Rare Jack Paar Images…A Camera In A Limo? Yep, And MORE!
Rare Jack Paar Images…A Camera In A Limo? Yep, And MORE!
On this Anniversary of Jack’s ascendance to host of the “Tonight” show, here are a few real pictorial rarities.
ABOVE: On July 29, 1957, Jack became the host of “TONIGHT”but before that he was a CBS man, starting in ’54, he had been the host of the CBS morning show. On November 22, 1957, Edward R. Murrow interviewed the new NBC man, live on “Person To Person”. Since there is no video, we don’t know if the limo moved, but none the less, they did part of the interview from inside the car. That would have been very hard to do with cables and all, but WOW…it would sure have been interesting to see!
This is from the first year in NBC Studio 6B, in 1960, after the move from The Hudson Theater. I think by the time the show went to color in September of ’60, the studio was redone because it looks pretty beat up here.
This is the only still image I have ever seen of the moment Paar walked off the show, after shaking hands with Hugh Downs, who had to take over then. There was a video tape of this, but I think it is long gone, and I would bet this is from a replay of the show later that night. Thanks to some enterprising crew member, we have a shot of it.
This is the set Paar inherited from Steve Allen at The Hudson Theater and is from the third month of the show. Seen with Jack are staff members, plus announcer Hugh Downs and Cliff Arquette (aka Charlie Weaver). (back row standing l-r) Writer Walter Kempley, program feature editor Chris Carrol, talent relations Tommy Cochran, assistant to Jack Paar Mitzi Matravers, unit manager John Carsey, floor manager John Lynch, Marty Morgan, program manager William Levi Anderson.
From 1958, this is Jack’s second “Tonight” set at The Hudson Theater. I think this was added in early ’58.
A rarely-known fact is that, for several years in the 1960’s, Jack Paar owned WMTW-TV in Poland Spring, Maine, the A-B-C affiliate for Portland. About 1964, he paid around $23,000 to have the market’s first color t-e-l-e-c-I-n-e unit. [Pardon the printing of some words-blame a Kindle spellchecker.] More can be found about 2:10 into a segment from their 2014 60th anniversary special at: wmtw.com/60thanniversary. Excellent treatment by a relatively small-market station of its history.
I saw the show in 6B in March 1961 when Paar was in England. Hugh Downs did one hour, and we sat and watched Paar on the monitors.