December 17, 1969: Tiny Tim Marries Miss Vicki On "The Tonight Show"

Left to right: Ed McMahon, Vicki Budinger, Tiny Tim, Johnny Carson

December 17, 1969: The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson has its highest-rated episode ever. Oddball singer Tiny Tim, on the show, married Victoria Budinger, whom he called Miss Vicki, before 40 million viewers. He was 37, she was 17.

Tim was born on April 12, 1932 in Manhattan, as Herbert Butros Khaury. Though old enough to have been one of the original rock and roll performers, he fell in love with the music of the 1920s. He began appearing in New York nightclubs as Larry Love, the Singing Canary. His repertoire included several songs from that era, especially "Tiptoe Through the Tulips," by Al Dubin and Joe Burke, from the 1929 musical Gold Diggers of Broadway.

By 1963, he had followed a midget act, which led him to adopt the stage name "Tiny Tim." He began playing the ukelele -- lefthanded, which was unusual for any instrument at the time -- and singing mainly in falsetto. On February 6, 1968, he appeared on NBC's comedy variety show Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, singing "Tiptoe Through the Tulips," and he was a hit.

Since The Tonight Show was also on NBC, host Johnny Carson was told to book him. When Tim sat down next to Johnny desk, Johnny asked him, "Are you married?" Tim giggled, and Johnny said, "I'll take that as a 'No,'" and the studio audience cracked up.

Victoria May Budinger was born on April 20, 1952, in the Philadelphia suburb of Haddonfield, New Jersey. She met Tiny Tim at a bookstore when he signed her copy of his poetry book. They got engaged, he always called her "Miss Vicki" in public, and their wedding was set up for The Tonight Show, and its studio, then in the RCA Building at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan.

Among the 40 million viewers were my parents. My mother went into labor during the show, and, earlier in the year, had missed a wedding due to morning sickness. She was not going to miss this wedding. I was born about 12 hours later.

The marriage lasted 7 years, and they had a daughter together, named Tulip. Tulip Victoria Khaury, born on May 10, 1971. Each of them was married 3 times. Tim remained a novelty act, and married Jan Alweiss in 1984, divorced her in 1995, and quickly married Susan Gardner, a Harvard graduate, but also a fan of his. He developed heart trouble in 1996, and on November 30, at a gala benefit hosted by the Women's Club of Minneapolis, he suffered a heart attack on stage. He died that night, at the age of 64.

Vicki later married a man named Lombardi, divorced him, and became romantically involved with Fred Neulander, a rabbi in her native South Jersey, who hired a hitman to kill his wife in 1994. In 2006, she married John Benson. As of December 17, 2022, they are still together, and living in Tennessee. She does not give interviews or talk about her past. Her daughter, now named Tulip Stewart, is married with 4 children, and lives in Western Pennsylvania.

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December 17, 1969 was a Wednesday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 4 games played in the NBA:

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Boston Celtics, 124-106 at the Boston Garden.

* The Baltimore Bullets beat the Atlanta Hawks, 138-133 at the Alexander Memorial Coliseum (now the McCamish Pavilion) in Atlanta. Lou Hudson of the Hawks led all scorers in both leagues with 44 points, but the Bullets got 30 points from Jack Marin, 29 from Gus Johnson, and 27 from Earl "the Pearl" Monroe.

* The San Diego Rockets beat the Detroit Pistons, 114-107 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Cincinnati Royals, 117-104 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

There were 4 games in the American Basketball Association:

* The New York Nets lost to the New Orleans Buccaneers, 111-100 at the Island Garden in West Hempstead, Long Island, New York.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Miami Floridians, 101-100 at the Dinner Key Auditorium in Miami. Eight months earlier, the Auditorium hosted a concert by The Doors, at which lead singer Jim Morrison was accused of exposing himself.

* And there was a doubleheader at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. The Kentucky Colonels beat the Washington Capitols, 124-117. Then the Los Angeles Stars beat the Carolina Cougars, 105-98.

There were 4 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers and the Philadelphia Flyers played to a tie, 2-2 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-2 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 3-1 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* The Oakland Seals beat the Minnesota North Stars, 3-1 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

* And the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Boston Bruins, the Detroit Red Wings and the St. Louis Blues were not scheduled.

And in European soccer, the North London team I would one day support, Arsenal F.C., played away to F.C. Rouen of France, at Stade Robert-Diochon in Rouen. The game ended in a 0-0 draw.

October 1, 1962: Johnny Carson's 1st "Tonight Show"

October 1, 1962: Johnny Carson, not quite 37 years old, debuts as host of The Tonight Show on NBC, broadcasting live from NBC's studio at 30 Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan. The guests on his 1st show: Comedy legend Groucho Marx, 1920s music star Rudy Vallée, acting legend Joan Crawford, comedian (not yet film director) Mel Brooks and singer Tony Bennett.

