Ed Sullivan: he presented the world with "A Really Big Show"
Written: Mar 28 '04 (Updated May 05 '04)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: A reknowned television critic takes a loving look at TV's most successful variety show.
Cons: None.
The Bottom Line: A wonderfully written and picture-packed volume about "The Ed Sullivan Show," TV's most successful variety series, and its star. Highly recommended.
|
|
|
| Don_Krider's Full Review: A Really Big Show Books |
For 23 years, Ed Sullivan hosted the most influential of all television variety shows on CBS-TV.
The show, which ran from June 20, 1948 to May 30, 1971, was broadcast live for an amazing 1,087 hour-long shows. Sullivan, the man in a businessman's suit and tie, knew talent and he hired it for the show each week without prejudice --- your race, religion or nationality made no difference to Ed Sullivan and his show was a "must-see" event in most American homes.
The author:
The book's text is by John Leonard, television critic for "New York" magazine. He has also been a columnist for "New York Newsday" and a book critic for National Public Radio. He has also written for "The New York Times," "Playboy," "Esquire," "Variety" and "TV Guide," among other publications.
The book was edited by Claudia Falkenburg and Andrew Solt. This is Falkenburg's first book. She is married to Solt, who is perhaps best-known as the producer-director of the film, "Imagine: John Lennon" (he also co-authored the book of the same name).
The book:
"A Really Big Show" by John Leonard is a wonderful 256-page, coffee-table-sized hardcover book. It's packed with black-and-white photos from the show (including behind-the-scene shots).
The title is based on Sullivan's signature line about having "a really big show" for the audience every Sunday night (the word "show" pronounced as what sounded like "shoe" in Ed's New York accent every week, something comedians picked up on quickly when impersonating him).
The writer's style:
Leonard has a fascinating eye for detail and opens the book in an interesting way: he takes you through one entire episode that aired Sunday, September 11, 1966, at 8 p.m. on CBS-TV.
In that episode, described with actual quotes from the show and photos from the episode, you get a picture of a typical "Ed Sullivan Show" --- an episode with something for everyone in the audience. The guests: The Rolling Stones (singing "Paint It Black"), Robert Goulet, Red Skelton, Louis Armstrong and the skaters from "Holiday On Ice." If you didn't like one of the acts, the odds were you would like some of the others.
Leonard tells us in "A Really Big Show" of a Ed Sullivan as troubled kid who was born in Harlem with a twin brother, Danny, who died at the age of nine months. A child who lettered in four varsity sports in high school, Ed ran away to Chicago to join the Marines, only to find out the Marines wouldn't take him (even though it was 1917 and America's entry into World War I was at hand), so he returned to write about sports for his high school newspaper.
Sullivan, who was born in 1902 in New York City and who died in 1974, moved on from that high school paper, Leonard tells us, writing for various publications and working as a "stringer" (freelance writer) for the Associated Press. After a time as "a gossip columnist," Sullivan launched his first variety program on radio in 1932, a short-lived vehicle called "The Ed Sullivan Show."
Sullivan went on to stage benefits for American troops during World War II. During the mid-1940's he hosted entertainment programs on both CBS and NBC, while also emceeing vaudeville shows.
"Talk Of The Town":
According to Leonard, when CBS-TV, one of three networks airing television shows in 1948, decided to present Ed Sullivan as host of "Talk Of The Town" that year.
When the critics and the show's sponsor, Emerson Radio, hated the show, CBS offered the series to other sponsors, "with or without Sullivan." Sullivan remained, but he never forgave CBS for the way it treated him, according to Leonard. CBS gave the show a $375 a week budget in its early days.
Sullivan got his revenge in 1955 when, due to his own popularity, "Talk Of The Town" was renamed "The Ed Sullivan Show." By this time, Sullivan's show was such a big money-maker for CBS that budget restraints no longer existed and he could hire virtually any act for the show.
Leonard describes Sullivan as "the unstar" of celebrities. He quotes a 1955 "Time" magazine article on Sullivan as saying of Sullivan:
"He moves like a sleepwalker; his smile is that of a man sucking a lemon; his speech is frequently lost in a thicket of syntax; his eyes pop from their sockets or sink so deep in their bags that they seem to be peering up at the camera from the bottom of twin wells. Yet instead of frightening children, Ed Sullivan charms the whole family."
