The 75th Anniversary of The Ed Sullivan Show

It was 75 years ago today, on June 20 1948, that The Ed Sullivan Show debuted on CBS under the title Toast of the Town. Ed Sullivan was a well known syndicated entertainment columnist. He had already hosted multiple radio shows, the first of which debuted in 1932. From 1943 to 1944 he hosted the radio show Ed Sullivan Entertains, a variety show which served as a template for his television show. It was Marlo Lewis, then with the Blaine Thompson Advertising agency, who convinced CBS to hire Ed Sullivan as the host of a weekly variety show in 1948.

The show debuted under the title Toast of the Town, but was known informally as "The Ed Sullivan Show"years before it was officially retitled The Ed Sullivan Show on September 25 1955. It featured its own regular performers, including ventriloquist Señor Wences and the Italian mouse puppet Topo Gigio. The Ed Sullivan Show was well known for its wide variety of performers, from acrobatic troupes to performances from Broadway shows to the latest, popular music acts. It was notable for the live television debuts of many notable performers, including Martin and Lewis, Bob Hope, Dinah Shore, Fred Astaire, Eddie Fisher, The Beatles, and The Beach Boys, among others.

The Ed Sullivan Show proved to be a hit for CBS and ran for 24 seasons. It was still popular when it was cancelled in 1971 as part of the Rural Purge. Quite simply, most of its viewers were too old, older than the key demographic of 18 to 54 desired by the networks and advertisers. As it is, The Ed Sullivan Show probably would not have survived much longer. It was in September 1974 that Ed Sullivan was diagnosed with an advanced stage of oesophageal cancer. He died on October 13 1974 at the age of 73. Of course, one could not have The Ed Sullivan Show without Ed Sullivan.

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of The Ed Sullivan Show I wrote a much more detailed post. You can read it here.