in a very gentle, personal way -
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if network/cable 'execs' would only get a clue ... life could be so much richer ...
Called a "bull in his own china shop," he gained notoriety by creating feuds with the show business community, including Ed Sullivan, Walter Winchell, William Paley, and most television critics. To salve his often bruised ego, he surrounded himself with a salon of eccentrics whose ranks included pianist and professional hypochondriac Oscar Levant, the outspoken Elsa Maxwell, the irreverent Alexander King, and British raconteurs Robert Morley, Bea Lillie, and Peter Ustinov. He resurrected the careers of performers on the entertainment fringe, inviting back on a regular basis the folksy Cliff "Charley Weaver" Arquette, music hall veteran Hermione Gingold, French chanteuse Genevieve, and acerbic Hans Conreid. More in keeping with the Tonight ethos, Paar also nurtured young comic talent, and among his discoveries were Bob Newhart, the Smothers Brothers, Dick Gregory, Godfrey Cambridge, and Bill Cosby.
Paar also removed the talk show out of the controlled studio and begin to intermingle politics and entertainment. He and author Jim Bishop journeyed to Cuba and prepared a special report, "The Background of the Revolution." Paar's unexplained embrace of Castro was vehemently questioned by Batista supporters and even the United States House of Representatives. Paar also became friendly with the Kennedys and invited Robert Kennedy as chief counsel of the Senate Labor-Management Relations Committee to discuss his investigation of organized crime in the unions. The head of the Teamsters, Jimmy Hoffa, responded with a million dollar lawsuit against Kennedy and Paar, which was eventually thrown out of court. Paar was also the first entertainer to originate a program from the Berlin Wall, which he did less than a month after its construction at the height of Cold War tension.
Paar became the most successful presence in late night, expanding his affiliate base from the 46 stations with which he started out to 170. In 1957, the title was changed to The Jack Paar Tonight Show and the next season the show was taped early in the evening instead of broadcast live. Beginning July 1959 Paar broadcast only four nights a week; Friday night became "The Best of Paar," inaugurating a tradition of Tonight reruns. At the height of his fame, he battled NBC censors over a joke about a water closet, a British euphemism for a bathroom. Incensed, he walked out at the beginning of a show, leaving announcer Hugh Downs to finish the program. His walk-off and subsequent disappearance dominated news for five weeks until he returned after an extended stay in Hong Kong.
Paar's rollercoaster ride on Tonight continued until 30 March 1962. He retired from late night, having hosted more than 2,000 hours. In September 1962, Paar returned to the variety format and produced a weekly Friday night series, borrowing the most successful elements of his talk show. Each telecast was ignited by a monologue and the core of each program was an in-depth conversation with some of Hollywood's most voluble personalities, including Judy Garland, Tallulah Bankhead, Richard Burton, and Jonathan Winters. Paar also spiced the series with home movies of his family trips, with wife Miriam and daughter Randy also becoming celebrities.
Paar continued to make headlines with newsworthy segments. He ventured into Gabon, Africa to interview Nobel Prize recipient Dr. Albert Schweitzer. Richard Nixon made his first public appearance after his defeat in the gubernatorial race in California and entertained Paar's audience with a piano solo. He also presented the first footage of the Beatles in prime time, a performance he openly derided as the downfall of British civilization.
http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/P/htmlP/paarjack/paarjack.htmTHE JACK PAAR SHOW
http://www.timvp.com/jackpaar.htmlJuly 29, 1957 - March 30, 1962
NBC Late Night Talk Show
Host:
Jack Paar
Announcers:
Hugh Downs
Art James
Orchestra:
Jose Melis
Regulars:
Cliff Arquette (aka Charley Weaver)
Pat Harrington, Jr. (as Guido Panzini)
Peggy Cass
Alexander King
Dody Goodman
Betty Johnson
Elsa Maxwell
Tedi Thurman (the weather girl)
Hans Conried
Joey Bishop
Florence Henderson
Buddy Hackett
Betty White
Genevieve
Hermione Gingold
Renée Taylor
Jack Paar took over The Tonight Show six months
after Steve Allen had left. Whereas Allen had
depended on a frenetic pace and sketch comedy,
Paar was at his best interviewing. He was incisive,
witty, and highly emotional. There were still
sketches, and Paar would sometimes go into the
audience for interviews. "It's All Relative" was
a periodic spot in which a relative of a famous
person would appear and the other guests would try
to figure out who he was related to; "What Is It?"
was a feature in which Paar would produce some
strange-looking object and then explain what it
was used for; there was a routine where baby
pictures were shown to the audience and Paar
would come up with funny captions for them; and
Jose Melis had a "telephone game" in which he
improvised melodies based on the last four
digits of an audience member's phone number.
Besides the fun and games, the show had a serious
side. At one point Paar went on an extended crusade
against the Batista dictatorship in Cuba, lauding
Castro's revolution; later he tried to arrange a
swap of tractors for prisoners from the Bay of Pigs
invasion; several telecasts originated from the
Berlin Wall; and presidential candidates Kennedy
and Nixon were both guests, on separate occasions.
Paar's emotional outbursts were a major attraction of
the show, and the cause of many of the controversies
surrounding him. When he had first taken over as host,
The Tonight Show was still being done live. Not too
long after, it began taping early in the evening that
it would be aired. It was NBC's ability to edit the
tapes before air time that precipitated Paar's famous
tearful walkout on the February 11, 1960, program.
A "water closet" joke he had told the night before
was considered in bad taste by the NBC censors and
had been removed. Paar didn't think the joke was
offensive and he left the show for a month. He later
had a feud with Ed Sullivan over the fees paid
guest stars, Paar's $320 versus Sullivan's
several thousand dollars.
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