"Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" were Henry Stanley’s opening words to David Livingstone on the shores of Lake Tangayika. "And now, here’s Johnny." Ed McMahon’s basso profoundo’s opening chord in a Carson opus begun over two decades ago, on the Tonight show.

First encounters are close encounters of the most important kind. Boswell meeting Dr. Johnson. W. S. Gilbert’s lyrics meeting Arthur Sullivan’s music. And what would the line be without Mason’s encounter with Dixon? Without his partner, Richard Rogers would have had to sing Oklahoma without the sound of music supplied by Oscar Hammerstein. It is hard to think of Simon without Garfunkel; the AFL without the CIO. Harley without Davidson, and Rolls without Royce.

A hefty volume could be scribbled chronicling the first meetings of famous pe…