Carson kept Ed McMahon as his announcer and sidekick for the entire length of the show. In 1966, he replaced Lyle "Skitch" Henderson as leader of the band, The NBC Orchestra, with trumpeter Carl "Doc" Severinsen, famed for his wild suits.

Doc and Johnny

In 1972, Carson took 2 big steps. He formed his own production company, so that he could preserve every show taped after that. Previously, NBC had taped over most of his old shows, due to the high cost of videotape. As a result, his 1st show has only been preserved on audio, and the Ed Ames tomahawk throw of April 27, 1965 is only on a black & white kinescope. Fortunately, the February 19, 1968 "Copper Clapper Caper" with Jack Webb has been saved on color videotape.

The other step was moving the show from New York to Los Angeles -- or, more specifically, to NBC's studio in what Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In had dubbed "Beautiful Downtown Burbank." It was a reflection of the fact that most of the big entertainers had established residence in the L.A. area, and that Hollywood, not Broadway, was now the center of the entertainment world. CBS' cancellation of The Ed Sullivan Show, broadcast from a studio on Broadway itself, the year before was the writing on the wall.

McMahon would introduce him as follows: "From Hollywood: The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. This is Ed McMahon along with Doc Severinsen and the NBC Orchestra, inviting to join Johnny and his guests... " And he would name the guests, and announce, "And now, ladies and gentlemen, heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere's Johnny!" It was more drawn-out than later New York Yankees broadcaster John Sterling's "Theeeeeeee Yankees win!" And then the show's theme would play, composed by singer Paul Anka. When it was done, with the tune of "Shave and a haircut, two bits!" Ed would usually yell, "Hi-yohhhhhhhh!" And the monologue would begin.

Ed and Johnny

The monologue usually ran about 7 minutes, and would begin with a few jokes about whatever was the top story of the day. Usually, the President of the United States, regardless of party or national popularity at the time, would come in for a couple of zingers, even if he hadn't done anything newsworthy that day. Occasionally, Johnny would start a joke by saying, "I've got good news and bad news," and Ed could be heard following it with, "Uh-oh!"

If a string of jokes didn't work, Johnny might start tapdancing, and the Orchestra would play "Tea for Two," and the audience would cheer. Sometimes, it wasn't his fault. Thursday audiences, for some reason, weren't very responsive; but Friday audiences, anxious to start the weekend, were usually raucous. Johnny might say, "We've got a good crowd tonight. You should have seen last night's crowd," and then tell a joke about them.

I'm not sure, but Johnny -- or, rather, Ed -- may have invented "How (adjective) is/was (subject)?" jokes. My theory is that, once, shortly after the '72 move, Johnny mentioned the weather, saying, "It was so hot in L.A. today!" and Ed said, "How hot was it?" and the audience laughed. So Johnny had to make up a joke on the spot, without help from his writers and the cue cards placed at the bottom of the stage. Some time later, according to this theory, he did it again one night, and someone in the audience, remembering the previous time, yelled out, "How hot was it?"

Johnny was definitely doing it by early 1974. I've seen an episode of Match Game that aired on October 29, 1973, with host Gene Rayburn reading a clue, saying, "Bertha was so fat!" and before he could finish, panelist Bert Convy, himself the host of several game shows, said, "How fat was she, Gene?" Before long, both shows were using it. But, barring further information, I can't be sure of who did it first.

Ed liked to do commercials, including for Budweiser beer (a product he enjoyed sampling offscreen) and Alpo dog food (which he, presumably, didn't try). Johnny hated segueing into commercials by mentioning, and sometimes even holding up, the product in question, and eventually had his contract renegotiated so that he didn't have to. It was the final blow to sponsor power on TV: After Johnny, every talk-show host wanted that same exemption, and got it.

Often, before the first guest, Johnny would do a sketch, with such characters:

* Carnac the Magnificent: This was a ripoff of first Tonight Show host Steve Allen's Answer Man, with the added shtick of Carnac being a turbaned, caped "strange visitor from the East." Ed would hand Johnny an envelope. Johnny would put the envelope up to the turban, as if to pull the answer from the index card in the envelope into his brain. He would give the answer. He would tear the envelope open. And then he would read the question/punchline. Example: Answer: "Sis boom bah." Question: "Describe the sound made when a sheep explodes."

"The winners." Rip. "Who are the Dodgers playing tonight?"

