Editing Ed Sullivan (section)

==Personality==
Sullivan was quick to take offense if he felt that he had been crossed, and he could hold a grudge for a long time. As he told biographer Gerald Nachman, "I'm a pop-off. I flare up, then I go around apologizing."{{sfn|Nachman|2009|loc=Kindle location 5681}} "Armed with an Irish temper and thin skin," wrote Nachman, "Ed brought to his feuds a hunger for combat fed by his coverage of, and devotion to, boxing."{{sfn|Nachman|2009|loc=Kindle location 5690}} [[Bo Diddley]], [[Buddy Holly]], [[Jackie Mason]], and [[Jim Morrison]] were parties to some of Sullivan's most storied conflicts.

On November 20, 1955, [[African American]] rock 'n' roll singer and guitarist Bo Diddley appeared on ''The Ed Sullivan Show'', only to infuriate Sullivan. A reporter who was there at the time described what happened: "Controversy raged at the CBS Studio 57, last Sunday ... in a verbal battle that started over one of the performer's refusal to do a number on the telecast which Sullivan had requested. During the dress rehearsal, Bo Diddley ... agreed to do "[[Sixteen Tons]]," as Marlo Lewis, Toast of the Town's Executive Producer and Sullivan had requested. However, at 8:29 PM, as Sullivan went into commercial, the folk singer hurried to the side of Ray Block, musical director, to announce he had 'changed his mind' and was going to do "Diddley Daddy". After several attempts to get him to change his mind, CBS brass went into a hurried conference in attempt to synchronize the timing of the show with the longer number."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hairgrow |first=CW |date=November 26, 1955 |title=Ed Sullivan Rock As Bo Diddley Rolls |work=New Amsterdam News |location=New York |page=2 }}</ref> Sullivan was enraged: "You're the first black boy that ever double-crossed me on the show," Diddley quoted him as saying. "We didn't have much to do with each other after that," he added.{{sfn|White|1998|p=134}} Later, Diddley resented that Elvis Presley, whom he accused of copying his revolutionary style and beat, received the attention and accolades on Sullivan's show that he felt were rightfully his. "I am owed," he said, "and I never got paid."{{sfn|White|1998|p=144}} "He might have," wrote Nachman, "had things gone smoother with Sullivan."{{sfn|Nachman|2009|p=277}}

[[The Crickets|Buddy Holly and the Crickets]] first appeared on the Sullivan show in 1957 to an enthusiastic response. For their second appearance in January 1958, Sullivan considered the lyrics of their chosen number "[[Oh, Boy! (The Crickets song)|Oh, Boy!]]" too suggestive, and ordered Holly to substitute another song. Holly responded that he had already told his hometown friends in Texas that he would be singing "Oh, Boy!" for them. Sullivan, unaccustomed to having his instructions questioned, angrily repeated them, but Holly refused to back down. Later, when the band was slow to respond to a summons to the rehearsal stage, Sullivan commented, "I guess the Crickets are not too excited to be on ''The Ed Sullivan Show''." Holly, still annoyed by Sullivan's attitude, replied, "I hope they're damn more excited than I am." Sullivan retaliated by cutting them from two numbers to one, then mispronounced Holly's name during the introduction. He also saw to it that Holly's guitar amplifier volume was barely audible, except during his guitar solo. Nevertheless, the band was so well-received that Sullivan was forced to invite them back; Holly responded that Sullivan did not have enough money. Archival photographs taken during the appearance show Holly smirking and ignoring a visibly angry Sullivan.{{sfn|Moore|2011|p=128}}

During [[Jackie Mason]]'s October 1964 performance on a show that had been shortened by ten minutes due to an address by President [[Lyndon Johnson]],{{sfn|Nachman|2009|loc=Kindle location 5878}} Sullivan—on-stage but off-camera—signaled Mason that he had two minutes left by holding up two fingers.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://emmytvlegends.org/interviews/people/vince-calandra |title=Vince Calandra Interview &#124; Archive of American Television |publisher=Emmytvlegends.org |access-date=February 10, 2014}}</ref> Sullivan's signal distracted the studio audience, and to television viewers unaware of the circumstances, it seemed as though Mason's jokes were falling flat. Mason, in a bid to regain the audience's attention, cried, "I'm getting fingers here!" and made his own frantic hand gesture: "Here's a finger for you!" Videotapes of the incident are inconclusive as to whether Mason's upswept hand (which was just off-camera) was intended to be an indecent gesture, but Sullivan was convinced that it was, and banned Mason from future appearances on the program. Mason later said that he did not know what the "middle finger" meant, and that he did not make the gesture anyway.<ref>{{Cite AV media|title=The Very Best of the Ed Sullivan Show|type=TV Special|publisher=CBS|year=1991}}</ref> In September 1965, Sullivan—who, according to Mason, was "deeply apologetic"{{sfn|Nachman|2009|loc=Kindle location 5940}}—brought Mason on the show for a "surprise grand reunion". "He said they were old pals," Nachman wrote, "news to Mason, who never got a repeat invitation."{{sfn|Nachman|2009|loc=Kindle location 5950}} Mason added that his earning power "...{{nbsp}}was cut right in half after that. I never really worked my way back until I opened on [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] in 1986."{{sfn|Nachman|2009|loc=Kindle location 5966}}

