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February 11, 2020 9:18 am  #1


Six Months of 1956 That Changed Music Forever

March 17 - Elvis performed on the Dorsey Bros TV show

June 5 - Elvis performed on the Milton Berle TV show

July 1 - Elvis performed on the Steve Allen TV show

Sept. 9 - Elvis performed on the Ed Sullivan TV show

(Lest we forget)

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February 11, 2020 9:35 am  #2


Re: Six Months of 1956 That Changed Music Forever

Elvis would appear twice more on the Sullivan show, Oct 28, 1956 and Jan 6, 1957. The 57 appearance is most remembered for the censorship issue. Camera could only show Presley above the waist during his performance because of his inappropriate, for 1957, dance moves. I don't know if this was a request/demand by CBS or Ed.

 

February 11, 2020 10:14 am  #3


Re: Six Months of 1956 That Changed Music Forever

mace wrote:

Camera could only show Presley above the waist during his performance because of his inappropriate, for 1957, dance moves. I don't know if this was a request/demand by CBS or Ed.

In this piece from the old Sunday Sunday, which ran on CFTR in the early 1980s, news director Robert Holiday reviews the Ed Sullivan show through an author named Jerry Bowles, who wrote a book on the famous CBS staple called "A Thousand Sundays."

He talks about the Elvis appearance at around the 3:30 mark and says it was totally Sullivan's idea. One, because he thought he was protecting the morals of America's teenagers and two, because he knew it would bring the show more publicity. I have no idea if he was right about the former, but he was definitely correct about the latter. It's gone down in the annals of both rock and TV as something of a milestone moment. 

Around the 10 minute mark, they get to the Beatles and the impact that performance made on the world. 

The vintage Wayne & Shuster stuff was great to revisit, too.

You can hear it here

By the way, as a former radio producer, the reason I love this piece is the backstory you won't hear told in it. Apparently, they tried to get permission to use excerpts from the Sullivan program to use in the story. But the late host's son-in-law, who controlled all the rights, wanted an enormous amount of money to release anything and it was way beyond the station's budget. 

So they managed to work around it. For example, the live Beatles audio was from the Shea Stadium concert and not the actual Sullivan appearance - and you can hear Ed introduce them, because he did just that at the concert. Still conveys the feeling of the event, without having to pay a cent. Very clever and for the most part, it worked.  

 

February 11, 2020 11:29 am  #4


Re: Six Months of 1956 That Changed Music Forever

mace wrote:

Elvis would appear twice more on the Sullivan show, Oct 28, 1956 and Jan 6, 1957 

Sullivan did not host Elvis' Sept 9/56 appearance because he was in a head-on collision while driving his Mercury passenger car, (a show sponsor) at 1:30 a.m. the previous month.   Alcohol was said to have been a factor (and people said Elvis was a bad influence, shame on Ed) 
 

 

February 11, 2020 12:02 pm  #5


Re: Six Months of 1956 That Changed Music Forever

I was not aware of the car accident. One of the things I like about this site, you learn something new every day.

 

February 11, 2020 12:09 pm  #6


Re: Six Months of 1956 That Changed Music Forever

mace wrote:

  One of the things I like about this site, you learn something new every day.

SOWNY is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're gonna get

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