The Levant

The Levant ( /ləˈvænt/) ( /ləˈvænt/, Arabic: بلاد الشام‎ Bilād ash-Shām) or Arabic: المشرق العربي‎ al-Mashrīq al-'Arabiyy) is a geographic and cultural term referring to the region of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt".^[1] The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Cyprus, Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the historic area of Greater Syria; precise definitions have varied. The Levant has been described as the "crossroads of western Asia, the eastern Mediterranean and northeast Africa".^[2]

Etymology[link]

In earlier periods,^[when?] the Levant encompassed all the "Mediterranean lands east of Italy".^{[citation needed]} The term Levant, which first appeared in English in 1497, originally meant the East in general. It is borrowed from the French levant 'rising', that is, the point where the sun rises.^[3] Similar etymologies are found in Ancient Greek Ἀνατολή (cf. Anatolia), Germanic Morgenland and in the Hungarian Kelet which literally means the place of rising. Most notably, "Orient" and its Latin source oriens meaning "east", is literally "rising", deriving from Latin orior "rise".

"Capitulations"[link]

The term became current in English in the 16th century, along with the first English merchant adventurers in the region: English ships appeared in the Mediterranean in the 1570s and the English merchant company signed its agreement ("capitulations") with the Grand Turk in 1579 (Braudel).

In 19th-century travel writing, the term incorporated eastern regions under then current or recent governance of the Ottoman empire, such as Greece. In 19th-century archaeology, it referred to overlapping cultures in this region during and after prehistoric times, intending to reference the place instead of any one culture.

Since World War I[link]

The French Mandates of Syria and Lebanon, from 1920 to 1946, were called the Levant states. The term became common in archaeology at that time, as many important early excavations were made then, such as Mari and Ugarit. Since these sites could not be classified as Mesopotamian, North African, or Arabian, they came to be referred to as "Levantine."

Since World War II[link]

Today "Levant" is typically used by archaeologists and historians with reference to the prehistory and the ancient and medieval history of the region, as when discussing the Crusades. The term is also occasionally employed to refer to modern or contemporary events, peoples, states or parts of states in the same region, namely Cyprus, Iraq, Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria (compare with Near East, Middle East, Eastern Mediterranean and Western Asia). Several researchers include the island of Cyprus in Levantine studies, including the Council for British Research in the Levant,^[4] the UCLA Near Eastern Languages and Cultures department,^[5] and the UCL Institute of Archaeology,^[2] the last of which has dated the connection between Cyprus and mainland Levant to the early Iron Age. Currently, a dialect of Levantine Arabic, Cypriot Maronite Arabic, is the most-spoken minority language in Cyprus. Archaeologists seeking a neutral orientation that is neither biblical nor national have utilized terms such as Syro-Palestinian archaeology and archaeology of the southern Levant.^[6][7]

People[link]

The largest religious and ethnic group in the Levant is Sunni Muslim Arabs, but there are also many other groups. Until the mid-20th century, there were Jews all across the Levant; now most are in Israel. There are many Christian Arabs, belonging to the Antiochian Orthodox (Greek/Eastern Orthodox), Maronite Catholic, belonging to the eastern Catholic, and Oriental Orthodox churches. There are Assyrians, belonging to the Assyrian Church of the East (autonomous) and the Chaldean Catholic Church (Catholic). There are largely Sunni Muslim Kurds. There are Shia Muslims (Alawite, Twelvers, and Ismailis) and Druze. There are Armenians, mostly belonging to the Armenian Apostolic Church. There are a few Arab and Armenian Protestant Christians. There are also Latin Catholics, called Levantines or Franco-Levantines.

