Heeeeeeeere's Johnny Carson's signed microphone!

October 1, 6:09 PMChicago Sports Memorabilia ExaminerTom Morgan

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Forty seven years ago today, on October 1, 1962, Johnny Carson began hosting the Tonight Show on NBC-TV. He continued to host regularly for the next 29 years.

Introduced by Ed McMahon's famous Heeeeeere's Johnny! to begin each show, Carson was considered by many to be a comic genius. I loved his monologues.

The Johnny Carson autographed Tonight Show microphone pictured with this article sold in a Mastro Auction in 2005 for $29,625.  http://www.legendaryauctions.com/LotDetail.aspx?lotid=47648

According to Mastro's description from that auction, it was estimated that Carson interviewed over 20,000 guests during his time as host of the Tonight Show.

The front facing of the microphone was engraved to Carson, "Johnny Carson...THE GREATEST KNIGHT OF THEM ALL IN NIGHTTIME TV JOUSTING"

Carson inscribed the microphone base in black sharpie, "To Harlan, Johnny Carson". To me, an autographed microphone used by Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show is similar to getting a game used and autographed baseball bat from Mantle, Mays or Clemente. Carson was that big of a star.

Check out this YouTube video from The Tonight Show, with Mel Blanc and Jack Benny.  

My website is tcrowntom.com, my email is tom@tcrowntom.com, and my twitter id is tcrowntom.