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The Life and Times of Ed Sullivan
Billboard Books
May 2006
Featuring: Ed Sullivan
350 pages ISBN: 0823079627 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Biography
A perfect mirror of its time, "The Ed Sullivan Show" ran
from 1948 to 1971, echoing this period's every chapter: the
birth of television, the conformist 1950s, the dawn of the
rock era -- featuring a hip-shaking Elvis and the Beatles'
U.S. debut -- and finally, the tumultuous late 1960s. Through it all, Sullivan presented his signature mix of
highbrow and corn pone, Borsht Belt and Middle America, from
Fred Astaire to Richard Pryor, Walt Disney to Janis Joplin.
He was the variety show producer as curator of national
culture. Like his show, Sullivan's life was a mirror of its
time, and IMPRESARIO, the first major biography of this
iconic showman, tells his story as an engaging narrative.
From his birth in a Jewish-Irish ghetto in Harlem to his
career as a Broadway gossip columnist, his years in the
sweat-and-sawdust vaudeville circuit, his stint in Hollywood
and his struggles in television, the man behind the scenes
is revealed: mercurial and tyrannical, yet also charming and
deeply sentimental -- this introvert who hungered for a mass
audience was defined by his contradictions. The pucker-faced
showman who was so uncomfortable in the spotlight's glare
took dictatorial control of his show's every aspect, shaping
it down to the last punch line. He proved so gifted at this
that some 40 million viewers watched year after year, making
Sullivan an unofficial Minister of Culture. Yet
paradoxically, his supposedly staid Sunday night variety
show proved to be an agent of social change, especially when
Sullivan gave the ultimate subversive force -- rock ‘n' roll
-- his hallowed stamp of approval. Impressively researched
-- including interviews with top performers like Joan
Rivers, George Carlin, and Carol Burnett -- IMPRESARIO tells
the story of a pioneering showman who both shaped and
reflected American culture at the birth of the modern media
age.
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