| Jack Paar | |
|---|---|
 Paar, early 1950s | |
| Birth name | Jack Harold Paar[1] |
| Born | (1918-05-01)May 1, 1918 Canton, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | January 27, 2004(2004-01-27) (aged 85) Greenwich, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Medium | Television Film Memoirs |
| Years active | 1947–1998 |
| Genres | Observational comedy |
| Subject(s) | Everyday life,American culture |
| Spouse | Irene Gubbins (twice divorced) |
| Children | 1 |
| Notable works and roles | Host ofTonight Starring Jack Paar (NBC) |
Jack Harold Paar (May 1, 1918 – January 27, 2004) was an American talk show host, writer, radio and television comedian, and film actor. He was the second host ofThe Tonight Show from 1957 to 1962.Time magazine's obituary of Paar reported wryly, "His fans would remember him as the fellow who split talk show history into two eras: Before Paar and Below Paar."[2]
Paar was born in 1918 inCanton, Ohio, the son of Lillian M. (Hein) and Howard Paar.[1][3] He moved with his family toJackson, Michigan, about 40 miles (64 km) south ofLansing. As a child, he developed astutter, which he learned to manage.[1] He contractedtuberculosis when he was 14 and left school at 16.[1][4]
After dropping out ofJackson High School, Paar worked as a broadcaster forWIBM, a local radio station.[5] He went on to work as a humorousdisc jockey at other Midwest stations, includingWJR inDetroit,WIRE inIndianapolis,WGAR inCleveland, andWBEN inBuffalo. In his bookP.S. Jack Paar, he recalled doing utility duty at WGAR in 1938 whenOrson Welles broadcast his famous simulated alien invasion,The War of the Worlds, over theCBS network and its WGAR affiliate. Attempting to calm possibly panicked listeners, Paar announced, "The world isnot coming to an end. Trust me. When have I ever lied to you?"
In 1943, Paar was drafted into theU.S. Army duringWorld War II, which interrupted his tenure as host of WBEN's morning showThe Sun Greeter's Club. He was assigned to theU.S.O. in theSouth Pacific to entertain the troops.[6] Paar was a clever, wisecracking master of ceremonies; he narrowly escaped being disciplined when he impersonated senior officers, especially Col.Ralph Parr.[6]
AfterWorld War II, Paar opted not to return to WBEN, instead seeking opportunities in network radio and film. He worked in radio as a fill-in onThe Breakfast Club show and appeared as a host ofTake It or Leave It, a show with a top prize of $64.
In 1947,Jack Benny, who was impressed by Paar'sU.S.O. performances, suggested that Paar serve as his 1947 summer replacement.[4] Paar was enough of a hit on Benny's show that Benny's sponsor, theAmerican Tobacco Company, decided to keep him on the air, moving him toABC for the fall season. Paar later refused American Tobacco's suggestion that he come up with a weekly running gag or gimmick, saying he "wanted to get away from that kind of old-hat comedy, the kind being practiced by Jack Benny andFred Allen."[7] The show was then terminated, earning Paar the enduring image of "a spoiled kid".[7] A profile of Paar by the Museum of Broadcast Communications suggests that Paar lateremulated Benny's mannerisms.[4]
Paar signed as a contract player forHoward Hughes'RKO studio in the immediate postwar period,[4] appearing as theemcee inVariety Time (1948), a low-budget compilation of vaudeville sketches.[8] He later recalled that RKO producers had trouble figuring out what kind of screen characters he could play until one of the executives dubbed him, "Kay Kyser [bandleader who had made films for RKO], with warmth." Another compared hisleading man appearance withAlan Ladd. Paar projected a pleasant personality on film, and RKO called him back to emcee another filmed vaudeville show,Footlight Varieties (1951). He also appeared in the 1950 filmWalk Softly, Stranger, starringJoseph Cotten.[4] In 1951, he playedMarilyn Monroe's boyfriend in the 20th Century Fox filmLove Nest.[4]
Paar returned to radio in 1950, hostingThe $64 Question for one season, then quitting in a wage dispute after the show's sponsor pulled out and NBC insisted everyone involved take a pay cut. In 1956, he gave radio one more try, hosting a disc jockey effort on ABC calledThe Jack Paar Show. Paar once described that show as "so modest we did it from the basementrumpus room of our house inBronxville."
