A Really Big Ed

On October 31, 1963, Ed Sullivan and his wife, Sylvia, were at London's Heathrow Airport. There they noticed a crowd of frenzied kids; the horde was so great that work at the airport ground to a halt. The short-tenured Prime Minister, Alec Douglas-Home, was even delayed catching a flight. When Ed asked what was up, he was told an English rock and roll band was returning from a tour of Sweden. It was called The Beatles.

Ed knew a "really big shew" when he saw it. So he decided to bring the band to New York to appear on his variety show that was aired every Sunday night on CBS.

The rest, they say, is history.

And as Huckleberry Finn said, this story is the truth, mainly. Yes, the Beatles had arrived to a large turbulent crowd at Heathrow on October 31. And the Prime Minister was at the airport that day, too. And yes, Ed did book the Beatles for his show. The only minor deviation from journalistic veracity is that Ed wasn't at the airport.

Instead Ed had learned of the group when Peter Prichard, a well-known talent scout and agent, sent him some news stories from London. Ed had been booking rock and roll groups for years on his weekly variety show. True, no one in America had heard of the Beatles, but Ed saw they were something new, not the least that they all sported unusual mop-top haircuts. The Fab Four went on the air on February 9, 1964.

Suddenly Elvis was old hat. No longer the musical rebel with the swiveling hips, he was someone your mother listened to. His Nashville tinted rock and roll now - if we may borrow a well-crafted phrase - seemed tardy, cold, dull, and indifferent.

Instead everything British became the rage. Hair went down, and skirts when up. Beards and mustaches sprouted everywhere, and rock bands tried to outdo each other for the long and shaggy look. The counterculture and apolitical "beatniks" morphed into the socially conscious "hippies" who poured into the streets and lined up against "The Establishment".

Entertainment - movies, music, and yes, television - became geared almost exclusively to the young. "Rock and Roll" became just "Rock" and everything added a rock-suffix. You had hard rock, soft rock, folk rock, acid rock, Celtic rock, Chicano rock, Christian rock, Pagan rock. country rock, flamenco rock, funk rock, punk rock, garage rock, gothic rock, jazz rock, Latin rock, progressive rock, psychedelic rock, raga rock, Southern rock, and Wagnerian rock.

Everyone jumped on the rock bandwagon. Conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein praised rock. Rock stars were honored at the Kennedy Center. Rock operas hit Broadway. A Soviet premiere danced on stage with a rock group. Then finally, yes, a rock singer was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

We owe it all to Ed.

And yet with nigh on half a century since his passing, Ed would almost certainly have fallen off the national radar screen. But what saved him from cultural oblivion was when a popular late night talk show was broadcast from his old Studio 50 on Broadway. Renamed The Ed Sullivan Theater and seen nightly by millions, the renovated theater insured Ed would become a permanent part of the collective consciousness.

With variety shows - that electronic remnant of vaudeville - having gone the way of the Dodo and the passenger pigeon, it's hard to appreciate the jump-start that being on Ed's show gave to new performers. Many are still around: music groups like The Rolling Stones, The Brothers Four, Tommy James and The Shondells, The Smothers Brothers, The Dubliners, The Lettermen, comedians such as impersonator Rich Little and the wild-and-crazy Mel Brooks, musicians and singers such as violinist Itzak Perlman, Stevie Wonder, B.J. Thomas, Loretta Lynn, Nancy Sinatra, Cher, Eric Burdon, Tina Turner, Cliff Richard, Diana Ross, Leslie Uggams, Paul Anka, Mary Hopkin, Liza Minnelli, Paul Simon, Wayne Newton, Jerry Lee Lewis, Barbra Streisand, Melanie, Joel Grey, Johnny Rivers, and Gladys Knight; and of course, there were actors such as William Shatner, Joan Collins, Barbara Eden, George Hamilton, Barbara Feldon, and the unclassifiable Muppets.