When [[the Byrds]] performed on December 12, 1965, [[David Crosby]] got into a shouting match with the show's director. They were never asked to return.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2105166789756539416&q=the+ed+sullivan+show+byrds&ei=e2NwSLuhCYSSrgLNvPylBw&hl=en|title=Byrds video|website=Video.google.com|access-date=October 13, 2021|archive-date=January 31, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110131085732/http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2105166789756539416|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.edsullivan.com/artists/the-byrds |title=The Byrds &#124; Ed Sullivan Show |publisher=Edsullivan.com |date=December 12, 1965 |access-date=February 10, 2014}}</ref>

Sullivan decided that "Girl, we couldn't get much higher", from the Doors' signature song "[[Light My Fire]]", was too overt a reference to [[Recreational drug use|drug use]], and directed that the lyric be changed to "Girl, we couldn't get much better" for the group's September 1967 appearance.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.edsullivan.com/artists/the-doors |title=The Doors &#124; Ed Sullivan Show |publisher=Edsullivan.com |access-date=February 10, 2014}}</ref> The band members "nodded their assent", according to Doors biographer Ben Fong-Torres, then sang the song as written.{{sfn|Fong-Torres|2006|p=144}} After the broadcast, producer Bob Precht told the group, "Mr. Sullivan wanted you for six more shows, but you'll never work the ''Ed Sullivan Show'' again." Jim Morrison replied, "Hey, man, we just ''did'' the ''Ed Sullivan Show''."{{sfn|Nachman|2009|p=373}}

[[The Rolling Stones]] famously capitulated during their fifth appearance on the show, in 1967, when [[Mick Jagger]] was told to change the titular lyric of "[[Let's Spend the Night Together]]" to "Let's spend some time together". "But Jagger prevailed," wrote Nachman, by deliberately calling attention to the censorship, rolling his eyes, mugging, and drawing out the word "t-i-i-i-me" as he sang the revised lyric. Sullivan was angered by the insubordination, but the Stones did make one additional appearance on the show, in 1969.{{sfn|Nachman|2009|p=372}}{{sfn|Maguire|2006|p=222}}

[[Moe Howard]] of [[the Three Stooges]] recalled in 1975 that Sullivan had a memory problem of sorts: "Ed was a very nice man, but for a showman, quite forgetful. On our first appearance, he introduced us as the Three [[Ritz Brothers]]. He got out of it by adding, 'who look more like the Three Stooges to me'."{{sfn|Howard|1979|p=165}} [[Joe DeRita]], who worked with the Stooges after 1959, had commented that Sullivan had a personality "like the bottom of a bird cage."{{sfn|Lenburg|Howard Maurer|Maurer|1982|p={{page needed|date=December 2021}}}}

[[Diana Ross]], who was very fond of Sullivan, later recalled Sullivan's forgetfulness during the many occasions the Supremes performed on his show. In a 1995 appearance on the ''[[Late Show with David Letterman]]'' (taped in the Ed Sullivan Theater), Ross stated, "he could never remember our names. He called us 'the girls'."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.edsullivan.com/artists/the-supremes |title=The Supremes &#124; Ed Sullivan Show |publisher=Edsullivan.com |access-date=February 10, 2014}}</ref>

In a 1990 press conference, [[Paul McCartney]] recalled meeting Sullivan again in the early 1970s. Sullivan apparently had no idea who McCartney was. McCartney tried to remind Sullivan that he was one of the Beatles, but Sullivan obviously could not remember, and nodding and smiling, simply shook McCartney's hand and left. In an interview with [[Howard Stern]] around 2012, [[Joan Rivers]] said that Sullivan had been suffering from [[dementia]] toward the end of his life.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://eyesofageneration.com/march-1971-the-end-of-an-era-ed-sullivan-canceled-by-cbs/|title=March 1971…The End Of An Era: Ed Sullivan Canceled By CBS – Eyes Of A Generation…Television's Living History|language=en-US|access-date=January 28, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200128120043/https://eyesofageneration.com/march-1971-the-end-of-an-era-ed-sullivan-canceled-by-cbs/|archive-date=January 28, 2020|url-status=dead}}</ref>