Edward Vincent " Ed " Sullivan (28 September 1901 - 13 October 1974) is an American television, sports and entertainment television journalist and syndicated columnist for the New York Daily News and the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate. He is especially remembered as the creator and host of various Toast of the Town television programs, and then popular - and, finally, officially - renamed The Ed Sullivan Show . Broadcasted for 23 years from 1948 to 1971, he set the record for the longest variety show in US broadcasting history. "That, with almost any size, is the last major TV show," said television critic David Hinckley. "This is one of our favorite and most beloved pop culture memories."
Sullivan was a pioneer of broadcasting on many levels during childhood television. As TV critic David Bianculli writes, "Before MTV, Sullivan presented rock acts.Brave Bravo, he presented jazz and classical and theater.Before the Comedy Channel, even before the Tonight Show, Sullivan discovered , an anointed and popularized young comedian Before there were 500 channels, before there was cable, Ed Sullivan was no choice, from the beginning, he was 'Toast of the Town'. "In 1996, Sullivan was ranked number 50 on TV Guide ' s "50 Biggest TV Stars of All Time".
Video Ed Sullivan
Early life and career
Edward Vincent Sullivan was born on September 28, 1901 in Harlem, New York City, son of Elizabeth F. (nÃÆ' Â © e Smith) and Peter Arthur Sullivan, a customs official, and grew up in Port Chester, New York. He is of Irish descent. The whole family loves music, and someone always plays piano or sings. Phonograph is a valuable item; the family likes to play all kinds of notes on it. Sullivan is a talented athlete in high school, getting 12 athletic letters in Port Chester high school. He played half an hour in football; he is a basketball keeper; on the track he's a fast runner. With a baseball team, Sullivan is a catcher and team captain, and he leads the team into several championships. Baseball gives the impression on him that will affect his career as well as American culture. Sullivan notes that in high school sports integration is commonplace: "When we went to Connecticut, we met with clubs that had Negro players, which was accepted as a matter of course, and, my instinctive antagonism a few years later for the theory that a Negro is not a worthy opponent or a lowly person is as simple as that. "
Sullivan landed his first job at Port Chester Daily Item, a local newspaper where he had written sports news while in high school and then joined the full-time newspaper after graduation. In 1919, he joined The Hartford Post. The paper folded in the first week there, but he got another job at The New York Evening Mail as a sports reporter. After the The Evening Mail closed in 1923, he soared through a series of news jobs with The Associated Press, The Philadelphia Bulletin, The Morning World , < i> The Morning Telegraph , The New York Bulletin and Leaders . Finally, in 1927, Sullivan joined The Evening Graphic as the first sports writer and then sports editor. In 1929, when Walter Winchell moved to The Daily Mirror , Sullivan became a Broadway columnist. The theater column was then brought to the New York Daily News. The columns, "Little Old New York", are concentrated on Broadway shows and gossip, like those of Winchell; and, like Winchell, he does a business newscast on the radio. Again echoing Winchell, Sullivan took another medium in 1933 by writing and starring in the film . Broadway, who told her to guide audiences around New York's nightspots to meet entertainers and celebrities. Sullivan soon became a powerful starmaker in the entertainment world himself, becoming one of Winchell's main rivals, setting up an El Morocco nightclub in New York as his unofficial headquarters against Winchell at the nearby Stork Club. Sullivan continues to write for The News during his broadcasting career, and his popularity far exceeds Winchell's lifetime.
Throughout his career as a columnist, Sullivan had dabbled in vaudeville shows that gave him a master of ceremony in the 1920s and 1930s, directing the original WABC radio program (now WCBS) and organizing the benefit reviews for various causes..
Radio
In 1941, Sullivan hosted the Summer Silver Theater, various programs on CBS, with Will Bradley as a bandleader and guest star featured weekly.
Maps Ed Sullivan
Television
In 1948, producer Marlo Lewis got the CBS network to recruit Sullivan for Sunday-night weekly variety show, Toast of the Town, which later became The Ed Sullivan Show . Debuting in June 1948, the show was originally broadcast from Maxine Elliott Theater on West 39th Street in New York City. In January 1953, he moved to CBS-TV Studio 50, at 1697 Broadway (at 53rd Street) in New York City, which in 1967 was renamed Ed Sullivan Theater (and later home of the Late Show with David Letterman and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert ). The previous Studio 50 was a CBS Radio studio, from 1936 to 1953, and before it was the legitimate Hammerstein Theater, built in 1927.