In photos of the audience shown in the book, we see Hollywood stars such as Jackie Gleason, Jimmy Durante, Jack Lord, Paul Newman and others standing up after being introduced by Sullivan ("...in our audience tonight...") --- according to Leonard, Sullivan was the first television host to have this feature on his show, "giving it a one-big-happy-electronic-family feeling."
It was typical Sullivan --- celebrities as regular folks in the audience, and not in the best seats, just to show that we're all equals (although his classic mistake in introducing a famous composer as "the late Irving Berlin" in his audience is priceless, one of many humorous incidents recalled in the book).
That's the Ed Sullivan I grew up with (being born in 1957). My mom and dad (when he wasn't at sea with the U. S. Navy) had me in front of the television every Sunday night watching the diversified acts that Sullivan presented. It was all entertaining, be it Chinese gymnasts or dancing animals or the biggest film stars in Hollywood or the "talking mouse" Topo Gigio (the puppet who always leaned in to Ed and said, "Kees-a-me, Eddie!").
For me, the book makes me realize that it was Sullivan's choice of comedy acts and musical acts that established much of my diverse interests in entertainment.
New stars:
Sullivan made the nation laugh to such "new stars" as Johnny Carson, Bill Cosby, Dick Cavett, Woody Allen, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Sid Caesar, Red Skelton, Robert Klein, Dan Rowan and Dick Martin, Flip Wilson, Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin and countless other comedy greats (Carol Burnett made her debut on the show in an episode featuring Elvis Presley).
It was a family show that adults and children could enjoy together. Jim Henson's Muppets made 25 appearances on the show before getting their own show with "Sesame Street." Shari Lewis introduced her puppet Lambchop on Sullivan's show. Even The Three Stooges appeared four times!
Civil rights activist:
Sullivan, who was active in the civil rights movement according to the book's author, offered a rare venue for African-American acts, presenting such performers as Ray Charles, Eartha Kitt, Nat King Cole, James Brown, The Harlem Globetrotters, Ethel Waters, Jackie Robinson, The Supremes, "Little" Stevie Wonder, Sam and Dave, The Platters, Gladys Knight and The Pips, The Four Tops, Sammy Davis Jr., The Jackson 5, Ike and Tina Turner, and so many more.
After Martin Luther King's death, Sullivan had Dr. King's wife, Coretta, on the show to play tape of two of the slain civil rights leader's most famous speeches. Sullivan ignored sponsors' demands that he not hug black celebrities on stage.
Driving force in music:
Sullivan was a powerful force in rock music, attracting Elvis Presley ("...I want to say to Elvis and the country that this is a real decent, fine boy..."), The Beatles, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Beach Boys, Janis Joplin, The Rolling Stones, Herman's Hermits, The Dave Clark Five (12 appearances, two more than The Beatles) and just about any major musical act you can think of from the 1960's.
Sullivan initially missed the Presley bandwagon --- Elvis had appeared on the variety shows of Milton Berle, Tommy Dorsey and Steve Allen after Sullivan passed on paying Presley $5,000 for a single show. After getting trounced in the ratings by Presley's appearance on Allen's TV show, however, Sullivan signed a three-show deal for $50,000 with Presley.
As the book's author tells us, people remember that first Presley appearance on Sullivan in 1956, but have forgotten that Sullivan wasn't on the show that week --- Sullivan had been in a car accident that knocked out all his teeth and kept him off the show for five weeks that year.
The legendary performances of The Beatles on his show in 1964 (they eventually appeared on 10 episodes, seven of those appearances on tape) drew an audience of some 70 million people who viewed screaming girls going crazy over four guys with mop-top haicuts. Their are countless musicians (and music fans) today who cite that Beatles' appearance on Sullivan's show as the defining moment for them in rock music (grab a guitar, grow your hair long and get the girl).
Sullivan's show was such a proven record-seller that The Rolling Stones agreed to change the lyrics to "Let's Spend The Night Together" (to "let's spend some time together") on his show so they could continue appearing on the show.
On the flipside of the same musical coin, The Doors, singing their hit "Light My Fire," agreed to remove the word "higher" when Sullivan recognized its drug connotations --- then in true rock 'n' roll fashion The Doors went ahead and sang the word in the song on television. It was The Doors only appearance on the show.
"The secret of pacing on Ed's show," Leonard offers, "was that the acts weren't much longer than the commercials." Sullivan knew that in an age before remote controls, people weren't likely to get out of their chairs and walk to the television to change the channel as long as an act they didn't like wasn't on the air too long.