As to those who appeared on the show but are either no longer with us or are inactive, there was Maurice Chevalier, Allen and Rossi, Suzanne Pleshette, Peggy Ann Garner, The Gaudsmith Brothers, Dave Brubeck, The Las Vegas Sahara Dancers, Milton Berle, Dizzy Gillespie, George Gobel, Stirling Moss, Sam Levy, Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass, Gera Lynn Tyler, Cyril Ritchard, B.B. King, Phil Foster, Ruby Hill, Eddie Bracken, Danny Kaye, Jim Brown, Geraldine Farrar, Neil Sedaka, Don Ameche, Linda Gaye Scott, Red Grange, Cass Elliot, Roy Campanella, Godfrey Cambridge, Gracie Allen and George Burns, Jacqueline Susann, Robert Merrill, Jeanne Crain, Gene Autry, Jason Robards, Jean-Claude Killy, The Cowsills, Spike Jones, Red Skelton, Troy Donahue, Julie Harris, Harpo Marx, Ed Wynn, Ida Presti, David O. Selznick, Jane Wyatt, Ezzard Charles, Les Paul, Jersey Joe Walcott, Rhonda Fleming, Dusty Springfield, Karen and Richard Carpenter, Sonny Bono, Smith, Gene Detroy, Ronald Colman, Maureen O'Hara, June Allyson, Grace Kelly, Ingemar Johansson, Gig Young, Sonny Liston, Phyllis Newman, The Platters, Gail Martin, Willie Mosconi, Anthony Quinn, J. Carrol Naish, Charlton Heston, Ben Alexander, Mickey Mantle, Ogden Nash, Jack Warden, Sam Cooke, Sly and the Family Stone, Moe Howard, Edgar Bergen with Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd, Leland Hayward, Edmund Purdom, Shirley Temple, Bobby Vinton, Neil Diamond, Pat Harrington Jr., Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Louise Suggs, Milt Plum, Dwight D. Eisenhower (!), Jimmie Foxx, Ira Gershwin, Louis Armstrong, Will Rogers Jr., Polly Bergen, The McGuire Sisters, Stan Freberg, Joe Garagiola, Ramon Novarro, The Ardrey Sisters, Mel Anderson, Theodore Bikel, Al Capp, Jack Kelly, Lottie Brunn, Charles Laughton, Woody Herman and His Orchestra, Edward R. Murrow, Ray Charles, Sam Levene, Peter Nero, Nat King Cole, William Frawley, Johnny Mathis, J Edward G. Robinson, Celeste Holm, Susan Hayward, Glenn Miller and His Orchestra, Otto Preminger, Noöl Coward, Cyd Charisse, Tony Curtis, Duke Ellington, Gordon Jenkins, Jimmy Durante, Mel Allen, Garry Moore, Bertha and Her Trained Elephants, Coco the Chimp, The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, Barbra Streisand, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Joan Sutherland, Dick Shawn, Gladys Robinson, Jean Simmons, Vivien Leigh, John Carradine, The Dukes of Dixieland, Eleanor Roosevelt, Marvin Gaye, Count Basie, Lou Costello, Alec Guinness, Marian Anderson, Perry Como, Melba Moore, Eddy Arnold, Kate Smith, The Ferrazzini Chimps, Wilt Chamberlain, Johnny Cash, Michael Parks, Mahalia Jackson, W.C. Handy, Richard Harris, E Shirley Bassey, Señor Wences, Lee Marvin, Y.A. Tittle, Johnny Weissmuller, Louella Parsons, The Andrews Sisters, Ralph Young, Lucille Ball, Doak Walker, Joe Frazier, Nancy Wilson, Lon Chaney Jr., T Orville L. Freeman, Mickey Shaughnessy, Christopher Plummer, Bob Newhart, Dean Martin, Raymond Burr, Gary Cooper, The Amin Brothers, Bert Lahr, Don Rickles, Arlene Howard, Sammy Davis Jr., Bobby Riggs, Buster Crabbe, Kathleen Nolan, The Steel Bandits, The Three Stooges, The Brooklyn Dodgers, Rube Goldberg, Dorothy Lamour, Billy Preston, Joanne Woodward, Henry Fonda, Blood Sweat and Tears, Gary Crosby, Ronald Reagan (indeed), Channing Pollock, Alan Jay Lerner, Pernell Roberts, Woody Herman, Diane Sinclair, Damon Runyon, Rod Laver, Jim Nabors, Gina Lollobrigida, Jacob Javits, Wilma Rudolph, Whitey Ford, Mary McCarty, Leontyne Price, Steve McQueen, Inger