Great Old TV Episodes...from the Ed Sullivan Show

 

On the FEBRUARY 9, 1964 episode of the multi-decade CBS Sunday evening variety tradition The Ed Sullivan Show the upstart British rock band the Beatles made their debut American television appearance in spectacular fashion, attracting some 73 million viewers, performing five of their songs, and driving the largely female audience into a hysterical screaming frenzy.  As a seven year old kid I was used to sitting around our TV with the rest of my family on Sunday evening at 8 for another "rilly big shew" as the program's iconic host would say with his funny drawl (he'd say "Mia-muh" instead of Miami, too).  For example, just the previous December I was blown away by the Singing Nun's rendition of Dominique, which was a unique radio hit at the time.  But almost up to that early February episode I was completely unaware of the Beatles' existence, even though they had already become big superstars in their home country.  It was my sister Anita...then 11...who gave me the "heads up" on what was to come: I remember taking care to get my evening bath out of the way before the show so as to see what the big fuss was all about.  I liked the Beatles from the beginning, and my geographic sense of things froze them into their positions on stage, with Paul always in front on the left playing his guitar backward, George in the middle (but closer to Paul, especially on harmonies), John standing alone on the right, and of course Ringo grinning back there on the drums...on all subsequent performances I sharply noted whenever they diverged from this arrangement.  I remember nothing about the rest of that night's show, which supposedly featured Mitzi Gaynor, Frank Gorshin, and a troupe of Oliver! performers that purportedly included future Monkee Davy Jones.  My parents reacted to the show by instantly becoming stalwart Beatles fans, subsequently going down to W.T. Grant and buying their first two albums along with some singles.  For years I would memorize on each new Beatles album each song and its order.  The Beatles would appear several times in subsequent Ed Sullivan episodes, the most memorable being their double videos three years later of Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever, the latter of which soured my mom and dad on the Fab Four and bugged me at the time because they all had moustaches.  The Beatles' appearance launched a flood of other musical bands from both Britain and America.  Along with the great music, I also got a kick out of the standup comedy acts of the era, although in retrospect I wonder whether I actually got their jokes or was just laughing along with my parents and the studio audience...