, the debunkers of
those who want to invalidate science.
What I have to thank him most for, however, came from picking up a book from
my parents' bookshelves in the late '60s. I was ten years old, and wondered
about how this crazy guy I'd liked so often on TV could write -poetry.-
One piece, in particular, took a familiar rhyme and made it sparkle with
something new.
=====
"Mencken, Lincoln, and God"
News item: H.L. Mencken, the fearless iconoclast who in his
time has taken on such formidable adversaries as
Lincoln and God, died today. ...
Mencken, Lincoln, and God one night
Sailed off in a wooden shoe --
Sailed on a river of crystal light
Into a sea of dew.
"Where are you going, and what will you do?"
The old moon asked the three.
"We have come to debate a point or two
On man and Eternity,
Though our comments already are history."
Said Mencken,
Lincoln
(And God).
The old moon laughed and slyly referred
To the Gettysburg Address.
Staunch Abe defended every word
But Henry roared, "Confess,
The war was fought for cotton and gold
As any fool could see.
And I must in honest conscience hold
That your prattle about democracy
Is the rankest form of hypocrisy,"
Said Mencken
To Lincoln ...
(And God).
"Fourscore and seven years ago,"
The bearded one began,
But H.L. cried, "Do children know
You were a drinking man?
Now, mind, I touch the stuff myself
Though I state with sober poise
That you're not a god on a hallowed shelf,
But merely one of the boys.
Pray, share my iconoclastic joys,"
Said Mencken
To Lincoln ...
(And God).
Now Mencken and Lincoln are two little eyes
But God is a mighty head
And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies
Is a bubble made of lead.
It spins through space in a wondrous way
And we're all along for the ride;
We're gone tomorrow and here today.
(The game could end with a triple play:
Mencken
To Lincoln
To God.)
[From "Wry on the Rocks," a collection of poems, © 1956 by Steve Allen]
=====
When I read this, at age ten, three things came into my head:
~ Poetry can be saucy and fun to read.
~ Lincoln might not be the demigod they're telling me he is, at school.
~ This Mencken guy is cool, and I should find out more about him.
The first led to my discovering other American and British poets, especially
the underappreciated Carl Sandburg. And to come to later love the poetry in
Shakespeare's iambic pentameter ... and in both English and German.
The second made me question the accepted wisdom of what was told to me in the
government schools. It made me consciously seek alternate views and unheralded
"revisionists" in history. It also made me enough of an iconoclast to pick up
and start reading other worthwhile authors who'd been attacked for telling too
much of the real truth, such as Ayn Rand.
And the third led me to appreciate, in greater amounts with each passing year,
the wit and perception of the Sage of Baltimore. Henry Louis Mencken is only
behind Rand and the late Murray Rothbard in having stretched my mind.
I have a host of personal threads and joys that trace back, over thirty years,
to this one poem. All I can say, in affectionate tribute, is the phrase that
bedeviled me from well-meaning smart alecks when I was growing up.
And which I later came to fully appreciate, saluting the man and his work,
especially when "Autumn Leaves" (one of his 4,000 songs) start to fall:
Heigh-ho, Steverino.
--
* Stev...@earthling.net *
"Words are, of course, the most powerful
drug used by mankind." -- Rudyard Kipling
Bill Warren
>It would be even better if Steve's uncle Fred was the third participant.
They weren't related. Fred Allen's real name was John Sullivan; Steve Allen's
real name was Steve Allen.
Bill Warren
that I thought was exceptional.
I met with Allen for about two hours some years ago, and found that in person
he was very much like he was on television.
Helen & Bob
Bill Warren wrote:
You met and talked to Steve Allen? You, sir, are a lucky man.
Bob
lynn paden
"Bill Warren" <bill...@aol.com.exx> wrote in message
news:20001102105131...@ng-fg1.aol.com...
yes. just ask his son woody.
jamison
Brent McKee
Bill Warren <bill...@aol.com.exx> wrote in message
news:20001102105131...@ng-fg1.aol.com...
Interesting. I got the reference to Fred Allen from The obituary that CBS
News did for Steve Allen, and foolishly assumed that someone at a TV
network's news department had actually done some research. I apologise
abjectly for posting an incorrect fact. ;-)