July 29, 1957- March 30,1962. 

Joined in progress. Jack Paar talks with guest Johnny Mercer who reveals his own personal greatest songs...discusses royalties, etc. He states that Bing Crosby is his favorite singer. Mercer sings a medley of songs including, "I'm An Old Cow Hand," "Atkinson Topeka & the Santa Fe," & "Accent the Positive."  Marian Marlowe sings "Autumn Leaves." Jack talks with Virginia Graham who recounts a long story. 

Interesting and revealing discussion between Paar and guest Jockey Billy Pearson who tells of the time he and John Huston 
were together and Huston wanted to ride Pearson's Ferrari and thought the tachometer was telling him what his speed was as they drove all around France. 

Charles Schwartz, dog trainer, discusses with Jack the different breeds of dogs. 

*Most of this series does not survive in any broadcast form. Kinescopes were discarded, burned, decomposed...whereabouts unknown. 2" Quadruplex Video Tape was expensive ($300 for a one hour reel), weighting 26 pounds, requiring great storage space. Video Tape could easily be erased and was used for new program recordings...retained briefly for a re-run and then erased or discarded. Legend has it that even Jack Paar himself hired a junk man to come to his home garage and paid to have JACK PAAR TONIGHT SHOW recordings discarded (reels of kinescopes and video tapes) that were now cluttering up his space. 

During this era in television history archiving television programming was not a primary concern or vision, and considered an arcane pursuit. 

ARCHIVAL TELEVISION AUDIO, INC. retains over 70 complete and excerpt JACK PAAR TONIGHT SHOW air checks (34 hours), including the complete Jack Paar's first anniversary telecast which was broadcast live from Havana Cuba (June 28, 1958). These originally recorded off the air pristine sound direct line 1/4" reel to reel audio tracks, recorded at the time of the original broadcasts, represent the only broadcast record of a "lost" visual telecast. ATA is the largest single repository (one collection), in the United Sates of Jack Paar Tonight Shows recordings. The combined archives of The Library of Congress, Paley Center for Media, and UCLA Film & Television retain a composite total of 13 hours of representative JACK PAAR TONIGHT SHOW broadcasts excerpts...none complete. 



 For four years and eight months Jack Paar reigned supreme as host of the TONIGHT SHOW with a crew of regulars, but only two stayed with him for the entire run; announcer Hugh Downs and band leader Jose Melis, a former army buddy. Familiar faces who appeared many times with Jack included Dody Goodman, Betty Johnson, Elsa Maxwell, Alexander King, Genevieve, Jack Douglas; and wife Reiko, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Hans Conreid, Peggy Cass, Cliff (Charley Weaver) Arquette, and Jonathan Winters.

 Hugh Downs substituted for Jack Paar 79 times, more than any other substitute host. There were 20 different substitute hosts for Paar over the period of the series run. Joey Bishop substituted for Paar 31 times. Arlene Francis, 30 times, Jonathan Winters, 26 times, Orson Bean, 21 times and Johnny Carson 15 times. All together there were 243 broadcasts which had substitute hosts filling in for Paar during Jack Paar's TONIGHT SHOW tenure. The title of the late night broadcast changed to THE JACK PAAR SHOW which took effect on February 3, 1958. The first video-taped broadcast aired on January 5, 1959. "Best of Paar " Re-runs began on July 10,1959. Beginning July 20, 1959 Jack Paar began taking off Monday nights & guest hosts would substitute for him (approximately on alternate Mondays). The first color broadcast aired on September 19, 1960.
Theme music, "Everything is Coming Up Roses" was first used beginning in the Fall of 1959. 

Location broadcast telecasts of the program telecast away from the Hudson Theater in New York City occurred 14 times during this series run. 

Jan. 13-17, 1958                     Miami Beach, Florida
July 28, 1958                        Havana,Cuba           
Nov. 3-21, 1958                      Hollywood, California
March 2-20, 1959                     Hollywood, California
Nov. 10-12, 1959                  Nassau, Bahamas (Video Tape)
Nov. 30- Dec. 10, 1959               Hollywood, California
March 28-April 1, 1960            London, England (Video Tape)
Nov.9-11, 1960                    Hawaii (Video Tape) - b&w
Nov.14-24, 1960                     Hollywood, California
March 21-24, 1961                 London, England (Video Tape)
Sept. 12-14, 1961                 West Berlin (Video Tape)
Nov. 14-17, 1961                  Hollywood, California (Tape)
Nov. 21-24, 1961                  Hollywood, California (Tape)
March 13-16, 1962                 London, England (Video Tape)




