In this stimulating and provocative memoir, the talented, many-faceted Steve Allen speaks of, by, and for himself. With wit and candor he reveals the real man behind the piano-playing, song-writing funnyman his audiences knew so well. This is not an "as told to" autobiography. It is the work of a man who wrote books, poems, articles, and stories; composed hit tunes; starred in motion pictures; and whose television variety program won a 1959 Peabody Award as Comedy Show of the Year. He writes frankly of his early life "in the trunk" of his vaudevillian mother, and of his failure in his first job, of his ironic success as a disc jockey who didn't play records. He also relates anecdotes of later and more prosperous days — describing the zany explosions of the old Tonight Show, the weird experiences that are part of being a celebrity, and the bizarre characters who worked with him on and off the air He writes movingly, too, of the warmth and contentment of his life with Jayne Meadows and his four sons. Above all Allen paints an intimate self-portrait of a man whose public image had little resemblance to his private concerns. A self-styled "would-be intellectual," openhearted and open-minded, he had deep convictions about nuclear warfare, civil rights, prayer, and education — and was not afraid to translate his beliefs into action.