See also[link]

Overlapping Regional Designations

• Mashriq
• Fertile Crescent
• Mesopotamia
• Near East and Middle East

Sub-Regional Designations

• Southern Levant and History of the Southern Levant

Other

• History of the Levant
• French post offices in the Ottoman Empire ("Levant" stamps)
• Levantines (Latin Christians), Catholic Europeans in the Levant

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Braudel, Fernand, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Phillip II
• Julia Chatzipanagioti: Griechenland, Zypern, Balkan und Levante. Eine kommentierte Bibliographie der Reiseliteratur des 18. Jahrhunderts. 2 Vol. Eutin 2006. ISBN 3-9810674-2-8
• Levantine Heritage site. Includes many oral and scholarly histories, and genealogies for some Levantine Turkish families.
• Philip Mansel, Levant: Splendour and Catastrophe on the Mediterranean, London, John Murray, 11 November 2010, hardback, 480 pages, ISBN 978-0-7195-6707-0, New Haven, Yale University Press, 24 May 2011, hardback, 470 pages, ISBN 978-0-300-17264-5

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Oscar Levant
from the trailer for Rhapsody in Blue (1945)
Born	(1906-12-27)December 27, 1906 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	August 14, 1972(1972-08-14) (aged 65) Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
Years active	1923-1965
Spouse	Barbara Woodell (1932-1932) (divorced) June Gale (1939-1972; his death); 3 children

Oscar Levant (December 27, 1906 – August 14, 1972) was an American pianist, composer, author, comedian, and actor. He was as famous for his mordant character and witticisms, on the radio and in movies and television, as for his music.

Life and career[link]

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to an Orthodox Jewish family from Russia, Levant moved to New York with his mother, Annie, in 1922, following the death of his father, Max. He began studying under Zygmunt Stojowski, a well-established piano pedagogue. In 1924, aged 18, he appeared with Ben Bernie in a short film, Ben Bernie and All the Lads, made in New York City in the DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film system.

In 1928, Levant traveled to Hollywood where his career took a turn for the better. During his stay, he met and befriended George Gershwin. From 1929 to 1948 he composed the music for more than twenty movies. During this period, he also wrote or co-wrote numerous popular songs that made the Hit Parade, the most noteworthy being "Blame It on My Youth" (1934), now considered a standard.

Around 1932, Levant began composing seriously. He studied under Arnold Schoenberg and impressed him sufficiently to be offered an assistantship (which he turned down, considering himself unqualified).^[1] His formal studies led to a request by Aaron Copland to play at the Yaddo Festival of contemporary American music on April 30 of that year. Successful, Levant began on a new orchestral work, a sinfonietta. He married actress Barbara Woodell; they divorced in 1932.

In 1939, Levant married for the second time, to singer and actress June Gale (née Doris Gilmartin; June 6, 1911 – November 13, 1996), one of the Gale Sisters. Oscar and June Levant were married for 33 years, until his death in 1972; they had three children, Marcia, Lorna, and Amanda.^{[citation needed]}

At this time, Levant was perhaps best known to American audiences as one of the regular panelists on the radio quiz show Information Please. Originally scheduled as a guest panelist, Levant proved so quick-witted and popular that he became a regular fixture on the show in the late 1930s and 1940s, along with fellow panelists Franklin P. Adams and John Kieran, and moderator Clifton Fadiman. "Mr. Levant", as he was always called, was often challenged with musical questions, though he impressed audiences with his wide depth of knowledge and quickness with a joke. Kieran praised Levant as having a "positive genius for making offhand cutting remarks that couldn't have been sharper if he'd honed them a week in his mind. Oscar was always good for a bright response edged with acid".^{[citation needed]}

From 1947 to 1949, Levant regularly appeared on NBC radio's Kraft Music Hall, starring Al Jolson. He not only accompanied Jolson on the piano and played classical and popular solos, but often joked and ad-libbed with Jolson and his guests. This includes comedy sketches. The pairing of the two entertainers was inspired. Their individual ties to George Gershwin --- Jolson introduced Gershwin's "Swanee" --- undoubtedly had much to do with their rapport. Both Levant and Jolson appeared as themselves in the Gershwin biopic Rhapsody in Blue (1945).