* Art Fern: A ripoff of Jackie Gleason's character Reginald Van Gleason III, Fern who would announce today's "Tea Time Movie," then do a commercial for some whacked-out local business, then show a tangled mess of lines standing in for a map of Los Angeles, giving directions: "You take the L.A. Freeway to the San Diego Freeway to the Harbor Freeway, until you get to the Slauson Cutoff. Get out of your car, and cut off your Slauson!" The second time in the sketch, he would unfold the map to reveal a picture of a fork, and the audience would yell along with him: "Until you get to... the fork in the road!" Along with him would be his well-endowed, squeaky-voiced Matinee Lady, originally Carol Wayne. She died under mysterious circumstances in 1985, and was replaced by Teresa Ganzel.

Johnny and Carol Wayne

(Incidentally, in 1974, the musicians' union was on strike, and so Doc couldn't appear on the air. Nor could Tommy Newsom, the saxophonist who led the band when Ed was unavailable and Doc had to do the announcing. And Ed got sick during the strike. So Carol Wayne did the announcing for 2 days, making her the only woman ever to announce, "Heeeere's Johnny!" And then he came out to no music, just appaluse.)

* Aunt Blabby: Another ripoff, this time of Jonathan Winters' Maude Frickert, she was a cantankerous old woman dressed in Victorian clothing, the way women would have dressed when she was young.

(If you're thinking that these ripoffs were unfair, let the record show that Allen, Gleason and Winters were all appeared on the show many times, as they were favorite guests of Johnny's.)

* Floyd R. Turbo: An ignorant yokel wearing flannel hunting gear, responding to a local TV news editorial.

Sometimes, he would do unrelated sketches, with actors known as The Mighty Carson Art Players. Actress Betty White would sometimes be involved. During the air-traffic controllers' strike of 1981, she played Jane to Johnny's Tarzan, telling him, "You're late!" and he said, "Not Tarzan's fault: Vine controllers strike!" And "Me Tarzan, King of Jungle!" was followed by Betty as Jane saying, "That wasn't exactly a royal performance you put on last night!" (I was 11. It took me years to get that joke.)

Johnny eventually cut back. On September 15, 1980, after the show had been an hour and a half, 11:30 PM to 1:00 AM, for most of its existence, going back to Steve Allen as host in 1954, it was cut to an hour, 11:30 to 12:30.

Although the show was faster-paced, it meant there would be fewer in-depth interviews. So there would be fewer newsmakers who weren't entertainers, fewer authors discussing their books, and fewer science figures, although astronomer Carl Sagan adapted well to the faster format. (Carson would sometimes impersonate Sagan, emphasizing the word "billions" the way he did.)

As the 1980s wore on, he was no longer taping on Mondays. Then, he wouldn't tape on Tuesdays, either. Twice a week, it was The Best of Carson airing at 11:30 PM. Well, what was NBC going to do, fire their biggest moneymaker? The show was making $60 million a year for NBC. (That's about $180 million in today's money.) It got to the point where, once, he introduced himself by saying, "My name is Johnny Carson. You all know me from The Best of Carson."

He liked to play tennis, and he liked to travel. This combined every Summer when he went to London for Wimbledon. In 1982, around the same time he did an impersonation of President Reagan in a re-working of Abbott & Costello's "Who's On First?" routine, he noted that Reagan had gone on vacation to his ranch outside Santa Barbara, and said, "Ronald Reagan spends more time in California than I do!"

(Reagan did once appear on the show, on January 3, 1975, just after his 2nd term as Governor of California. But while political candidates appeared on the show, no sitting President ever did while Carson was the host. Reagan had an inside man: Fred de Cordova, the show's director, had directed Reagan in the 1951 film Bedtime for Bonzo, about a man who adopts a chimpanzee.)

Whatever Johnny's personal tastes, he was willing to bring pretty much anybody on. Infamously, John Lennon and Paul McCartney of The Beatles (without George Harrison and Ringo Starr) appeared on May 14, 1968, but were very disappointed when baseball player-turned-NBC broadcaster Joe Garagiola, considerably squarer than Johnny, was the guest host. Eventually, all the individual Beatles except Lennon appeared as guests.

Musical guests ranged from classical to jazz to rock. Johnny was particularly fond of Bette Midler, and she became his last real guest, as his last show was basically a clip show.

Comedians knew that if Johnny liked you, you were going to make it. He helped make Joan Rivers a star, then his permanent guest-host and heir presumptive. But when Johnny wasn't ready to retire, Joan made a deal with Fox to do a competing show, and Johnny cut her off. From May 2, 1986, she did not appear on The Tonight Show again until February 17, 2014, shortly before her death, with Jimmy Fallon as host.