Television critics give new performances and bad reviews of the host. Harriet Van Horne alleges that "he is where he is not by having a personality, but by having no personality." (The host wrote to the critics, "Dear Miss V. Horne: You're a bitch, really, Ed Sullivan.") Sullivan has little acting ability; in 1967, 20 years after his show debut, Time magazine asked, "What exactly is Ed Sullivan's talent?" His attitude to the camera is so awkward that some viewers believe that the host is suffering from Bell's palsy. Time in 1955 stated that Sullivan was similar
Indian cigar shop, Giant Cardiff and a stone-faced monument off the boat from Easter Island. He moves like a sleepwalker; his smile is that a man sucking lemon; his speech is often lost in the syntax bush; his eyes rattling from their sockets or drowning so deeply in their bags that they seem to peek into the camera from the bottom of the twin wells.
However, the magazine concluded, "But instead of scary children, Ed Sullivan lured the whole family." Sullivan appeared as an average audiences who brought great action in the show business to their home television. "Ed Sullivan will last a long time," comedian Fred Allen said, "as long as other people have talent," and often Alan King's guests say, "Ed does not do anything, but he does it better than anyone else on television." He had the instinct of a journalist for what the public wanted, and programmed his watches with an extraordinary balance. There is something for everyone. The typical show will feature vaudeville actions (acrobats, magicians, magicians, etc.), one or two popular comedians, singing stars, hot jukebox favorites, legitimate theater figures, and for children, visits with dolls "Topo Gigio, Italian little mouse ", or a popular athlete. The bill is often international, with many European artists adding to American artists.
Sullivan has a healthy sense of humor about himself and is allowed - even encouraged - imitators like John Byner, Frank Gorshin, Rich Little, and especially Will Jordan to imitate him on his show. Johnny Carson also did a fair impression, and even Joan Rivers mimics Sullivan's unique posture. The impressionists exaggerate their rigidity, shrug, and nose tenor sentences, along with some commonly used introductions, such as "And now, here on our stage...", "For all of you young people out there... ", and" a great shew "(pronunciation of the word" show "). Will Jordan play Sullivan in movies I Want to Hold Your Hands , The Story of Buddy Holly , The Doors , Sir. Saturday Night , Down with Love , and in the 1979 TV movie Elvis .
Sullivan inspired a song in the musical Bye Bye Birdie , and in 1963, appeared as himself in the movie.
In 1954, Sullivan was co-hosted on an impressive musical TV show, <25th Anniversary General Foods: A Salute to Rodgers and Hammerstein .
Sullivan, starmaker
In the 1950s and 1960s, Sullivan was a respected starmaker because of the number of players who became household names after appearing on the show. He has the talent to identify and promote the best talent and pay a lot of money to secure that talent for his show. Sullivan was quoted as saying "In my own performance show, I never asked a musician, his race or his politics.The players were involved based on their abilities I believe that this is another quality of our performances that has helped win a wide audience and loyal. "
Although Sullivan was wary of Elvis Presley's "bad boy" image, and initially said that he would never order it, Presley became too big a name to ignore; in 1956, Sullivan signed it for three appearances. In August 1956, Sullivan was injured in a car accident near his country home in Southbury, Connecticut, and missed Presley's first appearance on September 9th. Charles Laughton finally introduced Presley to Sullivan. After Sullivan knew Presley personally, he made amends by telling his audience, "This is a really good boy."
Sullivan's failure to scoop the TV industry with Presley made him determined to get the next big sensation first. In November 1963, while at Heathrow Airport, Sullivan watched Beatlemania when the band returned from Sweden. At first he was reluctant to order The Beatles because the band did not have a commercially successful single released in the US at the time, but on the orders of a friend, legendary presenter Sid Bernstein, Sullivan signed the group. Sullivan's early appearance on February 9, 1964, was the most watched program in TV history at the time, and remains one of the most watched programs of all time. The Beatles appear three times more directly, and send the performances that are filmed later. Dave Clark Five, who claimed the image was "cleaner" than the Beatles, made 13 appearances on the show, more than any other British group.
Unlike many events at the time, Sullivan requested that most music performances display their music directly, rather than aligning with their recordings. Performance checks show that exceptions are made, such as when a microphone can not be placed close enough to a player for technical reasons. An example is the 1969 show from B.J. Thomas from "Raindrops Keep Fallin 'on My Head", where the actual water is sprinkled on it as a special effect. In 1969, Sullivan presented Jackson 5 with their first single "I Want You Back", which toppled the song B.J. Thomas from the top of Billboard's charts.