In the early 1950s, Levant was an occasional panelist on the NBC game show, Who Said That?, in which celebrites try to determine the speaker of quotations taken from recent news reports.^[2]

Between 1958 and 1960, Levant hosted a television talk show on KCOP-TV in Los Angeles, The Oscar Levant Show, which later became syndicated. It featured his piano playing along with monologues and interviews with top-name guests such as Fred Astaire and Linus Pauling. A full recording of only two shows is known to exist,^[3] one with Astaire, who paid to have a kinescope recording of the broadcast made, so that he could assess his performance. This is likely the only Astaire performance to have imperfections, as it was live, and Levant would repeatedly change the tempo of his accompaniment to Astaire's singing during the bridges between verses, which appeared to get him quite off balance at first. He did not dance, as the studio space was extremely small.

The show was highly controversial, eventually being taken from the air after a comment about Marilyn Monroe's conversion to Judaism: "Now that Marilyn Monroe is kosher, Arthur Miller can eat her". He later stated that he "hadn't meant it that way". Several months later, the show began to be broadcast in a slightly revised format—it was taped in order to provide a buffer for Levant's antics. This, however, failed to prevent Levant from making comments about Mae West's sex life that caused the show to be canceled for good. Levant was also a frequent guest on Jack Paar's talk show, prompting Paar in later years to sign off by saying, "Good night, Oscar Levant, wherever you are." On an appearance on the Tonight Show, from New York, Levant once quipped that his Jaguar ambulance was waiting outside for him.

The 1920s and 1930s wit Alexander Woollcott, a member of the Algonquin Round Table, once said of him: "There isn't anything the matter with Levant that a few miracles wouldn't cure."^[4]

Open about his neuroses and hypochondria, Levant, in later life became addicted to prescription drugs and was frequently committed to mental hospitals by his wife. Despite his afflictions, Levant was considered a genius by some, in many areas. (He himself wisecracked "There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line.")^{[citation needed]}

Later life and death[link]

Levant drew increasingly away from the limelight in his later years. Upon his death in Beverly Hills, California of a heart attack at the age of 65, he was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. In their routines, some comics have claimed, apocryphally, and citing an old joke, that hypochondriac Levant's epitaph was inscribed, "I told them I was ill."

Filmography[link]

• Ben Bernie and All the Lads (1924), filmed in early DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film process.
• The Dance of Life (1929)
• Night Parade (1929) (uncredited)
• In Person (1935)
• Rhythm on the River (1940)
• Kiss the Boys Goodbye (1941)
• Rhapsody in Blue (1945)
• Humoresque (1946)
• Romance on the High Seas (1948), Doris Day's first picture.
• You Were Meant for Me (1948)
• The Barkleys of Broadway (1949)
• An American in Paris (1951), where he played a bohemian pianist.
• O. Henry's Full House (1952)
• The I Don't Care Girl (1953)
• The Band Wagon (1953), where his songwriter character was based on the movie's own co-screenwriter — songwriter Adolph Green.
• Rear Window (1954)
• The Cobweb (1955)
• The Oscar Levant Show (1958)
• Jack Benny Program (1958) (TV) (guest star)

Broadway[link]

• Burlesque (1927) - musical play - performer^[5]
• Ripples (1930) - musical - co-composer^[6]
• Sweet and Low (1930) - musical revue - songwriter^[7]
• The Fabulous Invalid (1938) - musical play - replacement conductor^[8]
• The American Way (1939) - musical play - conductor^[9] and composer^[10]

Memoirs[link]

• A Smattering of Ignorance, New York : Doubleday, 1940
• The Memoirs of an Amnesiac, New York : Putnam's, 1965
• The Unimportance of Being Oscar, New York : Putnam's, 1968

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger. A Talent For Genius: the Life and Times of Oscar Levant. Silman-James Press. ISBN 1-879505-39-8
• Dr Charles Barber. "The Concert Music of Oscar Levant". Department of Music, Stanford University. http://www.classical.net/music/composer/works/levant/index.php

Notes[link]

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2010)

