Editing Ed Sullivan (section)

==Television==
[[File:Ed Sullivan Cole Porter Toast of the Town 1952.JPG|thumb|upright|Sullivan with [[Cole Porter]] on ''Toast of the Town'', 1952]]

In 1948, producer [[Marlo Lewis]] convinced CBS to hire Sullivan to host a weekly Sunday-night television variety show, ''Toast of the Town'', which later became ''[[The Ed Sullivan Show]]''. Debuting in June 1948, the show was originally broadcast from [[Maxine Elliott's Theatre]] on West 39th Street in New York. In January 1953, it moved to CBS-TV Studio 50 at 1697 Broadway, a former [[CBS Radio]] playhouse that in 1967 was renamed the [[Ed Sullivan Theater]] (and was later the home of the ''[[Late Show with David Letterman]]'' and ''[[The Late Show with Stephen Colbert]]'').<ref>{{Cite web|title=Ed Sullivan Theater|url=https://www.edsullivan.com/ed-sullivan-theater/|access-date=January 26, 2022|website=Ed Sullivan Show|language=en-US}}</ref>

Television critics gave the new show and its host poor reviews.{{Sfn|Time|1955|p=[https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,807794-6,00.html 6]}} [[Harriet Van Horne]] alleged that "he got where he is not by having a personality, but by having ''no'' personality." (The host wrote to the critic, "Dear Miss Van Horne: You bitch. Sincerely, Ed Sullivan.") Sullivan had little acting ability; in 1967, 20 years after his show's debut, ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine asked, "What exactly is Ed Sullivan's talent?" His mannerisms on camera were so awkward that some viewers believed the host suffered from [[Bell's palsy]].{{sfn|Time|1967|p=[https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,837383,00.html 1]}} ''Time'' in 1955 stated that Sullivan resembled "a cigar-store Indian, the Cardiff Giant and a stone-faced monument just off the boat from [[Easter Island]]. He moves like a sleepwalker; his smile is that of a man sucking a lemon; his speech is frequently lost in a thicket of syntax; his eyes pop from their sockets or sink so deep in their bags that they seem to be peering up at the camera from the bottom of twin wells."{{Sfn|Time|1955|p=[https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,807794-2,00.html 2]}}

[[File:Carmen Miranda and Ed Sullivan, 13 September 1953.JPG|upright|left|thumb|[[Carmen Miranda]] on ''[[The Ed Sullivan Show]]'', 1953]]

"Yet," the magazine concluded, "instead of frightening children, Ed Sullivan charms the whole family." Sullivan appeared to the audience as an average guy who brought the great acts of show business to their home televisions. "Ed Sullivan will last", comedian [[Fred Allen]] said, "as long as someone else has talent."{{Sfn|Time|1955|p=[https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,807794-2,00.html 2]}} Frequent guest [[Alan King]] said, "Ed does nothing, but he does it better than anyone else in television."{{sfn|Time|1967|p=[https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,837383-3,00.html 3]}} A typical show would feature a [[vaudeville]] act (such as acrobats, jugglers or magicians), one or two popular comedians, a singing star, a figure from the legitimate theater, an appearance by puppet [[Topo Gigio]] or a popular athlete. The bill was often international in scope, with many European performers appearing along with the American artists.

Sullivan had a healthy sense of humor about himself and permitted and even encouraged impersonators such as [[John Byner]], [[Frank Gorshin]], [[Rich Little]] and especially [[Will Jordan]] to imitate him on his show. [[Johnny Carson]] also performed a fair impression, and even [[Joan Rivers]] imitated Sullivan's unique posture. The impressionists exaggerated his stiffness, raised shoulders and nasal tenor phrasing, along with some of his commonly used introductions, such as "And now, right here on our stage{{nbsp}}...", "For all you youngsters out there{{nbsp}}..." and "a really big shew" (his pronunciation of the word "show"). The latter phrase was in fact in the exclusive domain of his impressionists, as Sullivan never actually spoke the phrase "really big show" during the opening introduction of any episode in the entire history of the series. Jordan portrayed Sullivan in the films ''[[I Wanna Hold Your Hand (film)|I Wanna Hold Your Hand]]'', ''[[The Buddy Holly Story]]'', ''[[The Doors (film)|The Doors]]'', ''[[Mr. Saturday Night]]'', ''[[Down with Love]]'' and in the 1979 television movie ''[[Elvis (1979 film)|Elvis]]''.

Sullivan played himself, parodying his mannerisms as directed by Jerry Lewis, in Lewis' 1964 film ''[[The Patsy (1964 film)|The Patsy]]''.

Sullivan inspired a song in the musical ''[[Bye Bye Birdie (musical)|Bye Bye Birdie]]''<ref name=pc7>{{Gilliland |url=https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc19754/ |title=Show 7 – The All American Boy: Enter Elvis and the rock-a-billies. [Part 1] }}</ref> and in 1963 appeared as himself in [[Bye Bye Birdie (1963 film)|the film]].

In 1954, Sullivan appeared as a cohost on the television musical special ''[[General Foods 25th Anniversary Show: A Salute to Rodgers and Hammerstein]]''.<ref>{{Cite AV media|title=General Foods 25th Anniversary Show: A Salute to Rodgers and Hammerstein|type=TV special|year=1954}}</ref>