Sullivan appreciates African American talent. According to biographer Gerald Nachman, "Most TV shows welcomed acceptable black superstars like Louis Armstrong, Pearl Bailey and Sammy Davis Jr.... but in the early 1950s, long before that mode, Sullivan presented a much lesser obviously the black comforter he enjoyed in Harlem in his city center - legends like Peg Leg Bates, Pigmeat Markham and Tim Moore... foreigners to white Americans. "He hosted the TV appearance pioneering by Bo Diddley, Platters, Brook Benton , Jackie Wilson, Fats Domino, and many Motown actions, including Supremes, which appeared 17 times. As critic John Leonard criticized, "There is no important black artist who does not appear in Ed's show."
He opposes pressure to exclude African American entertainers, and to avoid interacting with them when they appear. "Sullivan had to fend off his hard-earned sponsors, Ford Lincoln dealer, after kissing Pearl Bailey's cheek and daring to shake Nat King Cole's hand," Nachman wrote. According to biographer Jerry Bowles, "Sullivan once made a Ford executive thrown out of the theater when he suggested that Sullivan stop ordering so many black acts, and a dealer in Cleveland told him," We know you have to have a nigger on your show. But do you have to put your arms around Robinson Bill 'Bojangles' at the end of the dance? 'Sullivan must be physically restrained from beating him up to a pulp. "Sullivan then raised money to help pay for Robinson's funeral." As a Catholic, it is inevitable that I will hate intolerance, because Catholics suffer more than their share, "he told an interviewer." As I grew up, minorities are part of me. Negroes and Jews are the closest minority. I do not need to push to jump in and help. "
While television has not embraced Country and Western music, Sullivan features Nashville players in his program. This, in turn, paved the way for performances like Hee Haw, and events hosted by Johnny Cash, Glen Campbell, and other country singers. The most frequent act by show is the Canadian & Wayne comedy duo. Shuster, who made 67 appearances between 1958 and 1969.
Sullivan emerged as himself on another television program, including the April 1958 episode of Howard Duff and Ida Lupino CBS sitcom, Mr. Adams and Eve . On September 14, 1958, Sullivan appeared on What's My Line? as a mysterious guest, and shows his comedic side by wearing a rubber mask. In 1961, Sullivan was asked by CBS to fill up a sick Red Skelton at The Red Skelton Show. Sullivan takes Skelton's role in comedic sketches; Skelton's hobo character "Freddie the Freeloader" was renamed "Eddie the Freeloader."
Personality
Sullivan quickly takes offense if he feels that he has been crossed, and he can hold a grudge for a long time. When he told the biographer Gerald Nachman, "I'm an escapee, I explode, then I go around apologizing." "With Irish temperament and thin skin," writes Nachman, "Ed brings to enmity because of hunger for being fed by his coverage, and loyalty to, boxing." Bo Diddley, Buddy Holly, Jackie Mason, and Jim Morrison are the parties to some of the most stratified Sullivan conflicts.
For Sullivan's second appearance in 1955, Bo Diddley planned to sing his name, "Bo Diddley", but Sullivan told him to bring Tennessee's Ernie Ford song "Sixteen Tons". "That would be the end of my career there," he told his biographer, so he sang "Bo Diddley". Sullivan was furious: "You're the first black kid who ever betrayed me on the show," Diddley quoted him as saying. "We did not have much contact with each other after that." Later, Diddley hates Elvis Presley, whom he accuses of copying his revolutionary style and hitting, receiving attention and praise for Sullivan's performances which he claims to be his right. "I owe it," he said, "and I'm never paid." "Maybe he is," wrote Nachman, "everything went well with Sullivan."
Buddy Holly and Crickets first appeared on the Sullivan show in 1957 with an enthusiastic response. For their second appearance in January 1958, Sullivan considered the lyrics of their chosen number "Oh, Boy!" too suggestive, and ordered Holly to change another song. Holly replies that she has told her hometown friends in Texas that she will sing "Oh, Boy!" for them. Sullivan, unaccustomed to his instructions being asked, angrily repeated it, but Holly refused to back down. Later, when the band was slow to respond to the call to the practice stage, Sullivan commented, "I do not think Crickets are too eager to be on The Ed Sullivan Show." Holly, still bothered by Sullivan's attitude, replied, "I hope they're more excited than me." Sullivan retaliated by cutting it from two digits to one, then mistaking Holly's name during the introduction. He also ensured that Holly's guitar amplifier was turned off. Nevertheless, the band was so well received that Sullivan was forced to invite them back; Holly replied that Sullivan did not have enough money. The archive photos taken during the show showed Holly grinning and ignoring an angry-looking Sullivan.
