Book

Author:	Bernie Ilson
Title:	Sundays With Sullivan
Subtitle:	How The Ed Sullivan Show Brought Elvis, The Beatles, And Culture To America
Publisher:	Taylor Trade
Country:	USA
Date:	16 Dec 2008
Format:	Hardcover
Genre:	Biography
ISBN-13:	9781589793903
Total Editions:	2
Rating:	Rate
Collection:	I Own It I Want It
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232 pages. Book dimensions: 16.64 cms x 2.36 cms x 23.95 cms.

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When forty-six-year-old Ed Sullivan ― a gossip columnist for the New York Daily News ― stepped on stage at CBS Television Studio for the first time in 1948, no one could imagine the great success that lay in store for The Ed Sullivan Show. Sullivan didn't sing, dance, or act, but he became one of the country's greatest showmen, hosting what would become television's longest running variety and music show. For twenty-three years, from 1948 to 1971, The Ed Sullivan Show was America's premiere variety show, airing live every Sunday night. Sullivan used the one-hour program to bring stars of the entertainment world into living rooms across the nation, turning acts such as the Beatles and Elvis Presley into household names. But Sullivan certainly didn't limit his show to rock musicians. The performers featured on The Ed Sullivan Show were an eclectic array of talent that included everything from opera singers to dancing bears, high-wire walkers to classical violinists.

This book is an inside view of The Ed Sullivan Show and the unusual story of one of the most unlikely television stars who played host to such diverse talents as Van Cliburn, Rudolf Nureyev, Robert Goulet, Richard Pryor, and the Rolling Stones. With his distinctive nasal voice, Sullivan regularly promised audiences a "really big show" and delivered by offering up virtually every form of twentieth-century entertainment. Bernie Ilson, one the most famous publicists in the field of public relations, and the press representative for the final eight years of The Ed Sullivan Show, gives the reader a unique inside view of the amazing newspaperman and television host, Ed Sullivan, who anticipated the interest of 35 million viewers each Sunday and presented them with the greatest talent in show business, week after week, for almost a quarter of a century.

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Comments and Reviews


JPGR&B SUBS ● 3rd Apr 2022		Review Annotation (Part 1 of 2): Ilson was a television producer in the 1970s after getting his start with the Ed Sullivan Show in 1963. In the late 1990's, Ilson took a PhD from New York University and the cultural aspects of the Sullivan Show formed the basis for his dissertation: 'High Cultural Aspects of The Ed Sullivan Show (1948-1971) and how it affected Cultural Diffusion in the United States'. This combination of an insider's perspective and an understanding of cultural context puts Ilson in the position of being able to examine the cultural impact of the long-running show in a decidedly unique way. Today, little is known about the often caricaturized Sullivan who undoubtedly contributed to his image by the delight he took in presenting comedians on the show who mimicked his stilted style, mannerisms and malapropisms. The premise of the show (something for everyone: a comic, a singer, a juggler, a pretty girl, and a dancing bear) was dismissed by some as 'vaudevision', merely the latest incarnation of old-time entertainment, but although Sullivan took pains to ensure there was 'something for the kiddies', the show provided much more. Sullivan had a sixth sense about what the public wanted and his radio show, 'Cavalcade of Stars', was one of the first to make the transition to television in the early days when networks and programmers. Right from the start, Sullivan insisted on scheduling opera stars like Leontyne Price (and later, Beverly Sills) as frequently as Peggy Lee and Ella Fitzgerald, once devoting an 18-minute segment to Maria Callas's debut in Tosca. He presented dramatic excerpts from Broadway plays, such as Mr. Roberts and Anne of the Thousand Days; Alfred Lunt, Noel Coward, and Helen Hayes did dramatic readings. Louis Armstrong and Van Cliburn all found an audience on the Sunday night show. Viewers were exposed to rich ethnic and early feminist humor (Woody AlIen, Bill Cosby, and Carol Burnett were among countless other Jewish, black, and female comedians who had their earliest television exposure on his show). Leonard Bernstein and Burt Bacharach were valued equally to Sullivan, who had an early understanding that popular culture had worth and meaning. He broadcast from outside the United States; from the Kremlin and Berlin in the depth of the Cold War, even during the McCarthy era, negotiating appearances by the Bolshoi Ballet, as well as other Russian theatre troupes. Yes, there was the night Sullivan, standing in the wings, grew so entranced by the performance of Rupert the Bear onstage that he nearly became part of the animal's act, and the host did routinely kiss Topo Gigio goodnight at the end of the rodent puppet's routine. But he also broadcast an interview he taped after flying a small crew to Cuba and driving three hours into the island's interior war zone to get the first post-revolution meeting with Fidel Castro in January 1959. Sullivan also had a reputation for being 'color-blind' presenting Afro-American stars, sports figures, and personalities on stage and from within the audience, often to the consternation of his tobacco company sponsors in the South. Anyone who saw the Beatles perform from the Deauville Hotel in Miami in their second Sullivan Show appearance (February 16, 1964) would note that although the audience is solidly white, Sullivan goes out of his way to introduce African-American boxers Joe Louis and Sonny Liston from the audience. Television's first integrated chorus line danced on Sullivan's show in 1961 and Mrs. Coretta Scott King, widow of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. made an appeal for racial tolerance just weeks after the assassination. Sullivan's standard was talent and appeal: if someone had those two things, he was adamant: "Nobody tells me who to book on my stage." In the end, the southern sponsors couldn't argue with the ratings . Ilson covers the three famous Beatle shows in February of 1964, although he presents the oft-told mixture of myth and memory that Sullivan favored, rather than the more plausible and verifiable reality presented by James Maguire in impresario: The Life and Times of Ed Sullivan (see within, Maguire, James). Still, there is no doubt that the Beatles could not have taken the next step in what now seems their inevitable progression from Liverpool to London to the world stage, had it not been for the Sullivan Show. Quite simply, there was no other venue in the world that could give them the exposure in as favorable light ("Four of the nicest youngsters we've ever had on our show" Sullivan told the audience), to as wide a demographic (the policy of presenting something for every member of the family paid off), or to sheer numbers (73.9 million viewers; over 40% of the American population). ✔︎ Helpful Review?



