Steve Allen has died
Gary Smiley
(including This Could Be the Start of Something Big), and recorded
several albums. He had the famous Miles Davis ESP band on his show
twice. Many of us might think of him as a comedian, but he was a really
smart person who raised the level of things around him, including
Television and Music. I'll miss him - he was a true innovator.
Jay Epstein
Gary,
Yes, I saw the Miles Quintet on his show. Also Art Blakey's Jazz
Messengers with Freddie, Wayne, & Curtis Fuller. Also the world's
largest kazoo marching band - about 100 guys in T-shirts kazooing
Colonel Bogee's March (Bridge On The River Kwi), tromping through
the TV studio!
Jay
"It's always night, that's why we have light." - Thelonious Monk
http://www.bridgeboymusic.com/longago/main.htm
Robert J. Dewar
urbane, self deprecating... quite a guy.
Robert J Dewar
(little young to remember much live S.A. but Letterman owes him a HUGE debt
(and has said so on numerous occasions)
"Gary Smiley" <gasm...@mediaone.net> wrote in message
news:39FF88D6...@mediaone.net...
Michael Kelly
>Gary,
>Yes, I saw the Miles Quintet on his show. Also Art Blakey's Jazz
>Messengers with Freddie, Wayne, & Curtis Fuller. Also the world's
>largest kazoo marching band - about 100 guys in T-shirts kazooing
>Colonel Bogee's March (Bridge On The River Kwi), tromping through
>the TV studio!
I wish I could get some video of the jazz musician guests. Also
he had Jack Kerouac on the show several times. One of the silly
things I enjoyed along with the "man in the street" interviews was
the "backwards films" he would do. Just silly stuff like sliding
down a rope wearing a cape, juggling pins, shooting arrows,
breaking balloons, whatever, but then when he played it in
reverse it became funny. Also many of the regulars became
staples of TV and movie comedy like Tim Conway, Tom
Poston, Louis Nye, Don Knots, et al.
It would be fun to see some of the old shows again.
Mike
--
"Genius gives birth, talent delivers."
-- Jack Kerouac
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William Sakovich
> I wish I could get some video of the jazz musician guests.
Also
> he had Jack Kerouac on the show several times. One of the
silly
> things I enjoyed along with the "man in the street" interviews
was
> the "backwards films" he would do. Just silly stuff like
sliding
> down a rope wearing a cape, juggling pins, shooting arrows,
> breaking balloons, whatever, but then when he played it in
> reverse it became funny. Also many of the regulars became
> staples of TV and movie comedy like Tim Conway, Tom
> Poston, Louis Nye, Don Knots, et al.
>
> It would be fun to see some of the old shows again.
Didn't realize there were a) so many Steve Allen fans out there
and b) each one has their own unique storehouse of memories.
In addition to Conway, Poston, et al., he is credited with giving
the Smothers Brothers their early break.
There was also the bit in which he invited different members of
the audience on stage to hit one note of the piano at random, and
he would use those notes in that sequence to compose a song on
the spot.
The shows I liked the best were the syndicated late night shows
circa 62-64 out of Los Angeles, which seemed to be the peak of
the "anything can happen" concept. They ran from 11:30 - 1:00.
They were a big influence on my adolescent mind. The Funny Fone
Calls routine, where he would call people up at random from
personal messages posted at a 24-hour supermarket (in those days
very uncommon) across the street from the studio and just ad-lib
his way through...they generated at least two LPs...the phrases
Smock Smock!, creel and ferndock...
And the goldfish bowl he had on his desk with just one fish, a
minnow named Newton...after the then-head of the FCC came out
with his then-famous statement that "television was a vast
wasteland"...the FCC man's name, of course, was Newton Minnow...
I'll never forget him.
- Bill Sakovich