David Letterman and Jay Leno also had their 1st national TV appearances on Carson. Each guest-hosted for Johnny many times. Each thought he would succeed Johnny when he retired. Jay got the job. Dave was furious -- not with Johnny, but with Jay. Dave got a small measure of revenge: On the competing show he started on CBS in 1993, he got Johnny and Ed to appear, but Jay never got Johnny. (He did, however, get pre-Carson hosts Steve Allen and Jack Paar to come on.)

Also with their 1st national appearances on Carson: Steve Martin (a favorite of Johnny's, because they both started out as musicians), Jerry Seinfeld, Drew Carey and Robin Williams. Robin would be the last comedian on Johnny's version of the show, and they traded riffs on the 1992 Presidential election and the recent riot in Los Angeles.

Through immense change, from Kennedy to Clinton, from the Martin Luther King to Rodney King, from Sheriff Andy to Tim the Tool Man, from Lenny Bruce to Sam Kinison, from Elvis to Whitney, Carson was "The King of Late Night" for 30 years, winning 6 Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award, retiring on May 22, 1992.

Johnny Carson died in 2005. So did Skitch Henderson. Ed McMahon died in 2009. Groucho Marx and Joan Crawford both died in 1977. Rudy Vallée died in 1986. Fred de Cordova died in 2001. Tommy Newsom died in 2007. Joan Rivers and Robin Williams died in 2014. As of October 1, 2022, Doc Severinsen, Teresa Ganzel, Mel Brooks, Tony Bennett, Bette Midler, Jay Leno and David Letterman are still alive.

October 1, 1962 was also the day that James Meredith registered as the 1st black student at the University of Mississippi, under the protection of the federal government. I have a separate entry for that.

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October 1, 1962 was a Monday. Actor Esai Morales was born.

It was the day of Game 1 of the National League Playoff, 11 years after the Giants and Dodgers did it in New York. Now, they do it in California, and Billy Pierce pitches a 3-hit shutout. He hardly needs to, as 2 homers by Willie Mays, and 1 each by Orlando Cepeda and Jim Davenport, give the San Francisco Giants an 8-0 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers at Candlestick Park.

September 27, 1954: "The Tonight Show" Premieres

Steve Allen on the 1st broadcast

September 27, 1954: Having already had success with the early-morning program Today, a.k.a. The Today Show, NBC premieres Tonight, a.k.a. The Tonight Show. It sets the standard for all late-night network shows to follow, with an opening monologue with jokes about what's going on in the world at the moment, comedians, musical performances, and a host behind a desk talking to a guest in a chair.

There would also be an announcer/sidekick and an orchestra, and both the announcer and the leader of the orchestra would occasionally banter with the host.

The original host was comedian and songwriter Steve Allen. At the time, what would later be called a "television special" was called a "television spectacular." Allen explained to the audience what Tonight was going to be: "It's not a 'spectacular.' It's going to be more of a 'monotonous!'' He also says that the location for broadcast, the Hudson Theatre (which still stands, at 139 West 44th Street, right off Times Square), was chosen because, "It sleeps about 800 people."

The show began at 11:30 PM, U.S. Eastern Time, and ran an hour and a half, to 1:00 AM, at which point the network would go off the air. In 1957, Allen left, and was replaced by Jack Paar, and the show was expanded to an hour and 45 minutes. Paar had some disputes with the network, and left and returned in 1960, before leaving for good in 1962.

Johnny Carson was brought on as host, the show was cut back to 90 minutes, and for 30 years, he dominated late-night TV. He proved so popular -- How popular was he? Well, for one thing, "How hot was it?" and jokes like it appear to have started on his version of The Tonight Show -- that when he asked for something, he always got it, for NBC's fear of losing him.

He wanted more money? He was paid more, with inflation factored in, than any performer in the history of American network television. He wanted to form his own production company, so that he could preserve every show, after finding out that NBC had taped over the 1st 10 years of his version to cut costs? The network couldn't stop him.

He wanted to cut the show from 90 minutes to 60 in 1980? It was cut. He wanted to work only 4 days a week instead of 5, and then only 3, leaving Tuesdays and eventually also Mondays to feature what NBC called The Best of Carson? Done. He wanted to go to England for 2 weeks, because he was a tennis fan and wanted to see Wimbledon live? NBC was already broadcasting Wimbledon, so this was cross-promotion, and they were all for it.

He wanted to take more vacations, forcing more Best of Carson? They accepted it, and just sat there and took it when, in the 1980s, he joked about the President taking vacations, too, at his ranch outside Santa Barbara, saying, "Ronald Reagan spends more time in California than I do!" (The show had been moved from New York to Los Angeles -- well, Burbank, a place Johnny liked to joke about -- in 1972.)