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Oscar Levant

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Oscar Levant

• Oscar Levant at the Internet Movie Database
• Oscar Levant at the Internet Broadway Database
• Levant at Classical Net
• Ben Bernie and All the Lads (1924), a film featuring Levant as pianist, made in Phonofilm process by Lee DeForest in New York City
• Web biography
• 1958 clip from the Oscar Levant Show featuring Fred Astaire at YouTube
• Oscar Levant at Find a Grave

This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (January 2011)

Jack Paar
Birth name	Jack Harold Paar[1]
Born	(1918-05-01)May 1, 1918[1] Canton, Ohio, U.S.[1]
Died	January 27, 2004(2004-01-27) (aged 85)[1] Greenwich, Connecticut, U.S.
Medium	Television
Nationality	American
Years active	1948–1998
Genres	Observational comedy
Subject(s)	Everyday life, American culture
Influences	Will Rogers, Jack Benny
Influenced	Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin, Robert Klein, Alan King, George Carlin, Don Rickles, Tom Snyder, David Letterman, Bob Costas, Jay Leno, Robin Williams, Ben Stiller, Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Spouse	Irene Paar (twice divorced) Miriam Wagner[1] (1943–2004, his death)
Notable works and roles	Host of The Tonight Show (NBC)

Jack Harold Paar (May 1, 1918 – January 27, 2004) was an author, American radio and television comedian and talk show host, best known for his stint as host of The Tonight Show from 1957 to 1962. Time magazine's obituary noted that: "His fans would remember him as the fellow who split talk show history into two eras: Before Paar and Below Paar."^[2]

Early life and education[link]

Paar was born in Canton, Ohio, the son of Howard and Lillian M. Paar.^[1] He moved with his family to Jackson, Michigan, 30 miles south of Lansing, as a child. As a child he had a stuttering problem which he conquered.^[1] He contracted tuberculosis when he was 14, and left school at 16.^[1][3]

Career[link]

Early career[link]

He first worked near home as a radio announcer at WIBM in Jackson and later as a humorous disc jockey at Midwest stations, including WJR in Detroit, WIRE in Indianapolis, WGAR in Cleveland and WBEN in Buffalo. In his book P.S. Jack Paar, he recalled doing utility duty at WGAR in 1938 when Orson Welles broadcast his famous simulated alien invasion, The War of the Worlds over the CBS network (and affiliate WGAR). Attempting to calm possible panicked listeners, Paar announced, "The world is not coming to an end. Trust me. When have I ever lied to you?"

Paar was drafted into the military during World War II and assigned to the U.S.O in the South Pacific to entertain the troops.^[1][3][4] He was a clever, wise cracking master of ceremonies whose impersonations of officers^[3] nearly got him into trouble.

Radio and films[link]

After WWII, Paar worked in radio as a fill-in on The Breakfast Club show and appeared as a panelist on the $64 Question.^[3] He got his big break when Jack Benny, who had been impressed by Paar's U.S.O. performances, suggested that Paar serve as his 1947 summer replacement.^[3] Paar was enough of a hit on Benny's show that Benny's sponsor, American Tobacco Company decided to keep him on the air, moving him to ABC for the fall season. Paar later refused American Tobacco's suggestion that he come up with a weekly running gag or gimmick, saying he "wanted to get away from that kind of old-hat comedy, the kind being practiced by Jack Benny and Fred Allen."^[5] The show was then terminated, earning Paar an enduring image as a spoiled kid (as Dunning phrased it). A profile of Paar by the Museum of Broadcast Communications suggests that Paar later emulated Benny's mannerisms.^[3]

Paar also signed as a contract player for Howard Hughes' RKO Pictures in the immediate post war period,^[3] appearing as the emcee in the movie Variety Time (1948), a compilation of vaudeville sketches.^[6] He later recalled that RKO producers had trouble figuring out what kind of screen characters he could play, until one of the executives dubbed him, "Kay Kyser, with warmth." Paar projected a pleasant personality on film, and RKO called him back to emcee another filmed vaudeville show, Footlight Varieties (1951). Paar also appeared in the 1950 film, Walk Softly, Stranger, with Joseph Cotten.^[3] In 1951, he played Marilyn Monroe's boyfriend in the 20th Century Fox film, Love Nest.^[3]

Paar returned to radio in 1950, hosting the $64 Question for one season, then quitting in a wage dispute in the spring of 1951 after the show's sponsor pulled out and NBC insisted everyone involved take a pay cut. In 1956, he gave radio one more try, hosting a disc jockey effort, The Jack Paar Show, on ABC. Paar once described this show as "so modest we did it from the basement rumpus room of our house in Bronxville."