Stevens, Carl Reiner, Robert Wagner, The Chordettes, Helen Hayes, Shirley Booth, Leonard Bernstein, The Trinidad Tripoli Steel Band, Johnny Mack, Art Carney, Richard Kiley, Hot Lips Page, Madeline Kahn, Joey Heatherton, Fred Astaire, Captain Danion and His Sea Lions, Mel Tormé, Joe Louis, Bobby Rydell, Johnny Leach, Jack Benny, The Yokoi Trio, Paul Revere and The Raiders, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Robert Goulet, Chubby Checker, John Huston, Jimmy Dean, Bill Russell, Buddy Rich and His Orchestra, Tony Bennett, April Stevens, Rod McKuen, Bert Wheeler, Miyoshi Umeki, Joyce Jameson, The Righteous Brothers, Totie Fields, Barry Fitzgerald, Brigitte Bardot, Bob Feller, The Domenechs, Vince Edwards, Marlon Brando, Yves Montand, James Arness, The Hip Cat Hillbillies, Luke Kelly, Jerry Lewis, Claude Rains, James Garner, Patricia Routledge, Tommy Sands, Wally Cox, Louis Jordan, The Four Preps, Joel McCrea, The Temptations, Suzanne Brooks, Kroplins' Chimps, Laurie Anders, Keenan Wynn, Arthur Lake, Imogene Coca, Tiny Tim, Anthony Perkins, Peggy Lee, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Maequis Monkeys, Rita Hayworth, David Brenner, Bob Crosby, Connie Stevens, Don Newcombe, Ray Bloch, Jean Seberg, Skitch Henderson, Count Basie and His Orchestra, Ted Lewis, Vincent Lopez, Mrs. Miller, Lana Turner, Pee Wee Reese, Mickey Rooney, Liberace, The Association, Lillian Roth, Joey Bishop, The Four Seasons, Louis Gossett Jr., Ben Hogan, M Spanky and Our Gang, Sonny James, Lena Horne, Carl Sandburg, Joyce Grenfell, Stan Musial, General Omar N. Bradley, Johnny Horton, Clayton Moore, Ginger Rogers, Franchot Tone, Robert Dowling, Buck Owens, Robert Culp, The Lovin' Spoonful, Barbara Webb, Willie Shoemaker, Hal Holbrook, Ed Ames, Harvey Norman, Frankie Vaughan, Phil Silvers, Jose Feliciano, Ike Turner, Jack Paar (see below), Rosemary Clooney, Tony Randall, Rod Steiger, Ralph Houk, Wilbert Clark, Alan King, Rex Smith, Johnny Hart, Ed Begley, Andrés Segovia, Jimmy Piersall, Lou Brock, Pearl Bailey, Don Adams, Herman and the Hermits (Peter Noone), Gil Hodges, Danny Thomas, Carroll Baker, Milbourne Christopher, The Wallendas, Dianne Foster, Bill Gunn, Sid Caesar, Paulette Goddard, Smokey Robinson, Sugar Ray Robinson, Sabicas, Hurd Hatfield, Melinda Marx, Sarah Vaughan, Conrad Hilton, Patty Duke, Shelley Berman, Jane Morgan, Kenny Rogers and The First Edition, Robert Q. Lewis, Ralph Bellamy, Rose Marie, Jack Soo, John Forsythe, Bobby Darin, Jack Dempsey, Arte Johnson, Harry Belafonte, Mason Williams, Barbara Nichols, Annette Funicello, Morey Amsterdam, Greer Garson, Betty Hutton, Duke Snider, Abba Eban, Billy De Wolfe, Al Rosen, Barney McKenna, Hugh O'Brian, Forrest Tucker, Gene Sarazen, Broderick Crawford, Eva Marie Saint, Jack Palance, The Highwaymen, John Ringling North, Stanley Adams, Dennis Weaver, The Supremes, Michael Jackson, Ted Mack, Lee Hazlewood, Ravi Shankar, Chet Atkins, Davy Jones, Alexandre Lagoya, The Seekers, Mitzi Gaynor, Peter Graves, Larry Fine, Fred MacMurray, the Dave Clark Five, Cary Middlecoff, Cathy Crosby, Ron Carey, Walter Pidgeon, The Original Cast of the Broadway musical Hair, The 5th Dimension, Larry Csonka, Louis Nye, Eli Wallach, Dave Powell, Pete Fountain, Esther Williams, Charles Nelson Reilly, Pappy Boyington, Paul Lynde, Florence Henderson, Nanette Fabray, Guy Lombardo, Alan Young, Ruth Gordon, Vivian Vance, Jerry Koosman, Sam Snead, Helmut Schreiber, Jimmy Jewel, Zero Mostel, Dick Van Dyke, James Hurst, Kitty Carlisle, Van Heflin, Eddie Seifert, Gregory Peck, Moms