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WHEN ELVIS PRESLEY made his first appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show," Sept. 9, 1956, neither Presley nor Sullivan was in the studio. Thanks to a serious auto accident, Sullivan was laid up, his place taken by Oscar-winning actor and guest host Charles Laughton. As for Elvis, he appeared in a remote broadcast from a Hollywood sound stage, where he was making his first film, "Love Me Tender." So James Maguire recounts in "Impresario: The Life and Times of Ed Sullivan," a new biography of the New York Daily News columnist who became the long-running host of his eponymous variety series. In October 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I into space. The year before, Elvis has rocketed just about as high. After he was sold by the small Memphis label Sun to giant RCA, he scored 11 Top 40 singles in 1956, including five that went to No. 1. Logically, he was in great demand for TV, and actually appeared on three other network shows -- the Dorsey brothers' "Stage Show," "The Milton Berle Show" and "The Steve Allen Show" -- before Sullivan's. Allen's show, however, was a direct Sunday-night competitor. Sullivan -- who hosted his show from 1948 (when it was known as "Toast of the Town") to 1971 -- felt his supremacy challenged. In the end, Sullivan triumphed. Elvis' first appearance drew the largest TV audience to that time, an estimated 60 million people, about a third of the country. The King sang, he shook, he divided the nation. You loved him or you thought he was going to hell, taking the country's youngsters with him. Same reaction when he appeared again, this time with Sullivan in New York, in late October. By his third appearance, in early '57, Sullivan banned the cameras from staring at Elvis' crotch. Writes Maguire, "Pleasing both the Elvis fans and Elvis haters, if such a minefield could be tiptoed through, required him to present the singer with a strict guiding hand." In other words, Elvis was shown only from the waist up that third time. Ed Sullivan is routinely mimicked for the line "really big shew." But it can be argued Sullivan never said any such thing, that it was really Will Jordan who gave everybody that impression. Jordan appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show" 10 times beginning in the mid-'50s and became known for an exaggerated apery of Sullivan, complete with stiff-limbed, Bavarian clock-like movements and the mangling of words. After Sullivan died in 1974, Jordan became the go-to guy to portray him in movies, beginning with 1978's "I Wanna Hold Your Hand." The film revolves around a group of Jersey kids -- played by Nancy Allen, Bobby DiCicco, Marc McClure, Susan Kendall Newman, Theresa Saldana, Wendie Jo Sperber and Eddie Deezen -- who travel to New York City for the Beatles' first appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show." The film contains at least one in-joke. Jordan, as Sullivan, announces that comedian Will Jordan will appear on an upcoming show. "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" was co-written and directed by first-timer Robert Zemeckis, who'd been hired by executive producer Steven Spielberg. Zemeckis would go on to helm "Romancing the Stone," the "Back to the Future" films, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and "Forrest Gump," among others. As for Will Jordan, he also played Ed Sullivan in "The Buddy Holly Story," the 1979 telefilm "Elvis," "The Doors," "Mr. Saturday Night" and "Down with Love." Source:
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New Jersey
