CNN’s current series of documentaries about late-night television rekindled memories of working on the “Tonight Show” back when it was based in New York but shooting for three weeks in “beautiful Downtown Burbank,” as Johnny Carson joked. At 23 and new to the entertainment industry, I was taken aback to have the star appear at my desk and address me as “Sybil.” We’d never met yet he’d learned my name for what turned out to be our one interaction.
Being placed there by a temporary agency as secretary to the producer, Art Stark, was beyond exciting. I’d become a fan of the show when it was hosted by Jack Paar. Though my father would go to sleep after listening to records of Cantor Moishe Oysher and the comic Menasha Skulnik, my mother and I stayed up to see what the unpredictable Jack Paar might do. He treated the show like a confession booth, revealing intimacies, often about his daughter. Credited with creating the talk show format, he had a diverse mix of guests and did probing interviews.