Jack Paar, at 85; witty host reshaped late-night television

Jack Paar, who as host of "The Tonight Show" from 1957 to 1962 effectively created the late-night talk show as a television genre, died yesterday at his home in Greenwich, Conn. He was 85 and had suffered a stroke last year.

In a statement, Johnny Carson, who succeeded Mr. Paar as host of "Tonight," called him "a unique personality who brought a new dimension to late-night television."

Longtime syndicated talk-show host Merv Griffin told the Associated Press: "Jack invented the talk-show format as we know it: the ability to sit down and make small talk big. Not only was he a great friend, he was my beginning, just as he was everyone else's."

Mr. Paar succeeded Steve Allen as the host of "Tonight." But during Allen's tenure, the show was a variety show, an electronic vaudeville. During Carson's three decades as host, the show gradually evolved back to that format.

It was conversation that Mr. Paar emphasized. He had more in common with Charlie Rose or even Oprah Winfrey than Jay Leno or David Letterman.

"I felt sure people would enjoy good, frank, and amusing talk," Mr. Paar wrote in a memoir, "I Kid You Not" (1960). The title was his catch phrase on the show.

In concentrating on the interaction between host and guest, he played to his strength. "The only time I'm nervous or scared is when I'm not talking," he said in a 1997 interview. "When I'm talking, I know that I do it well."

Mr. Paar was, perhaps, even better as a listener than a talker. His obvious interest in his guests -- or lack of it when they were not performing well -- made him a surrogate for the viewer. That willingness to sit back and listen was one reason such political figures as Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy made frequent appearances on "Tonight." After Kennedy's election as president, Mr. Paar received a note from his father, Joseph P. Kennedy. "I don't know anybody who did more, indirectly, to have Jack elected than your own good self."

Neither a comedian nor an actor, Mr. Paar filled a show-business category of one. Responding to applause at the beginning of a show once, he thanked the audience, adding: "That's the only part of my act that goes well. By the way -- what is my act?"

Mr. Paar liked to describe himself as a humorist. "To me, a comic says funny things," he said. "A humorist thinks funny things."

Mr. Paar sometimes had trouble maintaining his composure on air. Somewhat paradoxically, it became a key to his success. He could be cranky, crabby, or even tearful. The New Yorker complained about his "unacceptably sullen, tired, and arrogant tone." Yet such emotional unpredictability made watching him a constant source of interest for viewers. Mr. Paar was reality TV four decades before the term existed.

"TV's most combustible personality," the Washington Post's Tom Shales called him in 1998. "Jack Paar was so good, he seemed to be in color when TV was still black and white."

The New York Times, mourning how "painfully predictable" television had become, hailed Mr. Paar in 1962 for "almost alone [having] managed to preserve the possibility of surprise."

The most famous instance of that surprise came in February 1960. When NBC censored a story Mr. Paar had told that contained the term "W.C." (for water closet), Mr. Paar stormed off the air at the beginning of the next night's broadcast, vowing never to return. It made front-page headlines, as did his return a month later. He began his monologue that night, "As I was saying, before I was interrupted . . . ."

Jack Harold Paar was born in Canton, Ohio, the son of Howard and Lillian (Hein) Paar. A high-school dropout, he started as a radio announcer at 16 and during World War II served with Army Special Services, entertaining troops in the South Pacific.

A 1947 magazine survey named Mr. Paar "most promising star of tomorrow," but a radio fill-in slot for Jack Benny and a half-dozen supporting roles in minor Hollywood comedies did little to advance his career. He also hosted several TV game shows and a morning talk show on CBS.

"The Tonight Show" made Mr. Paar a sensation. On "Tonight," Bill Cosby and Liza Minnelli made their first appearances on network television. In addition to such newcomers, Mr. Paar also welcomed the likes of Judy Garland, Richard Burton, and a boxer then known as Cassius Clay.

Along with announcer-sidekick Hugh Downs, Mr. Paar developed a repertory company of regular guests: comedian Dody Goodman, actress Genevieve, raconteur Alexander King, actress Peggy Cass, Washington hostess Elsa Maxwell, and comedian Jonathan Winters. It's a mark of how central Mr. Paar was to the show's success that only Winters's career flourished beyond "Tonight."

From 1962 to 1965, Mr. Paar hosted a prime-time variety series, "The Jack Paar Program." It was the first US television show to present the Beatles, showing film clips of the group performing a month before the Fab Four's US debut on "The Ed Sullivan Show."

He returned to television in 1973, hosting a short-lived late-night talk show on ABC. "I knew it was time to leave when performers began appearing in their underwear," Mr. Paar told the Los Angeles Times in 1991. "I am from a different age, when conversation was not on a cue card."

Mr. Paar leaves his wife, Miriam (Wagner) Paar, and a daughter, Randy Wells.

Richard Pennington of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Material from the Associated Press was also used.