Television[link]

He got his first tastes of television in the early 1950s, appearing as a comic on The Ed Sullivan Show and hosting two game shows, Up To Paar (1952)^[4] and Bank on the Stars (1953), before hosting The Morning Show (1954) on CBS. He guest starred twice in 1958 on Polly Bergen's short-lived NBC comedy/variety show, The Polly Bergen Show.

[edit] The Tonight Show

Paar and John F. Kennedy in 1959

NBC asked Paar to succeed Steve Allen as host of The Tonight Show. He hosted the program from 1957 to 1962. At first, the show was called Tonight starring Jack Paar; after 1959 it was officially known as The Jack Paar Show. Paar was often unpredictable and emotional. When network censors cut a joke about a "water closet" (the British term for a toilet), on February 11, 1960, he received national attention by leaving the show and did not return until three weeks later.^[1] Paar's emotional nature made the everyday routine of putting together a 105-minute program difficult to continue for long. As a TV Guide item put it, he was "bone tired" of the grind. He signed off the show for the last time on March 29, 1962.

Prime time[link]

Because NBC did not want to lose Paar to another network, it offered him a Friday prime-time hour, giving him carte blanche on content and format. Paar agreed, deciding on a variation of his late-night format and titling his show, which first aired in the fall of 1962, The Jack Paar Program. The show had a world view, debuting acts from around the globe and showing films from exotic locations; most of the films were made on travels made by guests such as Arthur Godfrey or Paar himself (e.g., several visits with Albert Schweitzer at his compound in Gabon in Central Africa, and Mary Martin at her home in the jungles of Brazil).

Paar showed film clips of the Beatles performing, one month before their famous live appearance on the The Ed Sullivan Show.^[1][4][7]

During the first half of 1964, a mock feud pitted Paar against the show immediately preceding his program, David Frost's satire series That Was The Week That Was. A typical exchange would have That Was the Week That Was "signing off" the NBC Television Network just before the Paar program, with Paar responding that the show immediately preceding his was Henry Morgan's Amateur Hour (Morgan was a frequent guest on TW3). The feud suddenly evaporated when NBC moved That Was the Week That Was to a different time slot.

Paar's prime time show aired for three years, including guests such as Brother Dave Gardner, Peter Ustinov, Lawrence of Arabia's brother, Richard Burton, Oscar Levant, Lowell Thomas, Muhammad Ali reciting his poetry to piano accompaniment by Liberace, an occasionally funny Judy Garland, Jonathan Winters, Woody Allen, Bill Cosby (whose nickname for Paar was "The Boss"), Bette Davis, Robert Morley, Cliff Arquette (as Charlie Weaver), Dick Gregory and many others. The final closing segment of the series, broadcast on June 25, 1965, featured Paar sitting alone on a stool, sharing a discussion that he had with his daughter Randy, who called Paar's departure a sabbatical. He said that his own field was, though not completely used up, "a little dry recently." Then he called to his German shepherd, who came to him from the seats of what was, for once, an empty studio, and walked out. (Johnny Carson precisely copied this format for his own farewell episode of The Tonight Show in 1992.)

Paar continued to appear in occasional specials for the network until 1970.

Later career[link]

Paar appears on Dick Cavett's show to announce his return to television in January, 1973.

