February 11, 1960: Jack Paar, host of The Tonight Show on NBC, walks off the stage, intending never to return. It was the biggest scandal American television had seen since Arthur Godfrey fired Julius La Rosa 7 years earlier.
The Tonight Show had begun in 1954, with Steve Allen as host. He built a career as a comedian and a game-show host, before being named host of The Tonight Show on July 29, 1957. His original announcer was Franklin Pangborn, famous as a comedic actor in the 1930s, but he was soon fired, for "not showing spontaneous enthusiasm." His health may have been a factor, as he died a year later. He was replaced by NBC journalist Hugh Downs, who stayed with Paar to the end.
It was Paar, born in Canton, Ohio in 1918, who made The Tonight Show an entertainment juggernaut. He strove for compelling conversation as well as humor. His guests tended to be literate raconteurs such as Peter Ustinov, or intellectuals such as William F. Buckley Jr., as opposed to just actors or other performers selling their current work, while Paar earned a reputation as a superb storyteller, with what became a catchphrase, "I kid you not."
The show was not broadcast live. Rather, it was recorded on kinescope, then on videotape, for broadcast at 11:30 PM. On February 10, 1960, Paar told this joke:
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."
NBC censors refused to broadcast that joke, because, for most Americans, "W.C." meant "water closet," which meant "room with a toilet in it." They replaced that section of the show with news coverage. That was bad enough. For Paar, the dealbreaker was that they didn't tell him about it beforehand.
So, the next night, February 11, Paar told Downs he was quitting the show. Downs thought he was joking. But, sitting at his desk, Paar said this:
And then Paar got up, and walked off the stage. Downs later said he still expected Paar to return, but the abrupt departure left Downs to finish the broadcast himself.
Under almost any other circumstances, that would have been the end of it. NBC would have accepted that Paar was gone, replaced him the next night, banned him from the network for life, and moved on. But The Tonight Show wasn't just The Tonight Show. Most people weren't even calling it The Tonight Show. They were calling it The Jack Paar Show. And it was, as Paar said, their highest money-producing show. Could NBC air The Tonight Show without Jack Paar?
For a few days, while, they tried, but the ratings really dropped off. But both the network and Paar seemed to proud to compromise. (After all, NBC was the "Peacock Network," using the peacock, a bird often said to be "proud," to symbolize color programming.) Finally, Paar's friend, comedian Jonathan Winters, talked him into going back.
On March 7, 1960, Paar strolled on stage, struck a pose, and said, "As I was saying before I was interrupted...". After the audience erupted in applause, Paar continued, "I believe my last words were that there must be a better way of making a living than this. Well, I've looked... and there isn't." That line produced a burst of laughter from the audience.
He then went on to explain his departure with typical frankness: "Leaving the show was a childish and perhaps emotional thing. I have been guilty of such action in the past, and will perhaps be again. I'm totally unable to hide what I feel. It is not an asset in show business, but I shall do the best I can to amuse and entertain you, and let other people speak freely, as I have in the past."
Paar continued to host through 1960, having both major-part Presidential candidates, John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King, as guests. He stayed on through 1961, and into 1962.
But the show was an hour and 45 minutes, and doing that 5 times a week proved too much. He made a deal with NBC to not do the show on Monday nights, and reruns were aired instead. He also cut Fridays, so there were only 3 new shows a week. Finally, on March 30, 1962, Paar gave up for good, this time peacefully.
On October 1, after a few months of trying out guest hosts, NBC handed The Tonight Show over to Johnny Carson. They cut the show back to 1 hour and 30 minutes, eventually to 1 hour in 1980. And, like Paar, he would drop new Monday shows, and also new Tuesday shows.
NBC didn't want to lose Paar to another network, so they offered him The Jack Paar Program, in prime time on Friday nights. One night, he had having Liberace and rising boxer Cassius Clay, the future Muhammad Ali, on at the same time. Clay even recited his signature poetry while Liberace accompanied him on piano. He traveled to other countries with film crews, for broadcast later, interviewing such personalities as Albert Schweitzer.
On November 15, 1963, he showed film of The Beatles, the 1st time they ever appeared on American TV. He joked about their long hair, their sound, and their lyrics (in the clip, they were singing, "She Loves You," with its "Yeah, yeah, yeah"). His audience, not full of teenagers, went along with it. Two months later, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" hit Number 1, but Paar never had them on the show again. (In a 1956 appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, he mocked Elvis Presley. So it wasn't just that he didn't like The Beatles: He didn't like rock and roll.)
The Jack Paar Program aired until 1965. In 1973, ABC aired Jack Paar Tonite on Saturday nights, but after 11 years of Carson, and other talk shows, including a successful one by Paar's former writer Dick Cavett, Paar seemed passé, and the show was canceled after 31 installments.
He only appeared on Carson's version of The Tonight Show twice. In 1992, after 30 years, 10 in New York and 20 in Los Angeles (well, Burbank), Carson retired, and Jay Leno was named the host. Later in the year, Leno took the show back to 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York for a week, and invited Paar to be his first guest. Of the chair he was sitting in, he told Leno, "Mrs. Roosevelt sat in this chair. JFK sat in this chair. Dr. King sat in this chair. Never let Madonna sit in this chair!" The next night, Leno, his deference to his predecessor apparently finished, let Madonna sit in that chair.
Jack Paar died in 2004. He was 85 years old.
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February 11, 1960 was a Thursday. Baseball and football were out of season. There were 3 games played in the NBA:
* The New York Knicks lost to the Syracuse Nationals, 116-109 at the Onondaga County War Memorial (now the Upstate Medical University Arena) in Syracuse, New York.
* The Philadelphia Warriors beat the St. Louis Hawks, 139-120 at the Philadelphia Civic Center. Wilt Chamberlain did not play for the Warriors in this game. Joe Graboski did, and led all scorers on the night with 36 points.
* And the Cincinnati Royals beat the Minneapolis Lakers, 111-108 at the Minneapolis Armory. The next season, the Lakers moved to Los Angeles.
There was 1 game played in the NHL: The Boston Bruins beat the Detroit Red Wings, 3-2 at the Boston Garden.
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