On the whole, I owe my success in this business to Steve Allen. I never would have gotten to where I am if I hadn’t hated him so much.
My hatred for Steve Allen began in my youth; I read a short article in the newspaper about his life and career. He was still alive back then, so it was perfectly okay for me to hate him. I guess the fact that he had his hands in a bunch of disciplines was my main reason to despise him. Not only did he host the “Tonight Show,” but he also wrote a handful of books in several different genres, composed some five hundred songs, and was a better piano player than I ever could have been. I couldn’t stand it; he reminded me of the annoying kid in school that got involved in everything, and everybody liked him even though you personally couldn’t stand him because he had this snobby, “jack of all trades” attitude. That’s the way I felt towards Steve Allen. I swore I’d never be like him.
When I sent an audition tape for an on-air position at my hometown’s radio station, I gloated in the thought that Steve Allen never conquered radio. Or did he? Either way, I’d never be the kind of self-promoting blow-hard that Steve Allen sounded like. After about three years at that job, I began to think I could do better. I shopped around for jobs in television: announcer spots and the like. Sure, Steve Allen was on TV, but when he was on the air he probably sounded like the jerk I thought he was. Right?
Well, you know how you watch somebody you can’t stand just so you have material you can whine about to your friends? Well, I started looking for taped footage of Steve Allen from his younger years, to prove to myself that he really was a jerk. He actually came across as kind of a nice guy, though; he played up to his audience and talked with people, one-on-one, like an average Joe. The more I saw of him, the more I realized that he wasn’t the self-promoting idiot that that article made me think he was. In fact, I realized that his whole gig was more about trying new things and enjoying your life than about sticking your fingers into every pie you could reach. I got to thinking about that; wouldn’t it be great to make that kind of impact and not be confined to one discipline like most people in this business are? Before I knew it, I was digging out those old novel and scripts I had stored in the basement and submitting them to whoever would read them. Instead of trying to show up Steve Allen, I wanted to pay homage to him by taking the kind of risks he took and not letting myself get bogged down by one field.
Years later, when Steve Allen passed away, I felt sad for the man, and at the same time respectful of all he had done with himself, and for what he had done for me. Every time I sign my autograph now, I think that I never would have made something of myself if I hadn’t hated him from the start.