The man:
Leonard describes a unique man. A favorite breakfast might include sweetened peas and iced tea. His Dunhill suits were numbered, as were his shirts and ties, so he "could tape a new introduction to an old rerun without looking like he had dropped in on his own program."
This unassuming man, as described by Leonard, would dine on a roast chicken at lunch, then pocket a drumstick to eat later. The author also notes that due to a bout with scarlet fever and high school football injuries, Sullivan had serious sinus trouble, noting that "America's tastemaker can't taste."
Most interesting is the kind of businessman Sullivan was. Leonard tells us of a man who in 1955, seven years into his show, read newspapers to scout for the latest acts and who personally made hundreds of phone calls without an assistant, "doing his own dialing" (in the days before touch-tone dialing, Sullivan turned the dial on a rotary phone). He also enjoyed wearing buckled loafers as shoes (his favorite pair of shoes was a gift from actor George Hamilton).
Sullivan seems to have been a good family man, too, having married his wife in 1928. While on prime time television, they made their home in a six-room suite on the 11th floor of the Delmonico Hotel, Leonard tells us. Their home contained gifts from friends, such as "an original drawing from Walt Disney in which Ed plays golf with Donald Duck" and an autographed picture of Ella Fitzgerald. Sullivan's most expensive possession was a painting by Renoir. They enjoyed bottles of sweet wine, which he sweetened further with packets of Sweet 'n' Low.
Sullivan didn't have "a manager, or an agent, or a chauffeur for his limousine, or even a limousine." He also carried a change of clothes on a wire hanger if he was walking to the studio (if he rode to the studio, he loved to take a cab because "he loved talking to cabbies").
Sullivan passed away in 1974, just three years after his show's cancellation (CBS decided in 1971 that it wanted a younger, more hip demographic and cancelled a number of highly-rated shows that year).
Recommendation:
This is a book of memories. The text is thorough in its detail and interesting to read. The author offers hundreds of inside stories and comments from dozens of celebrities whose careers Sullivan helped. It's the story of a man with a vision who succeeded on his terms. The story of a show that became a ratings victim to "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" and "The Flip Wilson Show," shows whose stars got their first major television breaks on Sullivan's show.
Sullivan comes across as a very good man, but the primary focus of the book is about everything that blended together to make a truly unique American television show (and the accidents that happen on live broadcasts).
I recommend "A Really Big Show" by John Leonard to anyone who remembers the show, the man and the times. The book is a perfect primer for anyone interested in entertainment history and the early years of television.
For the photo buff, the pictures that fill the book on every page are stunning and revealing (several pages of Elvis and The Beatles; amazing shots of Barbra Streisand and Judy Garland; a classic picture of Sullivan admiring an outrageous coat worn by Liberace).
For a fun trip down memory lane, read "A Really Big Show" by John Leonard.
Related internet sites:
My review of The Beatles' CD "Rubber Soul": http://www.epinions.com/musc-review-2A00-87A2D73-389B0212-prod1
My review of a book about TV's "Midnight Special": http://www.epinions.com/content_74683551364
A TV museum site: http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/S/htmlS/sullivaned/sullivaned.htm
CNN articles on the show:
http://www.cnn.com/2000/SHOWBIZ/TV/07/25/tv.rocks.ap/
http://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/TV/10/03/ed.sullivan.sidebar/
http://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/TV/10/03/ed.sullivan/index.html
The Jerry Lewis Comedy Museum: http://www.jerrylewiscomedy.com/film_toast_town.htm
Like comedy on TV, perhaps my review of "The Life And Times Of Maxwell Smart" by Donna McCrohan will be of interest: http://www.epinions.com/book-review-451-110FDD6-3909205F-prod5
Nothing to do with Ed Sullivan or music on TV, but my book review of Karen Pluckett-Powell's book, "Remembering Woolworth's: A Nostalgic History Of The World's Most Famous Five & Dime" might be of interest to Sullivan fans looking for another trip down memory lane: http://www.epinions.com/content_45424742020
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
Don_Krider
|
 in Music, Electronics, Musical Instruments |
 - Top 200 |
|
Member: Don Krider
Location: USA
Reviews written: 301
Trusted by: 1004 members
About Me:
Fan of power pop (Raspberries, Badfinger, Cheap Trick, The Knack, Romantics, Slade,Sweet...) --- "Play On"!!!
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.