Word: jacks
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Characters. Paar's plans consisted mostly of organized planlessness. During the past year Jack has tantalized a tame lion with doses of catnip, tangled with a pickpocket named Dominique, who lifted his wallet, belt and wrist watch, sweated through a few falls with a professional wrestler named Killer Kowalski. He has worn funny hats, taken off his pants, climbed up the studio walls. But always, the high points were provided by the talkers - guided or goaded, driven or drawn out by Jack...
...whose irrelevance and irreverence were fun until Paar got rid of her in an unseemly family squabble (TIME, March 24). Elsa Maxwell appeared for weekly off-with-their-heads chats, chopped at so many well-known necks (including Winchell's, Presley's, Princess Grace's) that Jack was only half kidding when he rolled his eyes and groaned: "Call the lawyers." For a few frenetic nights, Zsa Zsa Gabor leaned over her cleavage and rattled her host into some now famous fluffs. "It will cut him!" she squealed, in the middle of his Norelco razor pitch...
...match, and an oldtime comedian named Cliff Arquette, with drooping pants and rustic repartee. Despite her sophisticated air, it is naively charming Genevieve who represents innocence on the show and Cliff, despite his cornball appearance, whose trigger-quick ad libs speak for sophistication. But the biggest character remains Jack Paar - and he represents neither innocence nor sophistication, but something in between...
...life, almost every night is opening night. Each show is preceded by a private warmup, ranging from gnawing anxiety to panic. During the hours of preparation-which must end in laughter or failure-Paar is probably doing his hardest work. At noon on a recent, typical pre-show day, Jack was prowling his barn-red twelve-room house in suburban Bronxville, N.Y. His breakfast had been spoiled by an unfriendly newspaper comment on the previous night's show; now he was worried about the coming performance...
What to do? He calls Assistant Producer Monty Morgan at his Manhattan office. "It looks pretty nothing tonight," Jack complains. "The red flag is up. We're in trouble, we're really in trouble...