Paar came back to television on a regular basis beginning in January 1973, appearing one week a month as one of several rotating hosts on ABC's Wide World of Entertainment. Paar claimed it was the most he was willing to appear, and that he would not have appeared at all unless ABC had committed to keeping Dick Cavett, a former writer for Paar, on the air. Paar's announcer for this series was Peggy Cass, and perhaps its most notable aspect was the national television debut of comic Freddie Prinze. Paar stayed on the show, which was in direct competition with Tonight, for one year before he quit. Dissatisfied with the one-week-per-month formula, he complained that even his own mother did not know when he was on. Paar later expressed discomfort with developments in the television media and once said he had trouble interviewing people dressed in "overalls", a reference to young rock acts.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Paar made rare guest appearances on Donahue, The Tonight Show (hosted by Johnny Carson and Jay Leno) and Late Night with David Letterman, as well as Charles Grodin's CNBC talk show.

Retrospectives[link]

In 1984, Paar came out of retirement once again for the Museum of Broadcasting's "Tribute to Jack Paar", produced by Kevin Doherty, making two live appearances in New York. This led to a 1986 NBC special featuring Paar, titled Jack Paar Comes Home. The following year, a second special, Jack Paar Is Alive and Well, was broadcast by the network. Both of these specials were largely made up of kinescoped clips used at the tribute from "Tonight" and from Paar's prime time program, to which he maintained the copyright.

PBS television devoted an edition of the American Masters series to Paar's career in 1997, and in 2003 revisited the topic with another hour-long examination of the Paar phenomenon, entitled Smart Television. The program featured clips of Paar with guests including Jonathan Winters, Woody Allen, Judy Garland, Bill Cosby (in his first network appearance), Peter Ustinov, Richard Burton, John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy (in his first interview after his brother's assassination), Richard Nixon, Barry Goldwater, and many others compiled from the 1950s and 1960s, as well as more recent interviews with people who worked with Paar.

In the spring of 2004, a memorial for Jack Paar was held at The Museum of Television & Radio in New York City. Ron Simon, one of the television and radio curators at the Museum, was host and moderator with appearances and speeches by television talk show host Dick Cavett, TCM host Robert Osborne, and Paar's daughter, Randy.

Awards[link]

Paar was nominated for an Emmy for Best Performance by a Continuing Character in a Musical or Variety Series in 1951, and again nominated in 1958 for an Emmy for Best Continuing Performance in a Series by a Comedian, Singer, Host, Dancer, M.C., Announcer, Narrator, or Panelist.^[1]

Personal life[link]

Paar was twice married to his first wife Irene Paar. After divorcing, the couple remarried, only to divorce again. Paar was married to his second wife, Miriam Wagner, for nearly 61 years - from 1943 until his death in 2004. Miriam appeared on Paar's 1956–1957 ABC radio show, with their daughter.

Death[link]

Paar's health declined in the late 1990s. He died at his Greenwich, Connecticut home on January 27, 2004, with his wife and daughter Randy by his side. He had long been in ill health, having undergone triple-bypass heart surgery in 1998. He also suffered a stroke a year before he died.^[8]

Bibliography[link]

• Jack Paar (1959). My Brother was an Only Child. Dutton. pp. 96. , ASIN: B0006AVWCE
• Jack Paar (May 1, 1961). I Kid You Not. Cardinal. , ASIN: B00005W4PA
• Jack Paar (January 1, 1965). 3 On A Toothbrush: Adventures And Encounters Around The Globe. Doubleday & Company. pp. 276. , ASIN: B0012ACN9S
• Jack Paar (1983). P.S. Jack Paar: An Entertainment. Doubleday. , ASIN: B000O6439O

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jack Paar

• Jack Paar Show Podcast 1947-06-01 Disagreement in the Shade, (Jack's inaugural show)]
• Jack Paar and Jack Haskell sing the Tonight theme, "I-M-4-U" by Jose Melis
• Jack Paar at the Internet Movie Database
• Tonight Starring Jack Paar
• Richard Corliss (February 9, 2004). "Milestones: Jack Paar". TIME. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,993310,00.html. Retrieved January 2, 2011.