Ed Sullivan a former gossip columnist suddenly was the premier variety show host on Sunday evenings in the late 1940’s. His wooden and stiff persona worked well for the type of program the network was looking for.
Sullivan had already promised to not put the young singer on his program, ever. Elvis Presley was a rising star at the time, but Sullivan refused saying Elvis was “unfit for family viewing.”
On July 1st, 1956, Elvis appeared on NBC’s new Steve Allen Show, which aired opposite CBS’s The Ed Sullivan Show. Due to the backlash from Presley’s second and last performance on The Milton Berle Show, Allen decided to dress Elvis in a tuxedo and have him sing “Hound Dog” to a basset hound.
While many of Elvis’s teenaged fans may not have appreciated the comedic intent of the song (Elvis personally hated it), The Steve Allen Show crushed Ed Sullivan in that week’s ratings. On Monday, Ed Sullivan sent Steve Allen a telegram reading: “Steven Presley Allen, NBC TV, New York City. Stinker. Love and kisses. Ed Sullivan.”
By Monday morning Ed Sullivan caved and decided to book Elvis on his Sunday night showcase. Sullivan and Colonel Parker agreed to have Elvis appear three times for the then mind boggling sum of $50,000, the highest amount ever paid to a performer to appear on TV.
With 60 million viewers—or 82.6 percent of TV viewers at the time—tuning in, the appearance garnered the show’s best ratings in two years and became the most-watched TV broadcast of the 1950s.
You’ll notice they filmed Elvis above the waist.
Rock and Roll was here to stay.
What’s also interesting is that Ed Sullivan wasn’t even on his program the night Elvis play because he had been in a bad car accident previously
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