From 1951 to 1957, Henderson worked at NBC, where he led the orchestra on Steve Allen’s Tonight show (as well as the Today show). While Carson is widely viewed as The King of Late Night, Henderson recalled that it was Steve Allen who set many of the standards. That was all inherited from Steve Allen and Dwight [Hemion, Allen’s director].” That monologue worked well enough that they stuck with it. “If Steve Allen was the Model A,” he posited, “Carson was probably the Cadillac.”