Editing The Ed Sullivan Show (section)

==Background==
Along with the new talent Sullivan booked each week, he also had recurring characters appear many times a season, such as his "Little Italian Mouse" puppet sidekick [[Topo Gigio]], who debuted December 9, 1962,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.edsullivan.com/artists/topo-gigio |title=Products Page &#124; Ed Sullivan Show |website=Edsullivan.com |access-date=2016-10-28}}</ref> and [[ventriloquist]] [[Señor Wences]] debuted December 31, 1950.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.edsullivan.com/artists/senor-wences |title=Products Page &#124; Ed Sullivan Show |website=Edsullivan.com |date=1950-12-31 |access-date=2016-10-28}}</ref> While most of the episodes aired live from New York City, the show also aired live on occasion from other nations, such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan. For many years, ''Ed Sullivan'' was a national event each Sunday evening and was the first exposure for foreign performers to the American public.
On the occasion of the show's tenth anniversary telecast, Sullivan commented on how the show had changed during a June 1958 interview syndicated by the [[Newspaper Enterprise Association]] (NEA):
{{blockquote|The chief difference is mostly one of pace. In those days, we had maybe six acts. Now we have 11 or 12. Then, each of our acts would do a leisurely ten minutes or so. Now they do two or three minutes. And in those early days I talked too much. Watching these [[kinescope|kines]] I cringe. I look up at me talking away and I say "You fool!  Keep quiet!"  But I just keep on talking. I've learned how to keep my mouth shut.}}

The show enjoyed phenomenal popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s. As it had occurred with the annual telecasts of ''[[The Wizard of Oz on television|The Wizard of Oz]]'' in the 1960s and the 1970s, the family ritual of gathering around the television set to watch Ed Sullivan became almost a U.S. cultural universal. He was regarded as a [[kingmaker]], and performers considered an appearance on his program as a guarantee of stardom, although this sometimes did not turn out to be the case. The show's status at the turn of the decade is illustrated by its use as the backdrop of the 1960 musical ''[[Bye Bye Birdie (musical)|Bye Bye Birdie]]''. The musical's plot revolves around an ordinary teen girl's chance to kiss a rock star live on the Sullivan show, and in the song "Hymn for a Sunday Evening," her family expresses their regard for the program in worshipful tones. Sullivan appeared as himself in the musical's 1963 [[Bye Bye Birdie (1963 film)|film adaptation]].

In September 1965, CBS started televising the program in [[compatible color]], as all three major networks began to switch to 100 percent color prime time schedules. CBS had once backed its own color system, developed by [[Peter Carl Goldmark|Peter Goldmark]], and resisted using RCA's compatible process until 1954. At that time, it built its first New York City color TV studio, Studio 72, in a former [[RKO Pictures|RKO]] movie theater at 2248 Broadway (81st Street). One ''Ed Sullivan Show'' was broadcast on August 22, 1954, from the new studio, but it was mostly used for one-time-only specials such as [[Rodgers and Hammerstein]]'s March 31, 1957 ''[[Cinderella (Rodgers and Hammerstein musical)|Cinderella]]''. (The facility was later acquired by TeleTape Productions and became the first studio where the PBS children's program ''[[Sesame Street]]'' was produced.) CBS Studio 72 was demolished in 1986 and replaced by an apartment house. CBS Studio 50 was finally modernized for color broadcasts in 1965. The 1965–66 season premiere starred the Beatles in an episode airing on September 12, which was the last episode to air in black and white. This occurred because the episode was taped at the Beatles' convenience on August 14, the eve of their Shea Stadium performance and a two-week tour of North America, slightly before the program was ready for color transmission.