JPGR&B SUBS ● 3rd Apr 2022		Review Annotation (Part 2 of 2): After the Beatles three record-breaking appearances, Sullivan followed up by being the first to give other British Invasion acts exposure on American television: Gerry & The Pacemakers, Herman's Hermits, The Dave Clark Five, The Animals, and Petula Clark. He is often pilloried for asking the Rolling Stones to alter the lyric, 'Let's spend the night together' to 'Let's spend some time together', for their 1967 appearance, however when taken in context - the BBC would ban 'A Day in the Life' that same year finding objectionable the phrase 'I'd love to turn you on' - Sullivan does not seem entirely out of place with the times. What is lost is an understanding of the value of the Sullivan show as a venue in the first place, which was inestimable even to the 'bad boy' Rolling Stones. Personal insight into Sullivan and anecdotes about the shows make this text an essential volume for background into why the Sullivan appearances were so significant to the Beatles and other British Invasion groups that followed. Recommended, especially when read alongside Maguire's excellent biography, which does, by the way, provide the 'real' story of how Sullivan first learned about the Beatles and booked them for that first appearance. Melissa Davis Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2012), with acknowledgement, and used here with permission from the authors for educational and historical purposes only. ✔︎ Helpful Review?



JPGR&B SUBS ● 5th Apr 2022		Review Annotation (Part 1 of 2): Ilson was a television producer in the 1970s after getting his start with the Ed Sullivan Show in 1963. In the late 1990's, Ilson took a PhD from New York University and the cultural aspects of the Sullivan Show formed the basis for his dissertation: 'High Cultural Aspects of The Ed Sullivan Show (1948-1971) and how it affected Cultural Diffusion in the United States'. This combination of an insider's perspective and an understanding of cultural context puts Ilson in the position of being able to examine the cultural impact of the long-running show in a decidedly unique way. Today, little is known about the often caricaturized Sullivan who undoubtedly contributed to his image by the delight he took in presenting comedians on the show who mimicked his stilted style, mannerisms and malapropisms. The premise of the show (something for everyone: a comic, a singer, a juggler, a pretty girl, and a dancing bear) was dismissed by some as 'vaudevision', merely the latest incarnation of old-time entertainment, but although Sullivan took pains to ensure there was 'something for the kiddies', the show provided much more. Sullivan had a sixth sense about what the public wanted and his radio show, 'Cavalcade of Stars', was one of the first to make the transition to television in the early days when networks and programmers. Right from the start, Sullivan insisted on scheduling opera stars like Leontyne Price (and later, Beverly Sills) as frequently as Peggy Lee and Ella Fitzgerald, once devoting an 18-minute segment to Maria Callas's debut in Tosca. He presented dramatic excerpts from Broadway plays, such as Mr. Roberts and Anne of the Thousand Days; Alfred Lunt, Noel Coward, and Helen Hayes did dramatic readings. Louis Armstrong and Van Cliburn all found an audience on the Sunday night show. Viewers were exposed to rich ethnic and early feminist humor (Woody AlIen, Bill Cosby, and Carol Burnett were among countless other Jewish, black, and female comedians who had their earliest television exposure on his show). Leonard Bernstein and Burt Bacharach were valued equally to Sullivan, who had an early understanding that popular culture had worth and meaning. He broadcast from outside the United States; from the Kremlin and Berlin in the depth of the Cold War, even during the McCarthy era, negotiating appearances by the Bolshoi Ballet, as well as other Russian theatre troupes. Yes, there was the night Sullivan, standing in the wings, grew so entranced by the performance of Rupert the Bear