Right Here on Our Stage Tonight!: Ed Sullivan's America

Gerald Nachman, whose previous books, "Raised on Radio" and "Seriously Funny: The Rebel Comedians of the 50's and 60's," were informative and enjoyable reading, lived up to those standards with "Right Here on Our Stage Tonight." With fascinating anecdotes and perceptive insight, Nachman proved himself worthy of the daunting task of summing up a massive achievement in variety television. Ed Sullivan, a decidedly complex person with uncomplex talents (couldn't sing, dance or tell a joke to save his life), forever stamped an image of the TV variety show with his cornucopia of singers, musicians, comedians, plate-spinners and elephants. All of that is covered in great detail in Nachman's book. My only complaint (and this is more my own interests than Nachman's writing) is several chapters are devoted to Sullivan's life prior to TV. However, they are necessary in showing how Sullivan - the mostly unlikely of TV personalities - became the icon that he definitely deserved. Chapters on comedians, the Beatles, Elvis Presley and behind-the-scenes look at the staging of the show make this an invaluable read. And I especially enjoyed Nachman's little "sidebars" by seemingly average people who grew up watching the Sunday Sullivan shows with their parents, grandparents, etc. In some households, the Sullivan show was probably more devoutly followed than regular weekly attendance at the church/synagogue of one's choice. If the cost of the book is a deterrent to reading it, interested readers should check their local library and urge their librarians to obtain a copy.

Gerald Nachman continues his survey of lesser-known areas of American popular culture with //Right here on Our Stage Tonight: Ed Sullivan's America.// Ed Sullivan's America was a place where vaudeville, Broadway musicals, Hollywood stars, night clubs, horse races, radio, "Uncle Miltie" on television, and newspapers competed for the mass audience entertainment dollar. Sullivan was there, not as a performer, but as a master of ceremonies. He covered the Broadway and sports beat as a newspaper columnist and became an American institution with his long-running television variety show. Then came rock and roll music. It was Sullivan who inadvertently ushered in the new era. The Beatles made their national television debut on the The Ed Sullivan Show in early `64. They not only changed the culture, they made Sullivan an icon. Nachman excels at evoking a bygone time. He is a skilled reporter who does not rely solely on previously published accounts. He has done first-person interviews with dozens of key individuals. The sections on Elvis and The Beatles are highlights, but Nachman betrays his lack of rock and roll credentials with some major gaffes. He calls the Beatles' "Meet The Beatles" the first `concept album' when of course it was "Sgt. Pepper's" in 1967. He marks the beginning of the decline of the Sullivan show to the The Doors one-shot appearance during the 68-69 season. The song they performed,"Light My Fire," was the number one single during the Summer of Love- 1967. The parts of the book dealing with the early days of Sullivan's variety show, then called "Toast of the Town" are hilarious. The show had a total talent budget of $375! Sullivan's career as a sportswriter makes for a fascinating read. One is surprised--and proud--to learn that he was an early champion of civil rights who used his column to condemn racist practices. Nachman , who hails from the Bay Area, has previously written //Raised On Radio// probably the best book ever written on Golden Age of Radio. I do wish he could resist his habit of trying to relate past events and personalities to modern ones in an attempt to make them "relevant" to today's readers. Was Sullivan really television's first "reality star"? Was the player piano of his boyhood home an early version of the iPod? We also get a bit too many descriptions of Sullivan's strange appearance, voice, and mannerisms. The book is a bit padded and that is one reason why. But, overall, this book is an important contribution to our understanding of America's somewhat crazy cultural history. And it is damn entertaining too! Reviewed by Bruce Marshall