Paar got his first taste of television in the early 1950s, appearing as a comic onThe Ed Sullivan Show, and hosting twogame shows,Up To Paar (1952)[6] andBank on the Stars (1953), before hostingThe Morning Show (1954) on CBS.[citation needed] He hadThe Jack Paar Show on CBS, a Monday–Friday 1–1:30 p.m. Eastern Time program that ended in May 1956.[9] Paar guest-starred twice in 1958 onPolly Bergen's short-livedNBC comedy/variety show,The Polly Bergen Show.
With the success ofSteve Allen as the first host ofThe Tonight Show, NBC offered Allen his ownprime-time variety hour in June 1956. Over the next seven months, Allen'sTonight Show duties were limited to three nights per week, withErnie Kovacs hosting on Mondays and Tuesdays. Allen's heavy workload forced him to leaveThe Tonight Show in January 1957 and concentrate on his prime-time show. For the next six months, NBC revamped the program asTonight! America After Dark, inspired by the network'sToday. The new late-night program, amagazine show with various hosts in different cities, proved to be a great failure. The network soon returned to its proven formula by revivingThe Tonight Show and hiring Paar. With Paar as host, the show became a ratings success and generated annual advertising sales as high as $15 million (equivalent to $156 million in 2024).[10] The show was initially titledTonight Starring Jack Paar, and after 1959, it was officially known asThe Jack Paar Show.
Paar often was unpredictable, emotional and principled. When network censors excised a joke about a "water closet" (toilet) from the show's February 10, 1960, broadcast tape before airtime without warning, Paar received national attention by walking off the program the following evening in protest, leaving announcerHugh Downs to finish the show. Paar did not return until three weeks later after the network had apologized and permitted him to tell the joke.[1] Paar found the everyday routine of planning a 105-minute program difficult to sustain for more than five years, and his weariness caused him to end his tenure as host. He later confided to fellow hostDick Cavett that leaving the program was the greatest mistake of his life.[11] Paar's final show aired on March 29, 1962, during which he derided his enemies in the press, notably gossip columnistsWalter Winchell andDorothy Kilgallen.[12]
Near the end of the run of the show,Abel Green ofVariety called Paar "the most vivid personality in TV sinceMilton Berle became Mister Television" and wrote that Paar was the first popular entertainer since the creators ofAmos 'n' Andy to change the habits of a nation, influencing sales of TV sets for the bedroom.[10]
Because NBC did not want to lose Paar to another network, it offered him a Friday prime-time hour with full control of content and format. He agreed, deciding on a variation of his late-night format and titling the showThe Jack Paar Program. The show, which debuted in the fall of 1962, had a global perspective, debuting acts from around the world and showing films from exotic locations. Most of the films were of travels by guests such asArthur Godfrey or by Paar himself, including visits withAlbert Schweitzer at his compound inGabon inCentral Africa andMary Martin at her ranch[13] nearAnápolis,Goiás,Brazil.[14][15]
Paar showed film clips ofthe Beatles performing (November 15, 1963) three months before their famous live appearance onThe Ed Sullivan Show (February 9, 1964).[1][6][16][17] During the first half of 1964, a mock feud pitted Paar against his lead-in program, EnglishmanDavid Frost's news-satire seriesThat Was the Week That Was.
Paar's prime-time show aired for three years and featured a wide variety of celebrity guests. The final segment of the series, broadcast on June 25, 1965, featured Paar sitting alone on a stool recounting a discussion that he had with his daughter about his departure. In 1998,Garry Shandling featured the clip of Paar's farewell in the series finale ofThe Larry Sanders Show. He left the show in part so that he could have a larger role at a local television station he had purchased in 1963,WMTW inPoland Spring, Maine, as his NBC contract prevented him from appearing on his own station;[18] Paar would sell WMTW in 1967.[19]
Paar continued to appear in occasional specials for NBC until 1970.
In the late 1960s, Paar lived inMaine, where he owned and operated television stationWMTW, an ABC network affiliate inPoland Spring, Maine.
