50 Fun Facts About The Ed Sullivan Show

How did The Ed Sullivan Show's cameras famously frame Elvis Presley, but only during his third and final appearance?

From the waist up was a last-minute rule for that visit alone. Legend says he was always censored that way, but it never applied to his two 1956 spots.

Which band was banned from The Ed Sullivan Show in 1967 after its singer kept a lyric he had promised to change?

The Doors had been wanted for six more bookings until Jim Morrison sang the drug reference on live television. He shrugged that the band had already done the program.

Which puppet character ended his sketches on The Ed Sullivan Show by asking the host for a goodnight kiss?

Topo Gigio, a little Italian mouse, made more than fifty visits and let the famously stiff host show a softer side.

Under which title did The Ed Sullivan Show run for its first seven years, before it took its host's name?

Toast of the Town stayed the official name until 1955, though viewers had been calling the program by its host's name for years.

Which puppeteer did Ed Sullivan introduce under the wrong surname on his first visit to the show in 1966?

Jim Henson was announced as Jim Newsom, yet his characters came back often, making 25 appearances before the series ended.

Which boxer was training in Miami Beach to fight Sonny Liston when the Beatles arrived for The Ed Sullivan Show?

Cassius Clay, soon to be renamed Muhammad Ali, posed for publicity photographs with the band in a boxing gym two days after the broadcast.

During the Beatles' first Ed Sullivan Show, an on-screen caption warned girls that which band member was married?

John Lennon got the caption during the ballad Till There Was You, when each member's name was laid over a close-up.

Which late-night host moved into the Ed Sullivan Theater in 1993 and taped his program there until retiring in 2015?

David Letterman opened his first broadcast there with spliced clips that made it look as though Ed Sullivan himself was introducing him.

Which Bill Haley hit made history on Ed Sullivan's show in 1955 as the first of its genre on national television?

Rock Around the Clock reached the screen that August as the first rock and roll song on a national program, more than a year before Elvis Presley first appeared on the show.

Which future comedy star wrote material for the mouse puppet on The Ed Sullivan Show early in her career?

Joan Rivers wrote a football-themed routine for the puppet, one of many sketches the Italian act took from American staff writers.

Which network aired The Ed Sullivan Show in the same weekly evening slot for more than two decades?

CBS dropped the series in 1971 in a sweep of long-running programs whose audiences had grown too old for advertisers.

Which Motown trio did Ed Sullivan fondly call The Girls because he could never remember their names?

The Supremes sang 15 of their hit singles on the program and used a late visit to introduce Diana Ross's replacement, Jean Terrell.

Which family group sang its debut Motown single on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1969 and soon topped the charts?

The Jackson 5 performed I Want You Back, the first of four straight number-one singles that opened the group's Motown career.

Which folk singer walked out of The Ed Sullivan Show in 1963 after the network vetoed his satirical song?

Bob Dylan refused to swap his song mocking the John Birch Society, and the host, who had liked it in rehearsal, publicly criticized the decision.

Which band's singer rolled his eyes at the camera on The Ed Sullivan Show while singing a censored chorus?

The Rolling Stones agreed to soften the title line of Let's Spend the Night Together, and Mick Jagger mugged his way through the new wording.

Which fading stage tradition of jugglers, comics and singers gave The Ed Sullivan Show its mixed-bill format?

Vaudeville had been dying for a generation, and the host kept its veterans in work by booking them beside opera singers and rock bands.

Which future Monkee performed with a Broadway cast on the same Ed Sullivan Show as the Beatles' first appearance?

Davy Jones, then the Artful Dodger in Oliver, watched the screaming crowd from the wings and decided he wanted that kind of fame.

Which sitcom star sang a number from Wildcat, her only Broadway musical, on The Ed Sullivan Show?

Lucille Ball sang Hey, Look Me Over with co-star Paula Stewart; illness and lukewarm reviews closed the musical after 171 performances.

What change came to The Ed Sullivan Show in September 1965, right after the Beatles' last studio appearance aired?

Full color arrived the following week. The Beatles had taped their spot a month early, just before the theater was ready for the new cameras.

What did Erich Brenn keep doing, usually to the frantic tune Sabre Dance, in his much-loved Ed Sullivan Show act?

Spinning plates and glass bowls on sticks, he dashed between tables to rescue each one as it wobbled, and the routine became shorthand for multitasking.

Which British actor guest-hosted Elvis Presley's first Ed Sullivan Show while its host recovered from a car crash?

Charles Laughton opened the night by reading poetry and introduced four other acts before the singer appeared from a studio in Los Angeles.

Elvis Presley's first Ed Sullivan Show spot came from Hollywood, where he was filming which movie, his screen debut?

Love Me Tender had not yet opened, and that night he sang its title ballad on television for the first time.

Which gospel song did Elvis Presley sing to close his final Ed Sullivan Show spot, winning the host's public praise?

Peace in the Valley moved the host to embrace the singer and vouch for his character on air.

Which number-one single did the Beatles play to close all three of their February 1964 Ed Sullivan Show broadcasts?

I Want to Hold Your Hand had reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 the week before the band landed, after the label rushed its release.

Which Beatles manager traded a big fee for top billing on three Ed Sullivan Show broadcasts in 1964?

Brian Epstein wanted exposure more than money, so the band took a minimal fee in return for opening and closing each program.

