Carson was great but the show was on too late for someone who got up at 5:00 AM every morning.

To make a short story long ...

My wife and I were on our honeymoon in Manhattan in 1961, and I told the cabbhy to take us to 42nd St. 

We got out ... and it was a residential neighborhood. We started walking (in a lite drizzle), and
 stumbled accross a club called " Basin Street East ". It featured Diana Washington and Don Rickles 
 and the band leader was Quincy Jones. 

In the audience was Ray Charles, and she got him to come up on the stage to do a couple of numbers. 

Don Rickles kept saying, " I'm over here, Ray. ", which didn't make Diana Washington too happy.

The best show We ever saw ... and it was only a two drink minimum !  

Wow Carl, that's incredible. 

Don Rickles would have been 35 years old and Ray Charles 31 years old, Diana Washington 37 and Quincy Jones 28.

And you found them before they were famous.

My wife and I spent a couple of days in NYC on our honeymoon too in 1985. Her most memorable moment was when a bag lady chased Debbie and scared the heck out of her at the subway station. 

Mine was giving a wino a couple of bucks and getting some pictures. 

We got some unique pictures of the Statue of Liberty, which you can barely make out inside the scaffolding because they were renovating her.

I was told before going, to NOT drive my own car in...........take public transportation. So I drove my car in the first day and it took me 4 hours to get out.

Stayed in Jersey overnight and took a bus in the next day. That was more like it!