P.S. Jack Paar

Jack Paar, while almost forgotten today, was the originator of the talk show as we know it today: the host of "The Tonight Show" before Johnny Carson. Paar was one of the best monologists that ever lived and Carson owed a great deal of the personality he created to Paar's innovations. Paar was more cerebral in his interviews (although he was not above some comical mugging on frequent occasions) and he was fascinating to listen to in the now-lost art of conversation. Paar quit "Tonight" in early 1962 and sadly, no videotapes of those early shows exist as far as I know, to showcase the fascinating array of people he surrounded himself with, such as Elsa Maxwell, "The Hostess with the Mostess", the hypocondriact Oscar Levant, Jonathan Winters, and a host of other great as well as unknown guests. I was a pre-teen in those years and loved to listen and watch the shows which were done on such a low budget that they wouldn't qualify for a local cable-access show today. But color, fancy sets, and big budgets weren't the reason you loved to watch Paar. It was the spontaneous and unscripted unpredictability of the show as well as the captivating conversation that kept it fascinating. The first four of Paar's books were basically ghosted by a friend of his who was an editor of "Reader's Digest", and if you are not a fan of the style of humor in that magazine (and I am not), then you may find the stories interesting but the style in which they are composed somewhat off-putting. The last book, "P.S. Jack Paar" was written by Paar himself, and basically recounts stories told in more (but not necessarily better) detail in the first four books. Paar's personal style of writing mirrored his public persona perfectly and I found this book the best of the bunch (and I have read them all). There didn't seem to be a phony bone in Paar's body. He was modest in his accomplishments and open and honest about his failures and shortcomings. For those of my generation (a child of the 50's), this will be a delightful walk down memory lane: a look at a world that no longer exists. For younger readers, it is an entertaining read and perhaps an introduction to an age, and an innovator, they might want to learn more about.