At which airport did Ed Sullivan first see Beatlemania, as screaming fans greeted the band's return from Sweden?

Heathrow was packed with about 1,500 fans that day, and the host told his entourage it was the Elvis craze all over again.

Which drama's 1967 finale broke the television audience record the Beatles had set on The Ed Sullivan Show?

The Fugitive drew the bigger crowd three years after more than 73 million people tuned in for the band's first night, when a typical edition drew about 21 million.

The Beatles taped their last Ed Sullivan Show set in 1965 on the eve of a famous concert at which ballpark?

Shea Stadium hosted the band the next night to open a two-week North American tour, and the taped set aired a month later.

Which Canadian comedy duo is credited with a record 67 appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show?

Wayne and Shuster had a handshake understanding that their sketches, which often ran twelve minutes or more, would never be cut.

Which ventriloquist, a guest on The Ed Sullivan Show 48 times, drew his puppet Johnny's face on his own hand?

Señor Wences got the idea as a schoolboy in Spain, when a punishment cleaning inkwells left ink smeared on his fist.

Which rock and roll pioneer infuriated Ed Sullivan in 1955 by playing his own hit instead of the agreed Sixteen Tons?

Bo Diddley argued that fans expected his own jukebox hit, and the backstage row over the switch went on for more than an hour.

Which comedian was dropped from The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 when the host thought he had made an obscene gesture?

Jackie Mason was reacting to hand signals telling him to wrap up, because a presidential address had shortened the program. He sued for libel and was back on the show two years later.

Which Texan rocker defied Ed Sullivan in 1958 over his choice of song, then turned down an invitation to return?

Buddy Holly had promised friends back home he would sing Oh, Boy, and when asked back he answered that the host did not have enough money.

Which soul singer was cut off mid-song when The Ed Sullivan Show overran, then rebooked after viewers complained?

Sam Cooke was singing You Send Me when the broadcast ran out of time, and he returned four weeks later to finish the job.

Which Israeli-born violinist first reached American audiences on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1958, when he was just 13?

Itzhak Perlman came back to the program twice in 1964 and marked the sixtieth anniversary of that debut in the same theater in 2018.

Which 1960 Broadway musical has a family sing a hymn of praise to Ed Sullivan before appearing on his show?

Bye Bye Birdie turns on a teenager chosen to kiss a rock star live on the program, and the host played himself in the 1963 film version.

For which car brand did Ed Sullivan read live commercials in the 1950s, on behalf of his show's main sponsor?

Mercury's parent sponsor, Ford's Lincoln dealers, once had to be fended off after the host dared to shake Nat King Cole's hand on air.

What nickname is given to the 1971 wave of network cancellations that swept away The Ed Sullivan Show?

The rural purge mostly hit country-flavored comedies, prompting the joke that the network had canceled everything with a tree in it.

Bob Precht, a longtime producer of The Ed Sullivan Show, had which family tie to its host?

Son-in-law Bob Precht married the host's daughter, Betty, in 1952, and the couple later sold the complete library of episodes.

Which rival host beat Ed Sullivan in the ratings with Elvis Presley in July 1956, prompting Sullivan's change of heart?

Steve Allen won that night, and less than two weeks later the man who had vowed never to book the singer signed him to a contract.

Which rival gossip columnist's move to another paper in 1929 handed Ed Sullivan his first Broadway column?

Walter Winchell held court at the Stork Club while his rival made the El Morocco nightclub his base, and the two reconciled only in the late 1960s.

Before he turned to Broadway gossip, what did Ed Sullivan cover as a young newspaper reporter in the 1920s?

Sports came naturally: he had earned twelve athletic letters in high school and captained the baseball team as its catcher.

In which Manhattan neighborhood was Ed Sullivan born, before his family moved north to suburban Port Chester?

Harlem stayed with him: decades later he put little-known Black entertainers he had enjoyed there on national television.

Which New York tabloid carried Ed Sullivan's column Little Old New York throughout his television career?

Daily News readers kept getting his Broadway column even at the height of his fame, because he never gave up the newspaper job.

Which slapstick act did Ed Sullivan mistakenly introduce as the Ritz Brothers on its first appearance on his show?

The Three Stooges watched him recover by adding that they looked more like themselves to him, a slip Moe Howard put down to plain forgetfulness.

Which exiled film star was kept off The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956, months before winning her second Oscar?

Ingrid Bergman had been shunned over her affair with director Roberto Rossellini, yet the host flew to Europe to film her on the set of Anastasia.

Which soul star was booked for The Ed Sullivan Show in 1968 but died in a plane crash before he could appear?

Otis Redding died in December 1967 with at least two television dates booked for the new year, the other on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.

What did A Short Vision, an animated film Ed Sullivan showed twice in 1956, depict in grim detail?

A nuclear apocalypse narrated in the style of the Bible drew such a response that the host asked parents to send children out of the room for the second showing.

What kind of performer was Fred Kaps, whose pre-taped act had to follow the Beatles on their first Ed Sullivan Show?

A magician had the thankless slot, and his act was recorded in advance so stagehands had time for an elaborate set change.

Which 1960s musical's Broadway cast, with a young Diane Keaton among them, sang on The Ed Sullivan Show?

Hair sent a cast that also included Melba Moore and the musical's two co-authors, Gerome Ragni and James Rado.