Who was Ed Sullivan, anyhow?
Sullivan was born in 1901 and started his career as a sportswriter in New York. He eventually became a theater columnist, covering Broadway and its surrounding gossip scene. Like his contemporary Walter Winchell, Sullivan became a starmaker — a mention in his column could boost a performer’s public profile immediately. He soon began doing a radio show focusing on showbiz news, and from there, it was a short leap to television. In 1949, CBS installed him as host of a variety show called Toast of the Town. For the next 22 years, the show aired live Sunday nights at 8PM Eastern, from the same studio that hosts Late Night With David Letterman now. (The show would be renamed The Ed Sullivan Show in 1955.) In the days when most people had access to three or four TV channels at most, programs needed to appeal to a mass audience. So Sullivan featured every type of entertainment imaginable: singers of every genre, dancers, Broadway performers, circus acts, mimes, classical musicians, comics —
