![]() ![]() On the other hand, Levant, who typically played piano on the “Tonight” show, where he was one of Paar’s semi-regulars, had never been more honest with the public, nor had he ever been funnier. Levant make it or wouldn’t he?” In Gould’s view, Paar “was inviting the viewing audience to dabble in cliff-hanging psychiatry” and had been disturbingly willing to “capitalize on an individual’s personal disturbances” and to “condone jokes on the subject of people who are confined or must be accompanied by attendants upon going into the outside world.” ![]() ![]() Paar did,” wrote Jack Gould back then in the New York Times, “was play a public game of cat-and-mouse on the general subject of emotional instability. ![]() New York - In November 1958, the brilliant composer, concert pianist and outré humorist Oscar Levant, then under medical supervision, appeared live on NBC’s “Tonight” show with Jack Paar in front of millions of Americans.Īudiences had no idea whether they watching the most daring, dramatic and hilarious talk-show appearance they ever had seen, or an appalling exploitation by Paar of an emotionally disturbed and profoundly ill man. ![]()
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