Mabley, Desi Arnaz, Kirk Douglas, Benny Goodman, Joe E. Ross, Lauren Bacall, Emmett Kelly, Prince Rainier of Monaco, Salvador Dalí, The Wong Sisters, Santana, Dick Gautier ("Hymie the Robot"), Jackie Gleason, Shelley Winters, Gloria Swanson, Robert Stack, The Nashville Brass, Larry Blyden, Vera-Ellen, Johnny Carson, Barbara Feldon, Stubby Kaye, Jeannie C. Riley, Gene Barry, Marc Connelly, Frank Sinatra, Gene Tierney, Buster Keaton, Bob Gibson, Vincent Price, Sam the Sham and The Pharaohs, Mae West, Nelson Eddy, Gary Lewis and The Playboys, J Ethel Merman, The Clancy Brothers, Humphrey Bogart, Paul Whiteman, Roy Rogers, Walt Disney, Hedy Lamarr, Jim Morrison, The Bee Gees, Dick Martin, Peter Lawford, Minnie Pearl, Burt Lancaster, Hank Aaron, John Gielgud, Margaret Truman, James Earl Jones, Red Barber, Édith Piaf, Joan Rivers, The Limeliters, Elsa Lanchester, Lester, Audrey Meadows, Yehudi Menuhin, Sophie Tucker, Janis Joplin, James Brown, Byron Nelson, Tom Seaver, Yogi Berra, Cab Calloway, José Ferrer, Carol Channing, Buddy Hackett, Ricky Nelson, Rocky Graziano, Cavett, George Carlin, Sal Mineo, Dick Gregory, Rocky Marciano, George Meany, Eddie Foy Jr., Arnold Stang, Lionel Hampton, The Ritz Brothers, Montgomery Clift, Tom Poston, Jayne Mansfield, Lou Rawls, John Wayne, Chester Gould, Deborah Kerr, Boots Randolph, Mary Martin, Princess Caroline of Monaco, Alfredi's All-Accordian Symphony Band, Ray Milland, Samuel Goldwyn, J The Four Aces, Muhammad Ali, Virginia Gibson, Tina Louise, Karen Valentine, Peter Marshall, Harvey Lembeck, Oscar Hammerstein II, Lionel Barrymore, John LaDue, Jack Lemmon, Billy Wilder, Al Hirt, Moss Hart, Richard Pryor, Frank Sinatra Jr., Vaughn Meader, Frankie Valli, Johnny Marks (composer of "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer"), Edward Everett Horton, Bobby Layne, Dinah Shore, Joe E. Lewis, Bing Crosby, Patti Page, Gene Tunney, Allen Funt, Joe Cocker, Irwin C. Watson, George Raft, Eddie Fisher, Eamon de Valera, David Crosby, Mario Lanza, Jesse Owens, Los Romeros, Fran Tarkenton, Robert Taylor, The Everyly Brothers, Errol Flynn, Walter Slezak, Walter Cronkite, The Ink Spots, Paul Newman, Sam Levenson, Art Linkletter, Jefferson Airplane, Dennis Day, Ken Venturi, Betty Grable, Frankie Avalon, Melina Mercouri, Margot Fonteyn, Johnnie Ray, Richard Tucker, Hank Williams Jr., Barry McGuire, Michael Redgrave, Willie Mays, Peter and Gordon, Steve Lawrence, Gale Storm, Joe DiMaggio, Ray Malone, Floyd Patterson, The Moscow Bears, Phyllis Diller, Earl Wilson, Gertrude Lawrence, Richie Havens, Fredric March, Joe Namath, Peter O'Toole, Shirley Jones, The Mills Brothers, Jack Webb, Jimmie Rodgers, Rosalind Russell, Robert Young, Red Buttons, Engelbert Humperdinck, Ruby Keeler, Roy Clark, Jack Albertson, Art Garfunkel, Flip Wilson, Merle Oberon, Bess Myerson, John Sebastian, Richard Widmark, Robert Mitchum, Van Cliburn, James A. Michener, William Boyd, Maximilian Schell, Trini López, Laurence Olivier, Rudy Vallee, Bo Diddley, Kim Novak, Gian Carlo Menotti, Gary Puckett and The Union Gap, Buddy Holly, Soupy Sales, Frank Loesser, Tommy Steele, Andy Griffith, Carl Yastrzemski, Jay North, Orson Welles, Rudolf Nureyev, Tom Jones, Jerry Van Dyke, Puppet Topo Gigio, Ida Lupino, Fletcher Henderson, Rex Harrison, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Jack Lord, Toots Shor, Mike Douglas, Walter Winchell, Joey Adams, Joe DeRita, Marcel Marceau, Bill Dana, Jack Cassidy, Henny Youngman, Steppenwolf, Yul Brynner, The Turtles, and Paul Winchell. And this ain't all by any means.