In the late 1960s, Sullivan remarked that his program was waning as the decade went on. He realized that to keep viewers, the best and brightest in entertainment had to be seen, or else the viewers were going to keep on changing the channel. Along with declining viewership, ''Ed Sullivan'' attracted a higher median age for the average viewer (which most sponsors found undesirable) as the seasons went on. Younger viewers were growing to actively dislike the program; in 1970, Sullivan's compilation special ''Ed Sullivan's Swinging Sixties'' drew widely negative reviews.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Williamson |first=Clarke |date=January 28, 1970 |title=Top View |page=40 |work=[[Fort Lauderdale News]] |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/272948692/?terms=grinch&match=1 |access-date=December 12, 2023}}</ref> These factors were the reason the show was cancelled by CBS on March 16, 1971, as part of a [[rural purge|mass cancellation of advertiser-averse programming]]. While Sullivan's landmark program ended without a proper finale, Sullivan produced one-off specials for [[CBS]] until his death in 1974, including an ''Ed Sullivan Show'' 25th anniversary special in 1973.

In 1990, television documentary producer [[Andrew Solt]] formed SOFA Entertainment, Inc. and purchased the exclusive rights to the complete library of ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' from [[Ed Sullivan]]'s daughter Elizabeth and her husband [[Bob Precht]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/TV/2011/07/20/Comic-icons-pay-tribute-to-Ed-Sullivan/UPI-20741311209902/ |title=Comic Icons Pay Tribute to The Ed Sullivan Show |publisher=[[United Press International]] |access-date=2011-07-20}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/technology/12video.html?_r=3& |title=Who Owns the Live Music of Days Gone By? |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=12 March 2007 |access-date=2007-03-12 |last1=Levine |first1=Robert }}</ref> The collection consists of 1,087 hours of [[kinescopes]] and videotapes broadcast by CBS on Sunday nights from 1948 to 1971.
 
Since acquiring the rights to ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' library, SOFA Entertainment has catalogued, organized and cleared performance rights for the original shows. Starting in 1991, SOFA Entertainment has re-introduced ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' to the American public by producing numerous network specials, syndicating a half-hour series (that also aired on TV Land, [[PBS]], [[VH1]] and [[Decades (TV network)|Decades]]) and home video compilations.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.edsullivan.com/sofa-entertainment |title=SOFA Entertainment |publisher=edsullivan.com |access-date=2008-01-12   }}</ref> Some of these compilations include ''The 4 Complete Ed Sullivan Shows Starring The Beatles'', ''All 6 Ed Sullivan Shows Starring The Rolling Stones'', ''Elvis: The Ed Sullivan Shows'', ''Motown Gold from the Ed Sullivan Show'', ''Ed Sullivan's Rock 'n Roll Classics'', and 115 half-hour ''The Best of The Ed Sullivan Show'' specials, among others.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/467573/rolling-stones-really-big-ed-sullivan-shows-getting-released-exclusive |title=Rolling Stones Really Big Ed Sullivan Shows |date=7 September 2011 |publisher=billboard.com |access-date=2011-09-07 }}</ref> Performances of this show are also available as video and audio downloads and as an app on [[iTunes]]."<ref>{{cite web|url=  http://ax.search.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/search?entity=musicVideo&media=all&page=1&restrict=true&startIndex=0&term=ed+sullivan+show |archive-url=  https://web.archive.org/web/20130601081430/http://ax.search.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/search?entity=musicVideo&media=all&page=1&restrict=true&startIndex=0&term=ed+sullivan+show |url-status=  dead |archive-date=  June 1, 2013 |title=iTunes The Ed Sullivan Show |publisher=[[iTunes]] |access-date=2009-07-06}}</ref> In 2021, [[MeTV]] began airing on Sunday nights half hour packages of performances from the show.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.primetimer.com/barnhart/sullivan|title = Ed Sullivan's 'Rilly Big Shoo' is Back – on Sunday Nights, Naturally|date = 19 March 2021}}</ref>

