I was dreaming I was on the Sullivan Show.
Back in the fifties I was the hot, young comic on CBS and a regular on 'The Ed Sullivan Show.' I was also starring in shows on Broadway and acting in dramatic programs on television. Those were the glory days of television. It was like theater. It was live. If an actor forgot a line, he improvised. There was an immediacy to it.
My own musical ambitions were born when I was five, watching the Ed Sullivan Show on TV. When Elvis Presley burst on to the screen, singing 'Don't Be Cruel,' I felt my first sexual thrill, though I didn't know what it was at the time.
Around the time the Beatles were on Ed Sullivan, I was already in a band.
I grew up in the 1950s and '60s, when it was almost a holiday when a black act would go on Ed Sullivan.
There was one television in the living room, and we all sat around on Sundays and watched Ed Sullivan.
After the Ed Sullivan Show, Feb. 9, 1964, at approx. 8:04pm [laughs], after that moment every album, every guitar, evey set of drums that was ever sold ... 10% should have gone right into their pocket!
I was the first to promote The Beatles in the States, and Ed Sullivan called me first about them before he ever booked them on his television show.
I don't think Ed Sullivan had anything to do with Carib Song.
I did the Ed Sullivan show four times. I did the Steve Allen show. I did the Jackie Gleason show.
Ed Sullivan will be around as long as someone else has talent.
I grew up on variety shows. I'm from the '60s and '70s. I loved watching Flip Wilson. I loved watching Sid Caesar's 'Your Show of Shows,' 'The Ed Sullivan Show.' I love all of those variety shows.
I grew up listening to the Beatles and being an ardent Beatles fan when I was in third grade all the way to adulthood, and listening to all kinds of music that came to us either at the flea market or in our living rooms or on the 'Ed Sullivan' show - all these places we were influenced by.
We finally got our big break when Ed Sullivan put us on his show.
I had done about 60 television shows, from 'Ed Sullivan' to 'The Hollywood Palace,' before I ever went to 'Johnny Carson.' At the time, that was the showcase for comics. And I couldn't believe it.
When the Beatles were on 'Ed Sullivan,' life went from black and white to color like in 'The Wizard of Oz' - and the irony I'm in the band Toto is not lost on me.
Everything that you'd see on The Ed Sullivan Show was at the Tannen's Magic. You'd think that if you could afford a trick like Doc Nixon's Dove Vanish, then you could be on The Ed Sullivan Show as an 8-year-old kid.
