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Jack Paar

Jack Paar, American comedian, author and talk show host (died 2004)

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Born
May 1, 1918
Died
January 27, 2004
Zodiac sign
Taurus
Birth year
1918

About Jack Paar

Jack Harold Paar was an American talk show host, writer, radio and television comedian, and film actor. He was the second host of The Tonight Show from 1957 to 1962. Time magazine's obituary of Paar reported wryly, "His fans would remember him as the fellow who split talk show history into two eras: Before Paar and Below Paar." With Paar as host, the show became a ratings success and generated annual advertising sales as high as $15 million (equivalent to $160 million in 2025). During the first half of 1964, a mock feud pitted Paar against his lead-in program, Englishman David Frost's news-satire series That Was the Week That Was.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Career and life highlights

Jack Paar timeline

  1. During the first half of 1964, a mock feud pitted Paar against his lead-in program, Englishman David Frost's news-satire series That Was the Week That Was.
  2. With Paar as host, the show became a ratings success and generated annual advertising sales as high as $15 million (equivalent to $160 million in 2025).

The world when Jack Paar was born

Jack Paar was born in 1918. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1918

  • Best-selling book"The U.P. Trail" – Zane Grey

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentWorld Series played in September due to WWI
  • Top headlineWorld War I ends — Spanish Flu pandemic begins
  • Technology milestoneFirst regular airmail service
  • World population~1.78B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderWoodrow Wilson
  • U.S. population102.0M

1918 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Jack Paar's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19182026
Gas$0.25$3.45/gal
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population102.0M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.