Al "Jazzbo" Collins

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In 1957, Mad ran a feature, illustrated by Wally Wood, in which the Mad editors visited Al "Jazzbo" Collins in his Purple Grotto.

Al "Jazzbo" Collins, aka Al "Jazzbeaux" Collins, (d. September 30, 1997), San Francisco, California) was a disc jockey, radio personality and recording artist who was briefly the host of NBC television's Tonight show in 1957. Just as Martin Block created the illusion that he was speaking from the Make Believe Ballroom, Collins claimed to be broadcasting from his inner sanctum, a place known as the Purple Grotto.

In 1943, Collins began his broadcasting career at WKPA in Pittsburgh, moving in 1945 to WIND in Chicago) and the following year to Salt Lake City's KNAK (1946). In 1950, he relocated to New York where he joined the staff of WNEW and became one of the "communicators" on NBC's Monitor when it began in 1955. Two years later, in Los Angeles, NBC-TV installed him as the host of the Tonight show when it was known as Tonight! America After Dark in the period between hosts Steve Allen and Jack Paar.

In 1959, he was with KSFO in San Francisco. During the 1960s, he was the host of Jazz for the Asking (VOA), and he worked with several Los Angeles stations during the late 1960s: KMET (1966), KFI (1967) and KGBS (1968). He recorded A Lovely Bunch of Al Jazzbo Collins on the Impulse label in 1967.

He officially changed the spelling of his name to Jazzbeaux when he went to Pittsburgh's WTAE in 1969. During the 1970s, he worked with WIXZ in Pittsburgh (1973) before heading back to the West Coast three years later. In San Francisco he was on the staff of KMPX (1976), KGO (1977) and KKIS (1980).

After returning to New York and WNEW (1981), he was back in San Francisco at KSFO(1983) and KFRC (1986), joining KAPX (Marin County, California) in 1990 and KCSM (College of San Mateo, California) in 1993.

At the age of 78, he died in San Francisco on September 30, 1997 of pancreatic cancer.