During the October performance of 1964 Jackie Mason at the event had been shortened by ten minutes because the address by President Lyndon Johnson, Sullivan - on stage but outside the camera - signaled to Mason that he had two minutes left by lifting two fingers. Sullivan's signal distracts the audience in the studio, and for television viewers who are unaware of the situation, it seems that Mason jokes fall flat. Mason, in an effort to regain the attention of the audience, exclaimed, "I get a finger here!" and made his own frantic hand gestures: "Here's a finger for you!" The videotape of the incident can not be concluded whether Mason's raised hand (which is just outside the camera) is meant to be an indecent move, but Sullivan is confident that it is, and forbids Mason from future appearances on the program. Mason then insisted that he did not know what "middle finger" means, and that he did not do that move. In September 1965, Sullivan - who, according to Mason, "was deeply sorry" - took Mason to the show for "a surprisingly large reunion". "He said they were old friends," Nachman wrote, "news for Mason, who never gets repeated invitations." Mason added that his earnings power was "... cut off halfway thereafter." I never really worked again until I opened on Broadway in 1986. "
When Byrds appeared on December 12, 1965, David Crosby broke into a shouting match with the show's director. They were never asked to return.
Sullivan decided that "Girl, we could not get that much higher", from the song Signature Doors "Light My Fire", too overtly reference to drug use, and directed that the lyrics changed to "Girl, we can not" Much better "for a September 1967 group performance. The band members" nodded in agreement ", according to Doors biographer Ben Fong-Torres, then sang the song as it was written. After the broadcast, producer Bob Precht told the group, "Mr. Sullivan wants you for six more shows, but you will never again work on the Sullivan Show again." Jim Morrison replied, "Hey, guys, we just did Ed Sullivan Show ." Sullivan, faithful to his words, never invited the band back.
The famous Rolling Stones gave up during their fifth appearance on the show, in 1967, when Mick Jagger was told to change the titular lyrics of "Let's Spend the Night Together" to "Let's Spend Time With". "But Jagger wins," wrote Nachman, deliberately calling attention to censorship, rolling his eyes, grabbing, and drawing the word "t-i-i-i-me" as he sings the revised lyrics. Sullivan was furious by his insubordination, but the Stones did make one additional appearance on the show, in 1969.
Moe Howard of Three Stooges recalled in 1975 that Sullivan had a memory problem: "Ed is a very nice man, but for a showman, quite forgetful, that's more like Three Stooges to me. "Joe DeRita, who worked with Stooges after 1959, commented that Sullivan had a" like the bottom of a bird cage. "
Diana Ross, who is very fond of Sullivan, then remembers Sullivan's forgetfulness during the many occasions that Supremes performed on her show. In a 1995 appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman (recorded in Ed Sullivan Theater), Ross stated, "He can never remember our names, he calls us 'girls'."
In a press conference in 1990, Paul McCartney recalled meeting Sullivan again in the early 1970s. Sullivan does not seem to know who McCartney is. McCartney tries to remind Sullivan that he is one of the Beatles, but Sullivan clearly does not remember, and nods and smiles, just shakes McCartney's hand and leaves. In an interview with Howard Stern around 2012, Joan Rivers said that Sullivan had suffered from dementia near the end of his life.
Politics
Sullivan, like many American entertainers, was drawn to the anti-communist hysteria of the Cold War in the late 1940s and 1950s. The appearance of Paul Draper's Tap dancer scheduled for January 1950 in Toast of the Town met with opposition from Hester McCullough, an activist in the "subversive" hunt. Branding Draper, a "sympathizer" to the Communist Party, he asked Sullivan's main sponsor, Ford Motor Company, to cancel the appearance of Draper. Draper denied the allegations, and appeared on the show as scheduled. Ford received over a thousand angry and telegram letters, and Sullivan was obliged to promise Ford, Kenyon & amp; Eckhardt, that he will avoid any controversial guests going forward. Draper was forced to move to Europe to earn a living.
After the Draper incident, Sullivan began working with Theodore Kirkpatrick from the anticommunist newspaper Counterattack. He will consult Kirkpatrick if there are any questions that arise regarding the political tendencies of potential guests. Sullivan wrote in his column on June 21, 1950, that the "Kirkpatrick has sat in my living room several times and listened attentively to the players who want to get the certification of loyalty."
