Monday, January 10, 2011

Paperback 380: I Kid You Not / Jack Paar (Giant Cardinal 103)

Paperback 380: Giant Cardinal GC-103 (1st ptg, 1961)

Title: I Kid You Not
Author: Jack Paar
Cover artist: photo

Yours for: $6

GC103.KidYouNot

Best things about this cover:
  • It is the all-important time of 5:03. No, wait, that must be 12:24 (a.m.). That is the longest hour hand I've ever seen.
  • There are few things about this picture that do *not* say serial killer. I think he got that pinky ring off his last victim.
  • I know Jack Paar from such places as crossword puzzles. That is the only way that I know Jack Paar. I kid you not.

GC103bc.KidYouNot

Best things about this back cover:
  • A guy this wacky surely deserves a more colorful back cover layout—more colors, a wobbly font, something...
  • Are the U-turns in the first paragraph literal or metaphorical?
  • I can't wait to read about his feud with Mickey Rooney.
  • Why would someone put a filter-tip on a firecracker? "Paradox put to paper"? Some young copywriter was bucking for a promotion. I pray he (or she) did not receive it.

Page 123~

The two young giraffes, which stood about ten feet high, had scarcely teetered down the gangplank on their spindly legs when government inspectors pounced on them.

Well this book has taken an odd turn.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

2 comments:

borky said...

I'm obviously not sleeping enough.

The blurb on the back actually said:

He turned TONIGHT into day -

I read:

He turns GAY tonight!

What made me realise I'd misread it was I took another look at his picture and thought: no, no, he turned GAY long, long ago...

capewood said...

At one time, Jack Paar was late night TV. There was no other, the Tonight Show was the only late night talk show on TV. I can just barely remember him (I was really too young to be staying up so late) but what I remember I remember fondly. I'm pretty sure I read this book, I think my parents, who watched the Tonight Show religiously, had it.