The juggernaut came to an end, and, tired of it, Johnny -- one of the few celebrities in America whose first name, only, could be mentioned, and everyone knew exactly who you were talking about -- retired in 1992. After years of guest-hosts, and hinting that his successor would be either David Letterman or Joan Rivers, in 1987, Jay Leno became his permanent fill-in, and the regular host starting in 1992.

It was often said that, once Johnny Carson joked about something, it was safe for everyone else to joke about it. But he was never malicious about it. Leno was a bit edgier, trying jokes that Carson never would, pushing the envelope. When Johnny bombed a few jokes in a row, and got booed, he would go into a tap-dance, while the orchestra played "Tea for Two," and the audience always cheered this. But if Jay bombed, and got booed, he would wiggle his fingers, and say, "Come on, come on, come on," like he was challenging the studio audience, all 500 or so strong, to a fight.

On the Friday night of his 1st week, Jay brought on Blue Man Group, a very bizarre act that the studio audience still went nuts over. When they were done, Jay walked over, and said, borrowing a line from a series of Oldsmobile commercials of the time, "This is not your father's Tonight Show!" (I can vouch for that: My father loved Johnny, but he never warmed up to Jay, and stopped watching.)

In 2009, Leno retired, and The Tonight Show was handed over to Conan O'Brien, who had taken over the following show, Late Night, in 1993 when Letterman moved from NBC to CBS. Former Saturday Night Live castmember Jimmy Fallon replaced O'Brien as host of Late Night. O'Brien bombed, and NBC begged Leno to come back. After 9 months, Conan was canned, and Jay was reinstated.

Leno ruled the late-night roost for another 4 years, finally retiring of his own accord in 2014. Fallon was promoted, and took The Tonight Show back to 30 Rockefeller Plaza, where Carson had hosted it from 1962 to 1972. It remains the most popular late-night show on American TV.

Steve Allen died in 2000, Jack Paar in 2004, Johnny Carson in 2005. As of September 27, 2022, Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien are still alive.

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September 27, 1954 was a Monday. Baseball was between the end of its regular season and the start of the World Series. Football was in midweek: Monday Night Football was 16 years away. And both the NBA and the NHL were out of season. So there were no scores on this historic day. 

May 22, 1992: Johnny Carson's Last "Tonight Show"

May 22, 1992: Johnny Carson hosts The Tonight Show for the last time, after 30 years. Well, 29 years, 6 months and 21 days.

The show had begun on NBC in 1954, and Carson had hosted since 1962. His announcer and sidekick had been Ed McMahon from the start. His bandleader had been Carl "Doc" Severinsen since 1966. He started out broadcasting from NBC's headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York, and had taped from NBC's studios at Burbank, California since 1972.

He had scaled back from 90 to 60 minutes per show in 1980, and from 5 days a week to 4 and then to 3. Still, his influence, especially his ability to turn a young comedian from an unknown to a star by bringing him onto the show, was undimmed. In a special issue in 1989, celebrating the 50th Anniversary of broadcast television, People magazine named Johnny Carson the Number 1 TV personality of all time.

There were tributes and parodies. In the 1970s, DC Comics imagined The Midnight Show Starring Johnny Nevada -- the capital of Nevada is Carson City -- broadcasting from Superman's hometown of Metropolis, and they even poked fun at Johnny's propensity to go on vacation. (He did it himself: In the 1980s, noting that the President was at his ranch again, Johnny said, "Ronald Reagan spends more time in California than I do!")

In 1983, Jerry Lewis played a Carson-like figure in the film The King of Comedy, with Robert De Niro as a young comic who commits a crime in order to become a star on the show. In 2019, the film Joker had De Niro playing the Carson-like host, with Joaquin Phoenix taking the young comedian-criminal role. Both films gave the late-night show a multi-colored curtain, like Carson used.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, on Saturday Night Live, Dana Carvey played a naughtier-than-usual Carson, with Phil Hartman as an even harder-laughing, even more obsequious, McMahon.

People wondered when "The King of Late Night" would retire. Comedians who had guest-hosted for him jockeyed for position. Joan Rivers -- correctly, as it turned out -- became convinced he wasn't going to pick her, and left, getting her own late-night talk show on Fox, and it tanked. She never appeared on The Tonight Show again. Eventually, even before suggesting that he might retire, Carson anointed Jay Leno as his successor, leading David Letterman, whose show followed Tonight on NBC, to make a deal with CBS, to go head-to-head with Tonight once his NBC contract ran out in 1993.