The Cold War reaction was manifested in a different way when Bob Dylan was booked to appear in May 1963. The song of his choice was "Talkin 'John Birch Paranoid Blues", which mocks the ultraconservative John Birch Society and his tendency to see Communist conspiracies in many countries. situation. No concerns were voiced by anyone, including Sullivan, during the rehearsals, but on broadcast days, CBS Standards and Practice Department rejected the song, worried that the lyrics that equate the Society's view with Adolf Hitler's view might trigger a libel suit. Dylan was offered the chance to play a different song, but he replied that if he can not sing the number of his choice, he would rather not show up at all. This story aroused widespread media attention in the days that followed; Sullivan denounced the network's decision in a published interview.
Sullivan tapped his head with Standards and Practice on other occasions, as well. In 1956, Ingrid Bergman - who has lived in "exile" in Europe since 1950 amid a scandalous romance with director Roberto Rossellini when they were both married - plans to return to Hollywood as an Anastasia star.. Sullivan, convinced that the American public would welcome him back, invited him to appear on his show and fly to Europe to record interviews with Bergman, Yul Brynner and Helen Hayes on set Anastasia. When he arrived back in New York, the Standards and Practices informed Sullivan that under no circumstances would Bergman be allowed to appear on the show, either directly or in the film. Sullivan's prediction later proved true, as Bergman won the second Academy Award for his portrayal, as well as the pardon of his fans.
Personal life
Sullivan was engaged to swimmer Sybil Bauer, but he died of cancer in 1927 at the age of 23. In 1926, Sullivan met and started dating Sylvia Weinstein. Weinstein tried to tell the Jewish family that he was dating a man named Ed Solomon, but his brother knew that he meant Ed Sullivan. With both families strongly opposed to Jewish-Catholic marriage, the affair was again and again for three years. They finally married on April 28, 1930, at the Town Hall ceremony, and a year later Sylvia gave birth to Elizabeth ("Betty"), named after the mother of Sullivan, who died that year.
The Sullivan family is always "in town", eating out five nights a week at some of the trendiest clubs and restaurants - The Stork Club, Danny Hideaway and Jimmy Kelly's. Sullivan socialized with the rich and famous, making friends with the President of the United States and given an audience with various popes. In 1952, Betty Sullivan married the producer of Ed Sullivan Show, Bob Precht. From Prechts, Ed has five grandchildren - Robert Edward, Carla Elizabeth, Vincent Henry, Andrew Sullivan, and Margo Elizabeth. The Sullivan and Precht families are very close; Betty died on June 7, 2014, 83 years old. The Sullivan family rented a suite of rooms at Hotel Delmonico in 1944 after staying at the Astor Hotel in Times Square for many years. Sullivan rented a suite next to the family suite, which he used as an office until The Ed Sullivan Show was canceled in 1971. Sullivan has a habit of calling his wife after every program to get it immediately. critics.
The year later and death
In the fall of 1965, CBS began broadcasting its weekly program in color. Although the Sullivan show is seen alive in the Middle and East time zones, it is recorded for airing in Pacific and Mountain time zones. Most of the programs recorded, as well as some early kinscopes, preserves, and quotes have been released on home videos.
By 1971, the ratings had dropped dramatically. In an effort to freshen up its lineup, CBS canceled the program along with several other old events (later known as rural cleaning). Sullivan felt angry, and refused to do the final show, although he remained with the network in various other capacities and held his 25th special birthday in June 1973.
In early September 1974, X-rays revealed that Sullivan had esophageal cancer growth. The doctor gives her a little time to live, and the family chooses to keep the diagnosis a secret from her. Sullivan, still believing his illness as another complication of a long-standing battle with a gastric ulcer, died five weeks later on October 13, 1974, at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York; he is 73 years old. The funeral was attended by 3,000 people at St. Anthony's Cathedral. Patrick, New York, on a cold and rainy day. Sullivan is buried in a tomb at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.
Sullivan has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6101 Hollywood Blvd.
References
Further reading
- Leonard, John, The Ed Sullivan Age , American Heritage , May/June 1997, Volume 48, Issue 3
- Nachman, Gerald, Ed Sullivan , December 18, 2006.
- Maguire, James, Impresario: Life and Time Ed Sullivan , Billboard Books, 2006/31/102929/
- Bowles, Jerry, One Thousand Week: Ed Sullivan Show, Putnam, 1980
- Barthelme, Donald, "And Now Let's Hear It for Ed Sullivan's Show!" at Guilty Pleasures , Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1974
External links
- Official Website of Ed Sullivan Show
- Ed Sullivan Papers at the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research.
- Ed Sullivan Documentary
- Ed Sullivan in the Search of the Mausoleum
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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