Jack Harold Paar was an American talk show host, author, radio and television comedian, and film actor.
33 Facts About Jack Paar
2.
Jack Paar was the second host of The Tonight Show from 1957 to 1962.
3.
Jack Paar moved with his family to Jackson, Michigan, about 40 miles south of Lansing, as a child.
4.
Jack Paar contracted tuberculosis when he was 14 and left school at 16.
5.
Jack Paar first worked near home as a radio announcer at WIBM in Jackson, Michigan.
6.
Jack Paar went on to working as a humorous disc jockey at other Midwest stations, including WJR in Detroit, WIRE in Indianapolis, WGAR in Cleveland, and WBEN in Buffalo.
7.
Jack Paar, he recalled doing utility duty at WGAR in 1938 when Orson Welles broadcast his famous simulated alien invasion, The War of the Worlds, over the CBS network.
8.
Jack Paar was drafted into the Army in 1943 during World War II, interrupting his tenure as host of WBEN's morning show The Sun Greeter's Club.
9.
Jack Paar was a clever, wisecracking master of ceremonies; he narrowly escaped being disciplined when he impersonated senior officers, especially Col.
10.
Jack Paar worked in radio as a fill-in on The Breakfast Club show and appeared as a host of Take It or Leave It, a show with a top prize of $64.
11.
Jack Paar got his big break when Jack Benny, who had been impressed by Paar's USO.
12.
Jack Paar was enough of a hit on Benny's show that Benny's sponsor, the American Tobacco Company, decided to keep him on the air, moving him to ABC for the fall season.
13.
Jack Paar signed as a contract player for Howard Hughes' RKO studio in the immediate postwar period, appearing as the emcee in Variety Time, a low-budget compilation of vaudeville sketches.
14.
Jack Paar projected a pleasant personality on film, and RKO called him back to emcee another filmed vaudeville show, Footlight Varieties.
15.
Jack Paar appeared in the 1950 film Walk Softly, Stranger, starring Joseph Cotten.
16.
Jack Paar returned to radio in 1950, hosting The $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.
17.
Jack Paar got his first taste of television in the early 1950s, appearing as a comic on The Ed Sullivan Show, and hosting two game shows, Up To Jack Paar and Bank on the Stars, before hosting The Morning Show on CBS.
18.
When network censors cut a joke about a "water closet" from the show's February 10,1960, broadcast tape before airtime without warning, Jack Paar received national attention by walking off the program the following evening in protest, leaving announcer Hugh Downs to finish the show.
19.
Jack Paar did not return until three weeks later, after the network apologized and he was allowed to tell the joke.
20.
Jack Paar signed off the show for the last time on March 29,1962, spending much of that final program ripping his enemies in the press, notably gossip columnists Walter Winchell and Dorothy Kilgallen.
21.
Green claimed that Jack Paar had created more stars than Major Bowes.
22.
Jack Paar agreed, deciding on a variation of his late-night format and titling the show The Jack Paar Program.
23.
Jack Paar showed film clips of The Beatles performing, one month before their famous live appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.
24.
The final segment of the series, broadcast on June 25,1965, featured Jack Paar sitting alone on a stool, sharing a discussion that he had with his daughter Randy, who called Jack Paar's departure a sabbatical.
25.
Jack Paar has appeared in occasional specials for the network until 1970.
26.
Jack Paar stayed on the show, which was in direct competition with Tonight, for one year before quitting.
27.
Jack Paar later expressed discomfort with developments in television media and once said he had trouble interviewing people dressed in "overalls", a reference to young rock acts.
28.
Jack Paar participated in the 1987 TV retrospective show "This Is Your Life" honoring Betty White, sharing an anecdote about trying to fix her up with someone before she met Allen Ludden.
29.
In 1984, Paar came out of retirement for the Museum of Broadcasting's "Tribute to Jack Paar", produced by Kevin Doherty, making two live appearances in New York.
30.
Jack Paar was married twice to his first wife, Irene Jack Paar.
31.
Jack Paar then married his second wife, Miriam Wagner, in 1943, and they remained together until his death.
32.
Jack Paar had triple-bypass heart surgery in 1998 and suffered a stroke in 2003.
33.
Jack Paar's body was cremated, and his ashes returned to his family.