In 1991, his Carson's son Ricky, a photographer, was killed in a car crash. At the age of 66, depressed over the loss of his son, hearing of Letterman's deal with CBS, seeing the success that The Arsenio Hall Show was having with younger viewers, and with his contract running out, he decided not to negotiate a new one, and retired.

Leading up to his last show, he showed one old clip a night, from fan balloting of his best moments. Number 3 was his 1968 "Copper Clapper Caper" with Dragnet star Jack Webb. Number 2 was his 1984 duet, impersonating Willie Nelson, with Julio Iglesias, on the song Willie and Julio then had on the charts, "To All the Girls I've Loved Before." Number 1 was the 1965 demonstration of Ed Ames, then playing Native American chief Mingo on the TV Western Daniel Boone, throwing a tomahawk at an outline of a cowboy, and having it land in an uproar-inducing position.

The night before his last show, he had his last guests. Comic actor Robin Williams congratulated Johnny on his timing: Two days before, the Dan Quayle-Murphy Brown controversy had happened. Three weeks before that was the South Central Riots in Los Angeles. Robin was his usual hopped-up self, cracking everybody up, including Johnny.

Johnny's last musical guest was Bette Midler. He had helped make her a star after her first album in 1973, and she had become a favorite of his. She sang "You Made Me Love You" while sitting next to him. And onstage, while the camera cut back and forth between her there and Johnny at his desk, both of them with tears in their eyes, she sang "One For My Baby (And One More for the Road)."

That was on Thursday night, May 21. On Friday, May 22, there were no guests. Johnny said some nice things and showed some old clips, including of long-gone legends. Among these were the last TV appearances of Judy Garland, Louis Armstrong and Jack Benny. At the close, he mentioned his children, including Ricky, and his 4th and last wife, Alexis. He thanked Doc and the band, he thanked Ed, and he thanked the fans, concluding with, "I bid you a heartfelt good night."

Johnny Carson died on January 23, 2005. He was 79 years old.

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May 22, 1992 was a Friday. Actress Anna Baryshnikov, daughter of dancers Mikhail Baryshnikov and Lisa Rinehart, was born on this day.

Football was out of season. One game was played in the NBA Playoffs: The Utah Jazz beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 97-89 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City. Karl Malone scored 39 points.

One game was played in the Stanley Cup Playoffs: The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Edmonton Oilers, 5-1 at the Northlands Coliseum, completing a 4-game sweep of the Clarence Campbell Conference Finals. But they would be swept themselves in the Stanley Cup Finals, by the defending Champions, the Pittsburgh Penguins. This would be the Hawks' only Finals appearance between 1973 and 2010.

And these Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Milwaukee Brewers, 10-9 at Yankee Stadium. The Brewers scored 5 runs in the top of the 8th inning to tie the game. In the top of the 14th -- meaning they were still playing when Carson went on the air -- Greg Vaughn hit a home run to win the game.

Robin Yount went 0-for-2 before leaving the game due to an injury. Paul Molitor went 2-for-7. For the Yankees, Kevin Maas, Danny Tartabull and Charlie Hayes hit home runs, while Don Mattingly went 2-for-7 with 3 RBIs, and Matt Nokes went 0-for-3, but with 4 walks.

* The New York Mets lost to the San Francisco Giants, 7-6 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Anthony Young started for the Mets, and pitched well, but the bullpen blew it. This was early in a stretch where Young went 27 straight decisions without a win, including this game and several other no-decisions, many of which saw him pitch well but be betrayed by his defense or his bullpen.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Atlanta Braves, 7-1 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. Rickey Henderson went 3-for-4 with a stolen base and 2 RBIs.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Cincinnati Reds, 8-2 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the California Angels, 5-3 at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Cal Ripken went 1-for-3 with a walk.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Minnesota Twins, 6-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Chicago White Sox, 6-2 at the new Comiskey Park (now Rate Field) in Chicago.

* The Houston Astros beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-1 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Kansas City Royals, 10-7 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. George Brett went 0-for-4.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Chicago Cubs, 2-0 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Andy Benes pitched a 3-hit shutout, outpitching Greg Maddux. Tony Gwynn was injured, and did not play.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 6-4 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Barry Bonds went 2-for-4 with a walk and an RBI.

* And the Seattle Mariners beat the Cleveland Indians, 2-1 at the Kingdome in Seattle. Randy Johnson outpitched Scott Scudder. Ken Griffey Jr. went 1-for-4.

