Show Business: Battle of the Giants

The headlines were blacker than the Congo—and why not? The combatants, after all, were a lot more famous than Gizenga, or even Adlai Stevenson. They were Jack Paar and Ed Sullivan, two of TV's major folk heroes. Their fight was not about the future of Africa or of mankind, not even about better TV or that overripe chestnut, show business "integrity." It was about money.

The weekly Sullivan variety show pays up to $7,500 for a few minutes' work. The nightly Paar show pays the union minimum of $320. Since the same people often appear on both programs, this made Ed, said Ed, look like a dope. Furthermore, it meant exploitation and overexposure for the performers. Out went an edict to all talent agencies: henceforth, anyone performing on Paar would get only $320 from Sullivan too.

Paar countered angrily; his show, he said, was just a latenight, "low-budget freak" (Paar time costs only a third of Sullivan time) that performers enjoyed because they could "entertain without the monkey acts and Japanese jugglers waiting in the wings." Furthermore, he added, his program is a major showcase for new performers, whom Sullivan does not readily use until they have proved themselves.

Challenging Sullivan to a rating contest, Paar accused him of being undemocratic because he issued an "ultimatum." Sullivan in turn challenged Paar to a debate—but without Jack's studio audience, which, Ed suggested, was hypnotized by Paar. Instead. Sullivan wanted to speak only to the "intellect" of Paar's viewers. To which Paar replied: "I think we have found somebody even more nutty than I am."

Nonetheless, a debate was scheduled for this week (audience present). Unless peace is declared, performers all over show business face heart-rending choices between loyalty to Paar and loot from Sullivan. In the end, though, predicted one agent. Sullivan would not be able to make the embargo stick. When he desperately wants a Paar-tainted star, he will doubtless fall back on the ancient show business rule: "Don't use that s.o.b. —unless we need him."