I declared to myself this year that I want to start taking time to spread more joy. I’ve spent so much time attempting to prepare deep historical examinations that I got away from what I loved. There’s time for that. However, sometimes I just want to talk about what excites me. What inspires me. This clip, that I’ve attached above, gives me joy. Granted, the joy is ridiculously grainy and barely VHS quality, but I digress. 

Anyone who’s followed me for longer than a few years has probably seen me reference this clip. Heck, that “Probably” is more than likely a “definitely”. I’ve made sure to repost it multiple times and will continue. This is a gem and I will hear no arguments on this matter.

This clip is credited as coming from The Steve Allen Show from February 1958. Steve Allen is primarily known in the mainstream as a talk show host (and the first host of The Tonight Show). This music number though, shows him at his experimental, musical best. 

Steve Allen continues to fascinate me after years of diving into his work. A multi-hyphenate of the highest order, television presenter, creator, song-writer, author… there honestly wasn’t much he didn’t do. Heck, the song they’re singing in this clip, “This Could Be the Start of Something Big” is probably Allen’s most well-known composition. 

While the YouTube clip is (as mentioned) grainy and honestly doesn’t look like much, this is a treasure. This is 1958, remember. Television was still an evolving, but often cumbersome medium. It features Allen alongside regulars Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme along with guests Ann Southern and Dinah Shore. Though, I need someone with more knowledge than myself to speak to the Frank Sinatra subject. I’ve seen the occasional report that the figure in this clip is actually a Sinatra impersonator. I’ll let you be the judge.

In 2025, this video might not feel so special. Technology has evolved past the point where this is challenging. However, this is what makes this single shot, 4 minute music number so special. There’s so much effort, staging and choreography going on here… and we see none of it. The performers are certainly lip synching, but there’s still a breezy effervescence on-screen when off-screen there would have been a clunky, tracking camera, cords probably all over the place and performers trying to move to their next mark without being seen… and without tripping in flouncy skirts and high heels.

I love the small moments in this clip. I don’t know how many times I watched this before I caught Eydie Gorme struggling mightily with the giggles in the second half of the number before they also seem to briefly catch Dinah Shore. Steve Lawrence, meanwhile, looks like he’s fighting with all he has to not trip as they enter the studio at the end of the number. Does this show how many times I’ve watched this video? Sure. Though, I’d be lying if I said I could hide my joy in these little moments. The humanity. The relatability.

Truthfully, I’m not sure when I first learned about Steve Allen. I remember his mystery novels around my house from a young age. However, I went hard down a rabbit hole while I was in college. And due to the state of early television preservation, I was left wanting.

Precious little of Steve Allen’s talk show work during the 1950s still exists. A few scattered segments have been captured on YouTube if you dive really deep. As a result, this number feels like cracking into a time capsule. It’s like taking a step back in time. You feel like you’re watching something that hasn’t been seen in almost 70 years.

It wasn’t just Allen’s brilliance that pulled me in. I fell in love with Steve and Eydie at probably the same time. It is one of my biggest regrets that I wasn’t able to see them in concert. I was close, but wasn’t quite able to make their final concert before they stepped away from touring. Kids, never let traveling nerves get in your way. Eydie Gorme passed away in 2013 and Steve Lawrence left us last year. 

Now, I promised I wasn’t going to get into a historical deep dive on Steve and Eydie here. I’ll save that for later. The sweetness in their relationship gives me such joy. While there’s a small handful of clips showing the comedic banter they were known for, I wanted to attached the clip below. This comes from a 1970 episode of Hollywood Palace, a variety show at the time. It shows both in clear, color footage. While the audio’s… let’s call it rough… this clip lets Eydie show a lot of what she could do vocally. (She didn’t get the love she deserved). It’s also a great showcase for Lawrence, doing what he did best.

Now, everyone over the age of 60 is potentially out there rolling their eyes at how shockingly unhip I am. I never pretended to be anything else.

However, Steve and Eydie are an example at just how fast culture changes. They are indicative of the 1950s. The supper club era. By the 1960s (and through a 2025 perspective), they can feel strikingly unhip when faced with the explosion of rock and roll happening in the 1950s and 1960s.

These are performers who quite honestly were born just a few years too late. Lawrence would have been 21 years old when Elvis Presley first appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956. Gorme would have been 28. They were both just hitting their stride when the music industry changed on a dime. Bring them into the industry 5 or 10 years before? They’re far more at home.

Well, I should bring this love letter to a close. This ended up being far more about Steve and Eydie than I anticipated, but we’re in “Sorry/Not Sorry” territory here. Steve Allen, the initial run of The Tonight Show and Steve and Eydie played a huge part in shaping not just me, but who I became. Bask in what you love kids. Own it.