=== The Ed Sullivan Show Orchestra ===
In the early years of television, both CBS and NBC networks had their own symphony orchestras. NBC's was conducted by [[Arturo Toscanini]] and CBS's by [[Alfredo Antonini]]. ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' (originally presented as: ''The Toast of the Town'') was basically a musical variety show, and thus members of the CBS orchestra were folded into the Ed Sullivan Show Orchestra, conducted by Ray Bloch. During the early days of television, the demands on studio musicians were many-tiered. They needed to be proficient in all genres of music, from classical, to jazz and to rock and roll. ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' would regularly feature singers from the Metropolitan Opera and the staff orchestra would accompany divas such as [[Eileen Farrell]], [[Maria Callas]] or [[Joan Sutherland]]. The musicians needed to be prepared to switch gears for [[Ella Fitzgerald]], [[Diahann Carroll]] or [[Sammy Davis Jr.]]. and then onto [[The Jackson 5|The Jackson Five]], [[Stevie Wonder]] or [[Tom Jones (singer)|Tom Jones]] or [[Itzhak Perlman]]. They also needed to perform with some of the greatest dancers and ballerinas of the time, from [[Gregory Hines]], [[Juliet Prowse]], [[Maria Tallchief]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/maria-tallchief-ballet-star-who-was-inspiration-for-balanchine-dies-at-88/2013/04/12/5888f3de-c5dc-11df-94e1-c5afa35a9e59_story.html|title=Maria Tallchief, ballet star who was inspiration for Balanchine, dies at 88|first=Sarah|last=Halzack|date=12 April 2013|via=www.washingtonpost.com}}</ref> or [[Margot Fonteyn|Margo Fonteyn]] to the [[Peter Gennaro]] dancers.
In the process, the musicians collaborated with several internationally recognized ballet troupes including: [[Ruth Page (ballerina)|Ruth Page]]'s [[Chicago Ballet|Chicago Opera Ballet]], the [[London Festival Ballet]], [[Roland Petit]]'s Ballets de Paris and Russia's [[Igor Moiseyev]] Ballet.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/televisionperfor00rose|title=Television and the performing arts : a handbook and reference guide to American cultural programming|first=Brian Geoffrey|last=Rose|date=10 June 1986|publisher=New York : Greenwood Press|access-date=10 June 2022|website=Archive.org}}</ref> Few musicians are capable of crossing over from one genre to another. However, each member of the Ed Sullivan Show Orchestra was a specialist and more than capable of covering the complete spectrum of music.

The lead trumpet player is the "concert master" of a studio orchestra. [[Chris Griffin (musician)|Chris Griffin]] (formerly with the trumpet section of [[Harry James]], [[Ziggy Elman]] and the [[Benny Goodman]] Band) was [[Ray Bloch]]'s lead trumpet player for the many radio and television shows that he conducted, including the ''Ed Sullivan Show''. Chris remained the lead trumpet player with ''The Ed Sullivan show'' from the first show in 1948 to the last show in 1971.

==== Band configuration ====
'''Trumpets''': Chris Griffin, Bernie Privin, [[Jimmy Nottingham]], and [[Thad Jones]]; Chris's son Paul Griffin was a regular substitute trumpeter

'''Trombones''': Roland Dupont, Morton Bullman, [[Frank Rehak]], and Cliff Heather

'''Saxophones''': Toots Mondello, Bernie Kaufman, Artie Drellinger, Hymie Schertzer, Ed Zuhlke, et al.

'''Piano''': Hank Jones

'''Drums''': [[Specs Powell]]/Howard Smith

'''Percussion''': Milton Schlesinger, who similarly played from the first to last show. [[John Serry Sr.|John Serry Sr]] often augmented the orchestra as the lead accordionist during the 1950s. Unlike NBC's ''[[The Tonight Show]]'', which celebrated the notoriety of their musicians in [[Skitch Henderson]]'s or [[Doc Severinsen]]'s "Tonight Show Band", the CBS producers of ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' decided to hide their famed musicians behind a curtain. Occasionally, CBS would broadcast specials and call upon the orchestra to perform. When [[Robert F. Kennedy]] was assassinated, music was hastily composed for the orchestra in a special tribute that also featured jazz pianist [[Bill Evans]], who had recently composed an [[elegy]] to his father.