Jay Leno was still in kindergarten when Steve Allen went in front of the cameras as the host of late-night talk show bearing his name. David Letterman was seven years old. And both him and Leno own much of their success for the pioneering work of Steve Allen. The format was something never-before-tried: an hour and forty-five minutes, with no writers and virtually no script. A platform for the talented comedian to unfurl his ad-lib talents.

On this day, September 27, in 1954 the Tonight Show With Steve Allen premiered, broadcast on NBC from Hudson Theatre at 44th and Broadway.

Steve Allen wrote in his autobiography “For the first time since coming to New York I felt completely in my element in television, partly because the new program was much like my old Hollywood radio show, only instead of a table I now sat at a desk.  Occasionally I would write a comic monologue or a simple sketch for a guest and myself, but all I actually required on a typical night was a piano, a couple of amusing letters form viewers, a newspaper article that had caught my fancy, an unusual toy that a member of my staff had picked up, a guest or two to chat with, and an audience to interview.”