Steve Allen didn't seem to know quite who or what he was dealing with. Did anyone watching at the time? This was just a couple of years before Zappa joined the Soul Giants and renamed them the Mothers of Invention, but it would be hard to make that leap from his wry yet self-effacing mien here. He's also got one of those faces that just looks incomplete when clean-shaven. Interesting work with the bike, though. He was a fan of Edgar Varese, also a user of unusual instruments.
As for logroller Diane Ellison, I can see why she was one of the other guests.
2 comments:
Steve Allen got right into it by appearing to be confused when in fact he was well known as a very talented and spontaneous comic. He was game for anything creatively different and Zappa was that. Not everyone is able to appreciate the musical possibilities of a bicycle but he did and Steve was on board.
Around the same time Frank composed and played (who else?) the music for a Luden's commercial - Jer's favorite lozenge..
Lots of people think Frank Zappa was born with a huge moustache.
It is likely that Allen was ahead of the curve in appreciating someone like Frank Zappa, as much as he acted otherwise. Probably both of them would have been surprised at the direction Zappa went in over the next few years. He hadn't really been a band kind of person before forming the Mothers.
That Luden's commercial is a great surprise. I truly had no idea anything like it existed. It also kind of sounds like it could be his first collaboration with Flo and Eddie.
That would be a great example of atavism if true, but I'm sure many would believe it.
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