Paar returned to television in January 1973 with a show titledJack Paar Tonite, which aired one week per month as one of several rotating shows onABC's Wide World of Entertainment. Paar said that he was unwilling to appear more frequently and that he would not have appeared at all unless ABC had committed to keeping Dick Cavett, one of his former writers, on the air. Paar's announcer for the program was comic actressPeggy Cass. The show featured the national television debuts of comics such asFreddie Prinze andMartin Mull. Paar stayed on the show, which was in direct competition with TheTonight Show, for one year before quitting, dissatisfied with theWide World of Entertainment rotation scheme. Paar later expressed discomfort with developments in television media and once said that he had trouble interviewing people dressed in "overalls," a reference to young rock acts.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Paar made rare guest appearances onDonahue,The Tonight Show (hosted by Johnny Carson, thenJay Leno), andLate Night with David Letterman, as well as onCharles Grodin'sCNBC talk show.[20] He participated in the 1987 TV retrospective showThis Is Your Life honoringBetty White.
In his 1962 bookMy Saber Is Bent, Paar wrote in a chapter titled "Fairies and Communists": "There used to be a time when it looked like theCommunists were taking over show business. Now it's fairies. They operate a lot alike, actually; both have a tendency to colonize. Just as there used to be no such thing as one Communist in a play or movie, now there is no such thing as one fairy. Where you find one, you usually find a baker's dozen swishing around. ... When I hear that some fairy is producing or directing or acting in a play, I can often name some of the rest of the cast, even if I've never heard it... The poor darlings, as they sometimes call themselves, are everywhere in show business. The theater is infested with them and it's beginning to show the effects. 'The New York theater is dying,' the lateErnie Kovacs complained recently, 'Killed by limp wrists.'" Paar also lamented the negative effects of gay men in the fashion industry: "I hope that all red-blooded men will rally to my crusade to have girls look like girls again. If we show our determination I'm sure that women will throw off the tyranny of fairy designers."[21]
In March 1973 during the run ofJack Paar Tonite, Paar addressed his remarks and challenged representatives of a pro-homosexual organization to appear on the show to explain why he "and other entertainers should not call homosexuals 'fairies,' 'dykes', and 'fags'."[22]
In 1984, Paar emerged from retirement again for theMuseum of Broadcasting's "Tribute to Jack Paar", making two live appearances in New York. This led to his 1986 NBC specialJack Paar Comes Home. The following year, a second special,Jack Paar Is Alive and Well, was broadcast by the network. Both were composed largely of black-and-whitekinescope clips used at the tribute fromThe Tonight Show and from Paar's primetime program, for which he maintained the copyright. Although most of Paar'sTonight Show episodes were videotaped (in color beginning in 1960), only a few episodes and clips are known to exist.
In 1997,PBS television devoted an edition of theAmerican Masters series to Paar's career, and in 2003 revisited the topic with another hour-long examination of his work titledSmart Television.
In 2004, a memorial for Paar was held at theMuseum of Television and Radio in New York City featuring Dick Cavett,Turner Classic Movies (TCM) television hostRobert Osborne and Paar's daughter Randy.
Paar was nominated for anEmmy Award for Best Performance by a Continuing Character in a Musical or Variety Series in 1951, and nominated again in 1958 for an Emmy for Best Continuing Performance in a Series by a Comedian, Singer, Host, Dancer, M.C., Announcer, Narrator, or Panelist. He did not win either time.[1]
Paar was married twice to his first wife, Irene Paar (née Gubbins). After the first divorce, the couple remarried in 1940 inOhio, only to divorce again. He then married his second wife, Miriam (née Wagner), in 1943, and they remained together until his death.[23]
During the 1990s, Paar's health began to decline steadily. He underwenttriple-bypass heart surgery in 1998 and suffered astroke in 2003. On January 27, 2004, he died at his home inGreenwich, Connecticut, at age 85, with Miriam and their daughter Randy at his bedside.[1] Paar's body was cremated and his ashes were returned to his family.[24]
| Media offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Host ofThe Tonight Show July 29, 1957 – March 30, 1962 | Succeeded by |
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| National | |
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| Other | |