The biggest irony of Ed's career is that as the one to dethrone the King, he had also been the one to give Elvis the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. Ever since "That's All Right" hit the stores in 1954, Elvis had been seen by as the quintessential sneering bad boy corrupting the mores of their daughters and as well as serving as the pernicious archetype for their sons' sneering attitudes.

But on his famous appearance on Ed's show, the nation saw an Elvis that was unfailingly polite and deferential. And after Ed spoke of the "decent, fine boy", Elvis was suddenly mainstream.

Throughout their childhoods and adolescences, Baby Boomers never knew a time without Ed on the tube. But how, they wondered, did a dour-faced and hunched-shouldered curmudgeon with slurred speech end up hosting one of the most popular television shows in history? Or as one television technician in England once asked, "Who's the guy with no neck who can't talk?"

Ed's fame did not arise from television. Starting out as a newspaper reporter right after World War I, he advanced to writing an entertainment column by the 1930's. At the start of World War II, he moved into radio and so it was natural he would continue into television after the technology had advanced to commercial viability.

A really big surprise for Ed's viewers is that when he wasn't hosting his show, he was a real person. He had an impish sense of humor and was a congenial conversationalist and raconteur. These characteristics aren't just attested to by those who knew him but are evident from his interviews and guest appearances on other shows. Once he appeared as a "Mystery Guest" on What's My Line and put on a rubber Neanderthal mask.

That Ed was a figure in the Civil Rights movement is something not widely appreciated. He put on not just the big name African-American stars but also those who he thought had the potential to succeed. And he had no sympathy with network executives who were leery of having black performers on the show.

On the other hand that Ed had a prudish streak is not to be denied - or perhaps it was simply that he knew there were bounds of behavior and language that were touchy. After all Ed's show was live. So what appeared on stage was broadcast to millions of homes across the nation.

Nothing would get Ed more irritated than someone trying to slip in risqué material. When the Irish folk group the Dubliners appeared for their rehearsal, they sang one of their staples, "Seven Drunken Nights". The song, of course, is about a naïve Irishman who comes home and sees evidence of, well, some other object of his wife's attentions. She keeps claiming his tippling has befuddled his wits.

As I went home on a Monday night       As drunk as drunk could be

I saw a horse outside the door       Where my old horse should be

Well, I called to me wife and I said to her:       Would you kindly tell to me

Who owns that horse outside the door       Where my old horse should be?