onstage that he nearly became part of the animal's act, and the host did routinely kiss Topo Gigio goodnight at the end of the rodent puppet's routine. But he also broadcast an interview he taped after flying a small crew to Cuba and driving three hours into the island's interior war zone to get the first post-revolution meeting with Fidel Castro in January 1959. Sullivan also had a reputation for being 'color-blind' presenting Afro-American stars, sports figures, and personalities on stage and from within the audience, often to the consternation of his tobacco company sponsors in the South. Anyone who saw the Beatles perform from the Deauville Hotel in Miami in their second Sullivan Show appearance (February 16, 1964) would note that although the audience is solidly white, Sullivan goes out of his way to introduce African-American boxers Joe Louis and Sonny Liston from the audience. Television's first integrated chorus line danced on Sullivan's show in 1961 and Mrs. Coretta Scott King, widow of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. made an appeal for racial tolerance just weeks after the assassination. Sullivan's standard was talent and appeal: if someone had those two things, he was adamant: "Nobody tells me who to book on my stage." In the end, the southern sponsors couldn't argue with the ratings . Ilson covers the three famous Beatle shows in February of 1964, although he presents the oft-told mixture of myth and memory that Sullivan favored, rather than the more plausible and verifiable reality presented by James Maguire in impresario: The Life and Times of Ed Sullivan (see within, Maguire, James). Still, there is no doubt that the Beatles could not have taken the next step in what now seems their inevitable progression from Liverpool to London to the world stage, had it not been for the Sullivan Show. Quite simply, there was no other venue in the world that could give them the exposure in as favorable light ("Four of the nicest youngsters we've ever had on our show" Sullivan told the audience), to as wide a demographic (the policy of presenting something for every member of the family paid off), or to sheer numbers (73.9 million viewers; over 40% of the American population). (this review is from another edition of this book) ✔︎ Helpful Review?



JPGR&B SUBS ● 5th Apr 2022		Review Annotation (Part 2 of 2): After the Beatles three record-breaking appearances, Sullivan followed up by being the first to give other British Invasion acts exposure on American television: Gerry & The Pacemakers, Herman's Hermits, The Dave Clark Five, The Animals, and Petula Clark. He is often pilloried for asking the Rolling Stones to alter the lyric, 'Let's spend the night together' to 'Let's spend some time together', for their 1967 appearance, however when taken in context - the BBC would ban 'A Day in the Life' that same year finding objectionable the phrase 'I'd love to turn you on' - Sullivan does not seem entirely out of place with the times. What is lost is an understanding of the value of the Sullivan show as a venue in the first place, which was inestimable even to the 'bad boy' Rolling Stones. Personal insight into Sullivan and anecdotes about the shows make this text an essential volume for background into why the Sullivan appearances were so significant to the Beatles and other British Invasion groups that followed. Recommended, especially when read alongside Maguire's excellent biography, which does, by the way, provide the 'real' story of how Sullivan first learned about the Beatles and booked them for that first appearance. Melissa Davis Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2012), with acknowledgement, and used here with permission from the authors for educational and historical purposes only. (this review is from another edition of this book) ✔︎ Helpful Review?

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Other Editions

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Bernie Ilson - Sundays With Sullivan - Taylor Trade - Paperback - USA - 9781589795730 (2010)