As artists transitioned from radio to television in the 1940s it often made for a tough segue. Many of the entertainers were old vaudevillians who had already transitioned from the stage to radio, such as Burns & Allen, for whom the transition to television was a natural progression. As Nachmann points out, to a certain degree Ed Sullivan fell into that category. A former journalist and radio personality, Sullivan appeared on the surface a likely candidate to transition to television, but there was a problem. Sullivan lacked the natural charisma or warmth of an animated and vibrant entertainer like Milton Berle or Lucille Ball. Sullivan's made-for-radio face and wooden stage persona hardly captivated audiences. As a result the "Ed Sullivan Show" nearly bombed in the ratings at its inception as Sullivan tended to freeze or become lost for words. Most viewers tuned in to Sullivan because of the name he had made for himself, and when they did the found that like an old vaudevillian, Sullivan knew how to keep an audience entertained - keep the show moving along with a wide variety of acts. As Nachmann points out, Sullivan had a genuine knack for spotting rising stars and the "Ed Sullivan Show" was a genuine star making machine. Nachman mentions the obvious stars that broke out on Sullivan's stage including Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and so many others. "Right Here On Our Stage Tonight!" catalogues Sullivan's nearly 20 year reign on television - dominating the ratings Sunday night at 8 PM. And rather focusing solely on Sullivan's most famous guests Nachmann includes other run-of-the-mill and unusual acts who were recurring visitors on the show, such as Topo Gigio and Señor Wences, who made the "Ed Sullivan Show" a truly odd smorgasbord of talent that played to America's divergent and diverse cultural tastes. Along the way "Right Here" explains how Sullivan came to agree to host a television show, the show's painfully slow rise to success, and how his show came to define the era it helped shape. But "The Ed Sullivan Show" was also a reflection of American society and its tastes in that era; where else could you see opera performed after a plate balancing act only in turn to be followed by a talking mouse? "Right Here" is equal parts a glimpse into that kaleidoscopic sideshow and into America's psyche at that point in time, demonstrating that Sullivan's show was not only the link from the age to vaudeville to the television age, but the inspiration for a number of variety shows that would follow in its path like Sonny & Cher and Carol Burnett to name a few. In aspiring for a broad appeal and being all things to all people Sullivan came to endear himself with his audience and the ratings soared. But doing so spelled his doom as the 1960s and 1970s gave rise to narrowcasting, with shows appealing to more limited and specific demographics. Many shows attempted to replicate Sullivan's but to little success. In the end the wooden front

very interesting, especially for anyone who lived during his heyday. Lots of tidbits about people who were in the public eye.

Arts commentator Gerald Nachman has found the ideal framework for telling the colorful story of popular culture in America - through the backstage judgments, decisions and integrity if that old television classic, "The Ed Sullivan Show". "Right Here on Our Stage Tonight: Ed Sullivan's America" describes how it all happened there. Nachman has the scope and experience as a writer to leap from the narrow realities of a weekly variety show to the implications of what this gathering of talent meant to America over the long term. Sullivan's vision was pivotal, Nachman notes, in bringing millions of viewers their first taste of ballet, opera and theater, interspersed with crooners, dog acts, gymnasts, comedians and a singing nun. It was vaudeville's last gasp. "Ed was a weekly Santa Claus bringing a bag of marvelous things into American homes," Nachman writes. Old Sullivan shows, now available on DVDs packaged in various themes, provide a history of entertainment and popular music from the dreamy 1940s and 1950s to the rock revolution that Sullivan helped deliver to the heartland. Oddly, as Nachman points out, Sullivan never quite grasped what rock was all about - but he knew his young viewers wanted it. "Cozy hours hosted by Perry Como or Dean Martin were passé," Nachman writes of the era after Elvis Presley appeared on the show. "The Ed Sullivan Show" - originally called "Toast of the Town" - gave Nachman a convenient focus for what otherwise might have been a sprawling collection of show business anecdotes. His assiduous research and breezy story-telling make for a riveting cultural history. His background as a newspaperman ensures that he never lets himself get bogged down into pop sociology. The story tells itself and Nachman puts it in context. This book looks behind Sullivan's innovative contributions to early television and digs into some of the myths surrounding the show. Did Sullivan discover Elvis Presley? No. Did he discover The Beatles? Not exactly. Was he insulted on the air by Jackie Mason? He certainly thought so. Did The Rolling Stones and The Doors tone down their lyrics for middle American viewers? Yes and no. For all these stories and many more, Nachman tracked down the surviving participants of the show and lays out their often conflicting memories of what happened. The stories are carefully written and attributed with almost scholarly precision. This book will stand as a definitive account of cultural shifts that transformed American's taste - for better or for worse. Nachman dissects Sullivan's strange, wooden stage presence by examining his little-known personal background as a sportswriter and show business columnist. Neither prepared him for the unforgiving eye of the TV camera. He describes Sullivan as a "hunched, slightly Neanderthal figure" who however ruled the entire show with an iron fist. "He might hurriedly, ruthlessly yank an act for reasons of time or flatness, editing by instinct. Only hours before airtime