Well, you're drunk, you're drunk,       You silly old fool,

And still you cannot see

That's a lovely sow       That me mother sent to me.

Well, it's many a day I've travelled       A hundred miles or more

But a saddle on a sow,       Sure, I never saw before

That's one of the milder verses and when Ed heard the song he immediately vetoed it. Instead, the group sang "Muirsheen Durkin" in what can only be called one of their better performances.

And of course, we know of the infamous Doors performance where Ed told them that if they sang "Light My Fire" they had to change the lyrics from "Girl, we couldn't get much higher" to "Girl, we couldn't get much better". Sure, the Doors told Ed, no problem. Then they went on to sing the lyrics with "higher".

After the performance, Ed stormed up and said they would never appear on his show again. They never did but it didn't matter. They had already been on Ed Sullivan.

Not all performers thought they had to be on Ed's show. Bob Dylan had been scheduled to appear on May 12, 1963. But after the rehearsal, one of the CBS executives objected to his satirical "Talking John Birch Blues". Rather than compromise, Bob just left.

A little remembered episode in Ed's career was his admittedly strange feud with the then host of the Tonight Show, Jack Paar.

The feud started off because Ed mentioned that he paid his performers thousands of dollars while Jack only paid his guests a measly $320. Huh, Ed said, anyone who took Jack's paltry payment would get that amount from him and nothing more. The feud got more and more public and originally Ed agreed to meet Jack in a debate on The Tonight Show. But for various reasons the encounter never came off, each blaming the other for backing out.

Jack had the advantage in that his show was, after all, a talk show and he could take part of the airtime to give his opinion. Ed's variety show didn't have the option. Eventually the feud fizzled out, and Jack left the show in 1962.

Ed had his quirks. He was famously known to get names wrong or forget them all together. Again this is a problem for live television.

On one show he was introducing Rosemary Clooney who was then one of the most popular singers in the world (she was even mentioned in the James Bond novel Thunderball). Ed introduced her by saying, "And here's one of America's popular really fine singers, let's hear it for .... " Then after a pause, he said, "Come on out here, honey!"

Another time when he introduced the then up-and-coming impressionist Rich Little he announced, "Here's the young impersonator from Canada, a fine youngster, welcome out here ...... Buddy Rich!"

The Ed Sullivan Show finally came to an end on March 28, 1971. The network executives had decided to cancel the show but didn't bother telling Ed that would be his last show. Variety shows were just too expensive. A Sunday night movie brought in as much revenue and cost little. Besides Ed's old-hat stuff just didn't appeal to the kids anymore.

References

Impresario: The Life and Times of Ed Sullivan, James Maguire, Billboard Books, 2006.

Right Here on Our Stage Tonight! Ed Sullivan's America, Gerald Nachman, University of California Press, 2009

Sundays with Sullivan: How the Ed Sullivan Show Brought Elvis, the Beatles, and Culture to America, Bernie Ilson, Taylor Trade Publications, 2009

"Ed Sullivan", Encyclopedia Britannica

"The Ed Sullivan Show", Ed Sullivan (host), Internet Movie Data Base.

"The Other Fight: Ed vs. Jack", Life Magazine, pp. 33 - 35, May 24, 1961.

How Sweet It Was: Television: A Pictorial Commentary, Arthur Shulman and Roger Youman, Shore Crest, 1966.

"Television in the United States", Steve Allen and Robert Thompson, Encyclopedia Britannica.

"Peter Prichard", The Telegraph, September 2, 2014.

What's My Line?, John Daly (host), Ed Sullivan (guest), September 14, 1958.

"Ed Sullivan Show Guests", Biography.

The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Johnny Carson (host), Rich Little (guest), August 16, 1973.

Ed Sullivan Is Dead at 73; Charmed Millions on TV", The New York Times, October 14, 1974

"Ed Sullivan's Last Show", Bobbie Ellerbie, Eyes Of A Generation...Television's Living History

"The Ed Sullivan Show: U. S. Variety Show", Museum of Broadcast Communications

"When Bob Dylan Took a Stand Against Censorship", Jennifer Latson, Time, May 12, 2015.