May 1, 1972: Johnny Carson Moves "The Tonight Show" to Los Angeles

May 1, 1972: For the 1st time, at 11:30 PM Eastern Time on NBC, this announcement is made: "From Hollywood: The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. This is Ed McMahon along with Doc Severinsen and the NBC Orchestra, inviting you to join Johnny and his guests... "

In this case, the guests were, in order: Comedian Bob Newhart, whose sitcom, The Bob Newhart Show, would debut on CBS the following September 16; Cal Worthington, the biggest car dealer in Southern California, whose persona and TV commercials would become the target of many jokes in Carson's monologue over the next 20 years; Darlene Conley, an actress best known for her soap opera roles; Don Rickles, one of the top comedians of the era; Nancy Reagan, then the First Lady of California, as her husband Ronald was then Governor, and both were former actors; and actress Shelley Winters, then filming The Poseidon Adventure. (Newhart turned out to be the last survivor of those guests.)

McMahon, Carson's announcer and sidekick since he became host of The Tonight Show in 1962, said, "From Hollywood," but it wasn't quite true. Hollywood is a neighborhood of the City of Los Angeles. But, at the time, most of the TV shows produced by NBC were actually taped, or filmed, in the adjoining city of Burbank.

This led to jokes about "Beautiful Downtown Burbank" on the variety show Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In from 1968 to 1973, and Carson picked up on it, poking fun at "Burbank's legendary Restaurant Row," which included "Vinnie Abruzze's Little Touch of Newark." (Being from Newark, my parents took offense at this, but they still watched Johnny.)

For most of the 20th Century, New York, particularly Midtown Manhattan, had been the center of the American entertainment industry. The musical theater branch of it, based on Broadway (the street giving the industry its name, much as "Hollywood" would come to mean the American film industry as a whole), led to Midtown becoming the center of the songwriting world. The radio networks, and the TV networks they founded, operated out of there, because that's where the writers, singers and actors were.

After World War II, television boomed, and its writers and producers filmed most of their shows in New York. But the desire to film outdoors, and the corresponding need to have good weather, made filming in New York problematic. By the 1950s, many TV shows were being made in Los Angeles, even if they were said to take place in New York. This is still the case today: There are some shows that do New York location shots, but most do their main filming in L.A. (CBS' FBI franchise is an exception, with the flagship show filming entirely in New York. NBC's One Chicago franchise, which, despite being on a different network, is made by the same production company and thus takes place in the same "fictional universe" as "The FBIs," films entirely in Chicago.)

TV variety shows tended to be done in New York, including at NBC's studios at 30 Rockefeller Plaza at Rockefeller Center. The Tonight Show had begun in 1954, hosted by Steve Allen, at the Hudson Theatre at 139 West 44th Street, just off Times Square and the actual Broadway. Jack Paar became the host in 1957. When Carson took over in 1962, production was moved to the NBC studios at "30 Rock."

And there they remained for 10 years. And variety shows like The Ed Sullivan Show on CBS, and talk shows like The Tonight Show on NBC, would have Broadway stars on their show, doing scenes from their plays, whether dramatic scenes, comedic scenes, or songs.

But in the 1950s, record companies began realizing that recording soundtracks to films and TV shows would be easier if the records were made where the shows and films were made. So record companies began moving west. The Capitol Records Tower opened in 1956. By the 1960s, nearly every recording company had a Los Angeles-area studio, including the 3 major networks: NBC through RCA Victor, CBS through Columbia Records, and ABC through ABC-Paramount. (Paramount Pictures had nothing to do with it.)

Ed Sullivan had gotten his start as the Broadway columnist for the New York Daily News, and he loved bringing Broadway stars onto his show. He was always mixing up names, much like baseball manager Casey Stengel. But as the 1960s wore on, it was happening more often. Finally, CBS recognized that he was in cognitive decline, and The Ed Sullivan Show was canceled in 1971, after 23 years.

Carson saw the writing on the wall, and realized that Broadway was no longer the center of the entertainment world, Hollywood was. So he moved lock, stock and Carnac the Magnificent, and headed west. He remained there until he retired in 1992, still "the King of Late Night."

NBC Studios, Burbank

Of course, Carson wasn't always in California. He liked his vacations, and had enough pull with NBC to eventually get Mondays off; later, Tuesdays, too. On those nights, either there would be a "guest host," usually another well-known comedian like Joey Bishop, David Brenner, Joan Rivers, and, eventually, his official successor-in-waiting, Jay Leno; or there would be a repeat, under the banner The Best of Carson.

He joked about it himself, once introducing himself by saying, "My name is Johnny Carson. You all know me from The Best of Carson." He once pointed out President Reagan's tendency to head off to his ranch outside Santa Barbara by saying, "Ronald Reagan spends more time in California than I do!"

