Jack Narz was born John Lawrence Narz Jr. in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1922, five years before his younger brother, James, who would grow up to host game shows of his own under the name Tom Kennedy. Narz flew fighter missions over the China-Burma theater during World War II before coming home to build one of the longest careers in American game show history, hosting more than a dozen programs across four decades.
His signature shows included “Concentration,” “Beat the Clock,” “Video Village,” and “Dotto,” the last of which briefly made him one of the most popular hosts on television before it became the first casualty of the 1950s quiz show scandals. Narz was cleared of any wrongdoing, and went on to a hosting career that outlasted the scandal by three decades. Along the way, he also worked steadily alongside his younger brother, sharing a business the two had entered from the same Louisville household a generation earlier.
A Louisville Family of Lithuanian Descent
Narz was born on November 13, 1922, to John and Ado Narz, a Louisville couple of Lithuanian descent. He grew up in the city alongside his sister, Mary, and his younger brother, James Edward, who was born five years later and would go on to change his own professional name to Tom Kennedy to avoid confusion between the two competing game show hosts.
A Decorated Wartime Pilot
Before he ever stepped in front of a camera, Narz served as a fighter pilot during World War II, flying missions in the China-Burma theater and earning the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service, one of the highest honors given for extraordinary achievement in aerial flight. He returned from the war and, like many veterans of the era, looked toward the growing broadcasting industry for a civilian career.
Narz enrolled at the Don Martin School of Radio Arts in Hollywood, receiving his broadcasting diploma in June 1947. He worked as an announcer at a string of Southern California radio stations before television commercial work, including spots as “Jack Narz, the man from Barr’s” for a Los Angeles men’s store, opened the door to steady on-camera work.
Early Television and a Scandal
Narz’s first sustained television fame came as the announcer and narrator of the syndicated sitcom “Life with Elizabeth,” starring Betty White, in 1952. By January 1958, he was hosting his own game show, “Dotto,” which quickly became the highest-rated daytime quiz program on television and soon expanded into a weekly primetime slot on NBC.
That popularity collapsed within months. A notebook belonging to a contestant was discovered to contain answers given to her in advance, and network executives confirmed the show had been rigged. Narz himself had grown suspicious of the contestant’s responses, later recalling that they had seemed “a little too pat,” but he had no knowledge of the scheme and was cleared after a polygraph test.
Three Decades of Steady Work
I always felt that I was a ‘day late and dollar short’ kind of guy. From that point on, that maybe there were some shows I didn’t get because… ‘He was on that show.’
— Jack Narz, on the lingering effect of the Dotto scandal on his career
Despite that setback, Narz’s career proved remarkably durable. He hosted “Top Dollar,” succeeding original host Warren Hull, and guest-hosted “The Price Is Right” for a month in 1960 while regular host Bill Cullen was on vacation. He then took over “Video Village” before moving to “Seven Keys,” which ran first as a local Los Angeles show and then on ABC from 1961 to 1964, later returning to local broadcast until 1965.
In 1969 he began a long association with Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions, hosting the syndicated revival of “Beat the Clock” until 1972, when the show’s announcer, Gene Wood, took over hosting duties.
His longest-running job came with “Concentration,” which he hosted in syndication from 1973 to 1978, followed by “Now You See It” on CBS. He continued taking hosting and announcing work through the 1980s, closing out his on-camera career in 1987 and 1988 with the Los Angeles program “You’ve Got to Be Kidding.”
A Reputation for Easy Charm
That reputation for warmth without flash defined Narz’s on-air persona across a career that spanned sitcoms, quiz shows, and word games, even as newer, flashier hosts rose to prominence around him.
A Singing Sideline
Narz occasionally sang on “The Bob Crosby Show,” where he served as announcer-sidekick to the bandleader on daytime television in 1955, drawing on a talent that predated his television career. In 1959, he released a full album, “Sing the Folk Hits with Jack Narz,” on Dot Records, capitalizing on the same folk revival that was then reshaping American popular music.
He was the Dean Martin of game-show hosts… so easygoing, so smooth. When you saw him on the air, you felt he was a guest in your home. He was a textbook example of what an emcee ought to be.”
— Steve Beverly, game show historian, on Jack Narz’s hosting style
The record never made him a recording star, but it reflected an entertainer willing to work across formats, much like his brother Tom Kennedy, who also took on singing and acting assignments between game show hosting jobs throughout his own career in Los Angeles.
Brothers in the Same Business
Narz and his brother Tom Kennedy built separate careers but frequently crossed paths on each other’s shows. Kennedy guest-starred on Narz’s “Beat the Clock,” and Narz appeared as a panelist on Kennedy’s “Password Plus,” once even switching seats with his brother mid-broadcast to host the second half of an episode. Both brothers also appeared together as celebrity panelists on “To Tell the Truth.”
In July 2005, the brothers were named co-recipients of the Game Show Congress’s Bill Cullen Award for Lifetime Achievement, honoring careers that had, between them, spanned more than sixty years of American television.
Marriages and Later Life
Narz married three times. His first wife, Mary Lou Roemheld, was the daughter of Oscar-winning composer Heinz Roemheld and the sister-in-law of fellow game show host Bill Cullen; they had four children before divorcing in 1961. Narz married radio program director Barbara Bricker in 1964, and in 1969 he married Dolores “Doe” Vaichsner, a longtime TWA flight attendant, remaining married to her until his death.
Jack Narz died on October 15, 2008, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills, California, following two strokes and complications from kidney failure. He was eighty-five.
His death was reported by television historians and former colleagues who remembered him as one of the genre’s most reliable and well-liked hosts. He was outlived by his younger brother Tom Kennedy, and the two Louisville-born hosts had spent much of their adult lives working, sometimes literally, side by side, on shows watched by millions of American households every afternoon.