September 27, 1954 - January 25, 1957
The first host of THE TONIGHT SHOW, which was then titled TONIGHT!, Steve Allen began his broadcast career as a disc jockey. On July 27, 1953 Steve Allen began hosting a local show over WRCA-TV which ran from 11:20 P.M. to Midnight , Mondays through Fridays, sponsored by Knickerbocker Beer, developed by station executive Ted Cott to lure a potential sponsor, Rupert Breweries, away from a late-night show on New York's Channel 7 (TALK OF THE TOWN), hosted by Louis Nye, who would later be featured on Steve Allen's Sunday Night Variety Show.  

After a successful fourteen-month local run, THE STEVE ALLEN SHOW became a network show. Beginning September 27, 1954, the show retitled TONIGHT!, and expanded to 105 minutes from 40 minutes. 
 
NOTE: Sound of this Television Audio Air Check is PRISTINE. A rare return to an early TONIGHT! STARRING STEVE ALLEN broadcast when Late Night Television was so informal and relaxed with open ended time dedicated to a person, topic, music, or just impromptu  comedy.                                                

More than one poet has tried to capture all of America in a single work.But how would it be if the works of many poets were stitched together into a sampler portrait of America? That's what tonight's program has done, drawing on such writers as Edgar Allan Poe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, e.e.Cummings and Allen Ginsberg. The major work of the evening is Robert Frost's "Death Of The Hired Man," with Peggy Wood as Mary, Alexander Scourby as Silas and James Whitmore, the show's narrator, as Warren. "The People Yes," by Carl Sandburg,is also heard.                                       

Comments on the problem of presidential succession by Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Harry Truman, Carl Sandburg, Alben W. Barkley, President Kennedy, Senator, Kenneth Keating, Speaker Of The House John McCormack. 
Discussion: Is it wise to land a man on the moon? A debate between Dr. Robert Jastrow and Dr. Charles Bachman.                                                                

This year is Illinois 150th year of statehood. This nostalgic sesquicentennial tribute presents some of the Prairie State's leading citizens, as well as show-business personalities who have been associated with the state.
Among the stars are Jack Benny, Dave Garroway, Bob Hope, Mahalia Jackson, Mercedes McCambridge, Burr Tillstrom (with puppets Kukla and Ollie) and the original Benny Goodman Trio (Goodman, Gene Krupa and Teddy Wilson). The host is Steve Allen, who composed the program's score. 
Also appearing are Senator Everett Dirksen (who offers a dramatic recitation) and Charles Percy, former Senator Paul Douglas, Gov Otto Kerner, Chicago's Mayor Richard Daley, writer Mark Van Doren, architect R.Buckminster Fuller, balladeer Win Stracke, writer-broadcaster Studs Terkel, former FCC head Newton Minow and Adlai Stevenson III. Heard via recordings: the late Adlai Stevenson and poet Carl Sandburg. 
Filmed almost entirely on location, the program covers Illinois from end to end, visiting the pulse points of the present and historic sites sacred to its heritage,