The move to Burbank came with another big change for Carson. Most of his shows that had been taped in New York had already been lost, due to the high cost of videotape: Some of the master copies had simply been taped over. He formed Carson Productions, so that every Tonight Show he hosted from 1972 to 1992 would be preserved.

Once Leno took over, while he did most of the tapings in Burbank, he would take it elsewhere, as befitting his already-long lifestyle as a traveling comedian. He would do a week in Las Vegas, a week in Chicago, a week in Washington to mine material from the federal government, and, occasionally, back at 30 Rockefeller Plaza.

In 1994, he went back to New York for the first time. Jack Paar, who had been a guest of Carson's only twice, in 1986 and 1987 (and once with baseball player-turned-broadcaster-turned Today Show correspondent Joe Garagiola as guest host in 1968), was a guest of Leno's on the 1st show back in New York. Before sitting down in the chair closest to Leno's desk, Jack told Jay, "Mrs. Roosevelt sat in this chair. John F. Kennedy sat in this chair. Martin Luther King sat in this chair. Never let Madonna sit in this chair." Madonna had recently made a profanity-riddled appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman.

The next night, Madonna was a guest on the show. I hope Jay at least put her in a different chair.

*

May 1, 1972 was a Monday. Actress Julie Benz was born on this day.

As Monday is often a travel day in Major League Baseball, there were only 3 games played that day:

* The New York Mets beat the San Francisco Giants, 7-4 at Candlestick Park. Tom Seaver got the win.

* The Houston Astros beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 9-8 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* And the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 2-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

Football was out of season. The NBA Finals were in progress, although this was a travel day between them. Ironically, they went the other way: The 1st 2 games were played in Los Angeles (well, Inglewood, not Hollywood or Burbank), while the next 2 were played in New York. Then tied 1-1, the Los Angeles Lakers beat the New York Knicks in 5 games.

The Stanley Cup Finals were also underway, with Game 1 having been played the day before, at the Boston Garden. The Boston Bruins would go on to beat the New York Rangers in 6 games.

January 13, 1985: The Mysterious Death of Carol Wayne

Johnny Carson as Art Fern,

and Carol Wayne as the Matinee Lady

January 13, 1985: Actress Carol Wayne dies under mysterious circumstances while on vacation in Mexico. She was only 42 years old.

Carol Marie Wayne was born on September 6, 1942 in Chicago. She started out as a figure skater, before growing into a voluptuous figure which made that difficult. From 1967 to 1984, she made 41 appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, usually playing the Matinee Lady in the "Tea Time Movie with Art Fern" sketch.

On September 2, 1974, the musicians' union was on strike, and so Tonight Show bandleader Doc Severinsen couldn't appear on the air. Nor could Tommy Newsom, the saxophonist who led the band when Ed McMahon, Johnny's announcer and sidekick, was unavailable and Doc had to do the announcing. And Ed got sick during the strike. So Johnny asked Carol to step in, making her the only woman ever to announce the immortal words, "And now, ladies and gentlemen: Heeeeeeeere's Johnny!"

She was once married to Burt Sugarman, the producer who created the late-night music TV show The Midnight Special. She was also a frequent game show panelist. But by 1984, substance abuse had left her broke enough to accept Playboy magazine's longstanding offer to display her, um, assets. At 42, she was still a good choice for it.

In January 1985, she went on vacation to the Las Hadas Resort in Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico, with a new boyfriend, Edward Durston, a car salesman. On January 13, they had an argument, and she told him she was going to take a walk on the beach.

Three days later, a local fisherman found her body in a shallow bay. An autopsy performed in Mexico revealed no signs of alcohol or other drugs in her body, and her death was ruled "accidental."

*

January 13, 1985 was a Sunday. Baseball was out of season. The NFL was between its Conference Championships and Super Bowl XIX, which the San Francisco 49ers would win over the Miami Dolphins, 38-16 at the original Stanford Stadium in the San Francisco suburb of Palo Alto, California.

There were 6 games in the NBA:

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Houston Rockets, 100-99 at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Washington Bullets, 115-104 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 121-98 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Denver Nuggets, 140-116 at the Milwaukee Exposition & Convention Center Arena, a.k.a. The MECCA. It's now named the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 124-101 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Kansas City Kings, 119-114 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

And there were 6 games in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 6-5 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-2 at the Colisée de Québec. Brothers Peter and Anton Šťastný each scored 2 goals for the Nords.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Calgary Flames, 7-1 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. Brian Propp scored a hat trick.

* The Edmonton Oilers beat the Buffalo Sabres, 5-4 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Los Angeles Kings, 6-5 at The Forum outside Los Angels in Inglewood, California.

* And the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Vancouver Canucks, 5-3 at the Pacific Coliseum in Denver.