September 27,1954-January 25,1957 
Tonight! starring Steve Allen begins airing locally at 11:15pm, for 15 minutes, sponsored by Knickerbocker Beer. From 11:30 to 1:00am the broadcast aired nationally.  

Eight different Steve Allen Tonight Show excerpts, compilations from telecasts of February, 1956. 


Elaine Stritch sings "Easy Street" and one other song. 
Pat Kirby sings "Everytime" 
Andy Williams sings "Stormy Weather"

Top innovator of jazz music, Willie McLeish Smith plays "Zig-Zag"
Piano "Finger Busting."        

Turk Murphy- jazz musician struts his stuff

Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme duet "I Sing Flat"

Meg Miles- sings "St. Louis Blues " "Sing On Baby" and "You Shed a Tear For Me."

Steve Allen sings a 1936 Benny Goodman tune: "When a Lady Meets a Gentleman Down South " 

Ted Lewis sings: "Be Yourself" "Still Going Strong " With original clarinet plays 1917 Beginnings "The Good Old Tiger Rag" 

The Three Haircuts comic routine

American jazz vocal team, Jackie Cain and Roy Kral (February 20th, 1956) sing "Cheerful and Yearful" "You Smell So Good" and " Mountain Greenery" 
                                                                                     

  
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.