Sundays with Sullivan: How the Ed Sullivan Show Brought Elvis, the Beatles, and Culture to America

by Bernie Ilson

Overview

Ed Sullivan, who could not sing, dance, or act, was TV's greatest showman in its early years. For 23 years, from 1948 to 1971, he hosted America's premiere variety show every Sunday night on CBS, on which he introduced an eclectic array of talent that included everything from opera singers to dancing bears to Elvis Presley and the Beatles. 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 shew and delivered by offering up virtually every form of twentieth-century entertainment. Bernie Ilson, the Sullivan show's P.R. man for eight years, takes us on a trip down memory lane to revisit one of the most popular shows in television history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781589794016
Publisher:	Taylor Trade Publishing
Publication date:	01/16/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	232
File size:	458 KB

About the Author

Bernard Ilson has been running his own public relations company in New York City since 1963, when his first client was Sullivan Productions, the producers of The Ed Sullivan Show. He lives in New York City.

Editorial Reviews

For more than two decades, Ed Sullivan's Sunday night show was, especially for fledgling stars like Elvis Presley and the Beatles, both a hallmark of success and the greatest exposure an act could get. Few people, however, appreciate the sizable cultural impact Sullivan's show had with regards to its commitment to color-blind booking and "high culture" acts from the worlds of opera, ballet and the theater. Long-time show business public relations man Ilson worked with the show for several years, and wrote his PhD dissertation on the Ed Sullivan Show's cultural impact; as such, Ilson has behind-the-scenes insight and several cogent arguments about the relevance of the show, which he unfortunately repeats, with little variation, throughout the text. Buoyed by interviews with producers and executives, Ilson continually returns to the same few points: high culture bits were popular, but in small doses; Sullivan was not a great host, but a fantastic booker; and Sullivan's success was largely due to his experience in news media. A shorter treatment would certainly prove intriguing, but Ilson's redundant text becomes dry, if not outright irritating, before the first act is over. 40 b&w photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly

...[P]ick up a copy of this book and give it to your grandparents as a gift… but do yourself a favor and read it first (just don’t crack the spine, dummy, it’s a present!).

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