Video Rarity #1…Jerry Lewis Hosts ‘Tonight’ With TK41 Shot
This is doubly rare! First, you almost never saw the TK41s on the ‘Tonight’ show with Jack Paar or Johnny Carson, but at the 3:00 minute mark, we do! Announcer and Paar sidekick Hugh Downs is off camera in Studio 6B, but to make a point in his story, Jerry walks over to him which is where we get a good look.
Second, this Lewis appearance is one of the few surviving clips of guest hosts during the Paar – Carson transition. Jack left March 30, 1962 and Johnny took over October 1, six months later, after his ABC contact had expired. The clip itself is quite historic and entertaining. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
Back in the day. with the smoking and the thing with the thing and HELLO LADY! And the boom mic dropping in once and a while.
Framingham? I used to live there! (I now live a couple of towns over.) There used to be several entertainment venues there. Most have been replaced with strip malls.
Jerry had so much energy and he was a “technoid”. He loved technical things especially in TV. He was the Tonight Show replacement host when Carson was off and Jerry wanted to cut the show from homebase with the 4 cameras used. The crew had setup a small switcher at the desk so that Jerry could use it rendering the control room useless. He wanted to direct the show and also be the talent. When NBC management heard about this a Vice President came to the studio during rehearsal and said to Jerry…. “we can’t allow this to happen”. After much discussion Jerry succumbed to NBC and rightfully so. Jerry had so much energy in whatever he did and was a very smart showman and businessman.
The band leader in this footage was Skitch Henderson.
As the microphone collector I’m much more interested in all of the BK-5 ribbon mics used. I don’t remember seeing them at the time but then I was a young teenager.
Thanks for posting, I love late night TV history. Jerry is one of the few showbiz personalities from this era that is still around. Don Rickles is the other one.
Interesting to see the Teleprompter scrolling back and forth although he’s in no position to read from it.