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Ex-"Tonight Show" Host Paar Ailing
Celebrated Tonight Show host Jack Paar, now 84, is recovering in a Greenwich, Connecticut, hospital after suffering a stroke over the weekend.
The legendary entertainer, who introduced the sofa-and-desk set format to late-night television, is in fair condition, according to officials at Greenwich Hospital on Wednesday.
Paar occupied the emcee's hot seat on NBC's Tonight Show from 1957 to 1962, taking the late-night show from variety series to the more familiar gabfest format continued by Johnny Carson and Jay Leno.
Outwardly humble, Paar once told listeners, "It's almost impossible to dislike me because I do nothing." But a quick look at his résumé proves him wrong.
Born in 1918 in Canton, Ohio, Paar got his start in local radio. After a stint in the army entertaining troops with his parodies of WWII brass, Paar scored a summer replacement gig in 1947 on the Jack Benny radio show.
For the next 10 years, he bounced between hosting duties on quiz and variety shows like Up to Paar and The Morning Show and the occasional stint as an actor. In 1951, Paar had a bit part as the boyfriend of young ingenue Marilyn Monroe in Love Nest.
Paar was brought in to rescue the ailing Tonight Show in 1957, six months after the departure of original host Steve Allen. He wasted no time bringing the show up to par with a who's who of the era guest list, including Richard Nixon and Judy Garland and fresh young faces like Woody Allen and Bill Cosby.
A straight shooter (and edgy for his era), Paar caused controversy when he took the show on the road, broadcasting from Cuba and the Great Wall in China. Famous for his long-running feuds with rivals and newspaper columnists, he once stormed off mid-show after the network censored a joke using the word "water closet." Paar returned after a four-week absence, opening with, "As I was saying before being interrupted..."
Since his retirement from the biz in 1975, Paar has made few public appearances although he was honored at a Museum of Radio and Television gala in 1997. A year later, Paar was hospitalized after undergoing triple heart bypass surgery, complicated by an embolism discovered during the operation.
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