Impresario: The Life and Times of Ed Sullivan

by James Maguire

Overview

• Sullivan has nearly 100% name recognition among people 40 and older

• In a survey of the fifty most influential programs in the U.S., TV Guide ranked The Ed Sullivan Show #10

• Show still appears on PBS and on cable stations across the country

• Sixty million baby boomers grew up watching The Ed Sullivan Show



For more than twenty years, from 1948 to 1971, fifty-five million viewers watched The Ed Sullivan Show religiously every Sunday night. Everyone who was anyone appeared—the Beatles and Elvis, of course, and Woody Allen, Bill Cosby, and Elizabeth Taylor, plus public figures such as Fidel Castro, David Ben-Gurion, and Martin Luther King, Jr. More than thirty years later, the program remains a pop-culture icon. But despite Ed Sullivan’s prominence, little was known about the private man...until now. Impresario reveals what the Sullivan viewers never saw: nasty, hot-tempered, craven, yet also capable of high ideals and, above all, hugely ambitious. At a time when Americans are looking back, The Ed Sullivan Show stands out as a shining example of television during the golden era. Impresario lets readers look behind the screen to see the man who made it happen.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780307799449
Publisher:	Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed
Publication date:	11/23/2011
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

James Maguire is the author of three books about culture, technology and the American scene, including American Bee. He divides his time between Baltimore and New York City.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     vii
Prologue     1
A Showman's Education
Twins     10
Two Loves     22
The Porno Graphic     42
Broadway     54
Cafe Society     68
Hollywood     97
The War Years     117
The Birth of Television
A Temporary Job     136
"Really Big Show"     143
David vs. Goliath     166
Stardom     190
Elvis     211
The Globetrotter     229
The Times They Are a Changin'     253
Beatlemania     281
The Generation Gap     299
Ripped Asunder     324
Epilogue     345
Sources     350
Selected Bibliography     352
Endnotes     353
Index     380

Editorial Reviews

Impresario may not have something for everyone, but it has an awful lot for anyone interested in what made this unlikely star, and the institution he created, run.
— The New York Times

Peter Keepnews

Running from 1948 to 1971, the Ed Sullivan Show's "Big Tent" theory defined family viewing. Each Sunday night, more than 35 million people tuned in to see everyone from Elvis to Richard Pryor, the Beatles to Nureyev. Animal acts and high art shared billing. A gig on Sullivan made many performers. Maguire, who is also publishing an account of the National Spelling Bee this season (American Bee), reveals the man behind the curtain, portraying Sullivan (1901-1974) as tyrannical, egotistical and controlling. As Maguire tells it, the sportswriter turned Daily News columnist had one goal: fame. Sullivan failed at radio and film, but triumphed in print, and though his early TV years were rocky, he successfully (and lucratively) captured the zeitgeist; his tastes were America's tastes. As an emcee, he was awkward and stilted in front of the camera; as a producer, he was brilliant and intuitive. "[W]ithout being able to sing, tell jokes or be charming," he became famous. Yet the successful star was a loner. He adored his wife, but had no close friends or real home life. Maguire has written a fascinating biography and meticulously recorded the birth of TV, the heyday of newspaper columnists and the glamour of New York. 40 b&w illus. (June) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Solid, savvy biography of the stone-faced showman who brought the whole spectrum of American culture into the nation's living rooms. Pop-culture author Maguire (American Bee, not reviewed) spends a bit too much time on his subject's apprenticeship as a sportswriter and gossip columnist before moving on to the legendary variety show that ran from the dawn of television in 1948 through 1971. Sullivan (1901-74) was a fairly typical Broadway columnist, and his years as such certainly shaped his show's all-inclusive ethos. It was only after years of failing to find a niche in radio or Hollywood (newspapers could never fully assuage his lust for media celebrity) that he found his true calling when CBS tapped him to host Toast of the Town. The fledgling network hoped Sullivan's status as columnist could strong-arm major stars into appearing on the minimally funded program. It did, but the essence of Ed's ability to fend off better-heeled rivals like The Colgate Comedy Hour lay in his keen sense of just what Mr. and Mrs. America-and their kids-wanted to see. The Ed Sullivan Show (as it was renamed in 1955) mixed opera stars and Broadway musicals with animal acts and rock-'n'-roll in a "Big Tent" that offered something for every taste. Maguire correctly notes that Sullivan's role as host (derided for his stiff demeanor) was far less important than the influence he wielded as producer, choosing every act and often changing the lineup at the last minute based on the dress-rehearsal audience's reactions. He was alert enough to trends to book Elvis and the Beatles, though their advent signaled a generation gap that would ultimately doom the Big Tent approach. Sullivan, who lived for his work, survivedonly a few years beyond the show's cancellation and wife Sylvia's near-simultaneous death. Smart cultural history and a level-headed tribute to the impresario "always ready to proceed with cautious boldness wherever the audience was ready to go, and sometimes where they weren't."

Kirkus Reviews