A Terrific Tiara Moment from Johnny Carson's Tonight Show

More than 50 years ago, Johnny took an antique tiara out for a spin during a special episode of The Tonight Show

Recently, a reader named Brian wrote in with a fascinating question: did I know anything about the provenance of an antique diamond and sapphire tiara that appeared on The Tonight Show way back in December 1969? Today, I’ve got a deep dive with some of the information I was able to find about the jewel.

Ed McMahon and Johnny Carson appear on The Tonight Show on December 17, 1969

On the evening of December 17, 1969, forty-five million Americans switched on their television sets and tuned in to The Tonight Show on NBC. The viewership numbers, some of the highest ever recorded for an American talk show, represented a full 85% of the households watching television at that late hour of the night. Host Johnny Carson was there with his emcee, Ed McMahon, but they weren’t the real draw of the evening. Viewers were tuning in to see the eccentric singer Tiny Tim, who married his seventeen-year-old girlfriend, Miss Vicki, live on the broadcast in New York that evening.

But the wedding only took up half an hour of the 90-minute show that evening. Also featured were Brady Bunch star Florence Henderson, who sang a lingering dramatic version of Petula Clark’s “My Love” in honor of the newlyweds, and comedian Phyllis Diller, who cracked jokes about her own wedding. (“We didn’t have any rehearsal,” she quipped, “and I married the wrong man.”) Doc Severinsen trumpeted out a groovy rendition of “The Age of Aquarius.” And, in a nod to the coming Christmas holiday, Johnny and Ed brought out a selection of suitable presents for husbands looking for last-minute gifts for their wives.