                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

February 26, 1951-April 26, 1968

"The Late Show" which for years would be New York's top feature film show, premiered on WCBS TV New York on Feb. 26, 1951 "The Late Late Show" followed not long after, as did "The Early Show." As its run accumulated, WCBS would commemorate its  anniversary the week of Feb. 26 in different ways. On Feb. 26, 1963, for example, Ch. 2 celebrated "The Late Show's 4,327th broadcast...12th anniversary by inaugurating an extended broadcast day that ended after 5 A.M., unprecedented for its time.

The standard opening of "The Late Show" had the announcer state the title of the film, its cast and some additional relevant anecdotal piece of information related to the film. The musical opening was "The Syncopated Clock," written by Leroy Anderson and recorded by Percy Faith in 1951 (released by Columbia Records). The catchy melody was noticed by the producers of the new WCBS-TV program "The Late Show," that was to be the station's first venture into late night television. Faith's rendition was chosen as the theme music for The Late Show by WCBS and several other CBS owned-and-operated stations around the country, which helped Anderson's composition become a tune that many Americans could readily hum or whistle, even if few knew the name of its composer. WCBS would also use the Faith recording to introduce a weekday afternoon movie (The Early Show) and a later-night movie offering, The Late Late Show.

In 2006 a shortened version of The Syncopated Clock theme music would become the standard opening of the Archival Television Audio, Inc. archived collection...musical intro preceding a specific mastered TV Audio Air Check, which had been processed and mastered from the original off the air recording.  


The last time the moniker "The Late Show" was broadcast on WCBS television, in New York, was April 26, 1968 (WOLF LARSEN (1958). The series lasted 17 years and two months, totaling 6,189 Movie broadcasts. Films still ran in the 11:30pm time slot afterwards, but without the "Late Show" opening. During the years to follow, thru the 1970's, other facsimile Late Show openings were created, a secondary version of the original series. 

"The Syncopated Clock" instrumental standard opening is heard. The announcer introduces "The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre." 
We're told to look for a man in a white hat, played by director John Huston, who gives a coin to Humphrey Bogart (Fred C. Dobbs' character in the film).                                                    

World Today is a radio news program broadcast over the Mutual Broadcasting System and hosted by Tony Marvin. 

Marilyn Monroe talks about actresses and actors.

Speculations on her death, personalities include Sid Sokolsky and John Huston, Israel, and England at loggerheads about what to do with convicted US spy Dr. Robert Soblen.

Host: Tony Marvin. 

                                                                                                                                                                        

October 1, 1962-March 29, 1963 (NBC); 1965-1969 (Syndicated); August 18, 1969-February 11, 1972 (CBS); 1972-1986 (Syndicated).

A musical celebration of St. Patrick's Day.                          

James Cagney, Charlie Chaplin, Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur, Humphrey Bogart,
Raoul Walsh, John Houston, John Garfield, Howard Hawks, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Walter Huston, Gregory Peck, Lee Marvin, Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles, Robert
Mitchum, Albert Maltz, Frank Capra, Dalton Trumbo, and others are personalities remembered by writer Richard Schickel in this retrospective of the 40's in the film industry. John Cassavetes narrates. Written by Richard Schickel.             

The 46th annual Academy Awards presentation broadcast live from the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion in Los Angeles, California. 
Burt Reynolds, Diana Ross, David Niven, and, John Huston serve as hosts. Director George Lucas made his Academy Award debut for American Grafitti, Katherine Hepburn made her first and only appearance at the ceremony. Susan Heyward made her last public appearance before dying of brain cancer. Producer Samuel Goldwyn is honored posthumously and Groucho Marx is presented with an honorary Academy Award for his contributions to the cinema. 

Duplicate of # 7506. 
                            

The 46th annual Academy Awards presentation broadcast live from the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion in Los Angeles, California. 
Burt Reynolds, Diana Ross, David Niven, and, John Huston serve as hosts. Director George Lucas made his Academy Award debut for American Grafitti, Katherine Hepburn made her first and only appearance at the ceremony. Susan Heyward made her last public appearance before dying of brain cancer. Producer Samuel Goldwyn is honored posthumously and Groucho Marx is presented with an honorary Academy Award for his contributions to the cinema.