Jack Paar; Tonight Show
Jack Paar on the Tonight Show
February 11, 1960: Jack Paar walks off a live telecast of the Tonight Show. The day before, Paar told a risqué joke. It was censored before broadcast. Rather than the joke, the network opted to include some news coverage and didn’t inform the star of the change in plans. While the joke does contain some double entendres, they are mild by today’s standards. The times were different and the network acted in what they thought was a reasonable manner. Paar told Hugh Downs, the announcer, before the show that he was quitting. In the middle of the show Paar walked off.
Downs initially thought Paar was kidding and waited for his return. It became obvious it wasn’t a joke and Downs was left to finish the show. Paar left the country to travel and his unusual departure became national news. His friend, Jonathan Winters, a stand-up comedian, encouraged Paar to return. He reappeared, back as host of the show, on March 7. He admitted his impetuousness and hoped to do better.
He was controversial before this. In 1959 he interviewed Fidel Castro and in December of that year asked Mickey Rooney to leave the show when he was obviously drunk. In 1961, he was in Germany as the Berlin Wall was going up. He had some public feuds with some other stars, notably Ed Sullivan and Walter Winchell. Paar had a loyal fan base as well as regular guests such as Cliff Arquette [playing Charlie Weaver], Peggy Cass, and Dody Goodman. He also introduced the idea of a “guest host” and had Johnny Carson relieve him on occasion.
Paar enjoyed the humor and entertainment portion of the show, but also wanted a more intellectual aspect. He had brilliant speakers on such as Peter Ustinov and William F. Buckley, Jr. The show lasted 105 minutes at the time and was broadcast five days per week. Paar was emotional and unpredictable. Putting the show together five times a week was a strain for all involved. He was “bone tired” of the grind, according to TV Guide. He quit hosting the show for good on March 29, 1962 – but in a more conventional manner. He had replaced Steve Allen as host and would be followed by Johnny Carson.
“An English lady is visiting Switzerland. She asks about the location of the ‘W.C.’ The Swiss, thinking she is referring to the ‘Wayside Chapel’, leaves her a note that said (in part) ‘the W.C. is situated nine miles from the room that you will occupy… It is capable of holding about 229 people and it is only open on Sunday and Thursday… It may interest you to know that my daughter was married in the W.C. and it was there that she met her husband… I shall be delighted to reserve the best seat for you, if you wish, where you will be seen by everyone.’” – the infamous joke
“I am leaving The Tonight Show. There must be a better way of, uh, making a living than this.” – Jack Paar, just before walking off the show.
“As I was saying before I was interrupted…” – Jack Paar, on his return
“When I walked off, I said there must be a better way of making a living. Well, I’ve looked… and there isn’t.” – Jack Paar
Also on this day:
Pennsylvania Hospital – In 1752, the first hospital in the colonies opened.
Anthracite coal – In 1808, a new home heating method was found.
Jack said to me that that there was no joke intended, only that he thought the real life incident was amusing and that he was trying to tease a guest into talking about it. Jack said to me that the guest probably tried to put the incident into fiction by calling Jack’s words a joke so that nobody would believe Jack that the incident never really happened, which Jack thought would hurt his credibility. This type of trying to get something out of a guest was used much by Johnny Carson later as Jack Paar’s replacement. With Johnny Carson people thought it was funny but the first time it happened to Jack there was no fun, to Jack.
By the way, I appeared on The Jack Paar Show a few times and this “joke” incident was after I turned down a contract offer to replace him. I stayed friends with him and the crew in Burbnk, visiting sometimes.
I have a feeling that “Anonymous” is Jack Carter. Am I correct?
Anonymous is a liar. Johnny Carson was not Jack Paar’s replacement. When that lie came out Jack called me to say that the only replacement ever considered was me by the the big boys. Johnny hoped so and I called Johnny to tell him about Jack walking out. Think of NBC’s reasoning then- I pulled in 20 million-24 million viewers every show(my half hour only) and I was friends with more powerful politicians and big-name entertainers than Johnny even knew the names of(he proved that with his bungling of the names of the guests when he subbed two times for Jack, then continued that inepitude(he REALLY needed a sidekick like Ed to keep him from forgetting things on stage)). Johnny did not work at his employment- he left at the end of whatever job to do anything else but work. He had to have a cheat sheet for guests and jokes and everything else.
By the way- I rejected NBC’s contract offer to replace Jack Paar because of a prior project- the Three Gorges Project in China that requred my 24 hours per day attention that now produces electric pwer to over two billion(2,000,000,000) people every day and has stopped cold the 200,000 per year deaths caused by the Yantze(Yellow) River flooding. Breathing has always been more important to me than laughing.
I remember stopping by to say hi to Jack when I noticed that Fidel Castro’s guards and the police there were having a terrible time with ONE woman, a studio employee, who wanted to kiss Fidel. As I walked over to Fidel I spun my fingers around my ears and then gesturing about all of them to say to Fidel that they were all crazy. He laughed and smiled and shook my hand. Politics were not for him and I at that moment. Him and I were having fun watching crazy people!
About the “joke”- Jack said to me that that there was no joke intended, only that he thought the real life incident was amusing and that he was trying to tease a guest into talking about it. Jack said to me that the guest probably tried to put the incident into fiction by calling Jack’s words a joke so that nobody would believe Jack that the incident never really happened, which Jack thought would hurt his credibility. This type of trying to get something out of a guest was used much by Johnny Carson later as Jack Paar’s replacement. With Johnny Carson people thought it was funny but the first time it happened to Jack there was no fun, to Jack.
By the way, I appeared on The Jack Paar Show a few times and this “joke” incident was after I turned down a contract offer to replace him. I stayed friends with him and the crew in Burbnk, visiting sometimes.
On the afternoon of Barbra Streisand’s first appeareance on The Jack Paar Show, it was so cold that I tried to warm Barbra’s hands by rubbing them fast, offstage in the temporary studio for the show, just before she went onstage. She went on before me. I always went on last, mainly because the audiences had been seeing stadiums rock on tv when I went on saturday and sunday tv football and baseball games- tv audiences got carried away trying to give me as much a greeting as the stadium people. The shear numbers of loving fans is why I could go up to Barbra and start rubbing her hands to warm them up- no big star adoration of her from me because I was used to 50,000 to 100,000 fans cheering me. She was “only” a sweet lovable girl to me. The best.
Who the hell is Bobby Dias and why does he think anyone knows him?
Very good point- you do prove that a used piece of toilet paper is BROWN. Everybody on earth knows that, so YOU are very famous! Brown- are you proud of the lack of respect you have for others and the respect you have earned? BROWN is a very popular color!
By the way- Jack used his legs to walk but he did not “walk off”- the bosses knew when he was leaving. He set up everything with nobody around so that there would not be an audience to lose time to only hear a few words of good-bye and there would be no expense for a stage crew to pay. He did it in the morning not the afternoon normal time. I did not hold NBC to the balance of my contract with them. Show ended,period. Copycat shows with Johnny Carson and Jay Leno came later. Good guys but still tried to copy characteristics of Paar and myself-Carson and Leno failed at creating their own jokes.