Impresario: The Life and Times of Ed Sullivan (Hardcover)

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Key Phrases: talent budget, onstage persona, variety revue, New York, Toast of the Town, Comedy Hour (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Running from 1948 to 1971, the Ed Sullivan Show's "Big Tent" theory defined family viewing. Each Sunday night, more than 35 million people tuned in to see everyone from Elvis to Richard Pryor, the Beatles to Nureyev. Animal acts and high art shared billing. A gig on Sullivan made many performers. Maguire, who is also publishing an account of the National Spelling Bee this season (American Bee), reveals the man behind the curtain, portraying Sullivan (1901–1974) as tyrannical, egotistical and controlling. As Maguire tells it, the sportswriter turned Daily News columnist had one goal: fame. Sullivan failed at radio and film, but triumphed in print, and though his early TV years were rocky, he successfully (and lucratively) captured the zeitgeist; his tastes were America's tastes. As an emcee, he was awkward and stilted in front of the camera; as a producer, he was brilliant and intuitive. "[W]ithout being able to sing, tell jokes or be charming," he became famous. Yet the successful star was a loner. He adored his wife, but had no close friends or real home life. Maguire has written a fascinating biography and meticulously recorded the birth of TV, the heyday of newspaper columnists and the glamour of New York. 40 b&w illus. (June)
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From Booklist

Although Ed Sullivan started out as a tough-as-nails New York Daily News Broadway columnist, he became an arbiter of American taste as the wooden, sour-faced host of a long-running TV variety show that validated the talents of mouse puppet Topo Gigio, Elvis, and the Beatles for the masses. He was perceived as so potent a fortune maker that the Rolling Stones altered lyrics to cater to his fears of offending his ardent viewers. Thirty years before clipping Mick and the gang's lyrical wings, he picked a fight in print with vaudevillian and movie star Eddie Cantor, accusing the singing comic of plagiarizing Bert Lahr's dog act and stealing jokes in the manner of then up-and-comer Milton Berle. Cantor fired back that vaudevillian-turned-club-comic George Jessel was the actual dog-act thief, but Sullivan "characteristically," Maguire says, "admitted no mistake." Well written and highly detailed, Sullivan's biography, like his career, has it all, really-big-show-wise. A must-have for collections emphasizing show-biz history. Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 350 pages
• Publisher: Billboard Books; 1st edition (June 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823079627
• ISBN-13: 978-0823079629
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #405,651 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The life and times of a "monochromatic purveyor of a wildly polychromatic mélange", July 11, 2006

By	Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Those who began to watch television after 1971 probably know little (if anything) about Ed Sullivan. Having first gained some renown from a relatively successful career as a gossip columnist and entertainment reporter for the New York Daily News, in 1948 he was selected by CBS to host a new television program called "Toast of the Town." During the next 23 years, the popularity of the program gradually increased to a point at which it became the highest rated program on Sunday evening. When Sullivan's contract was renewed (in 1955) and he received a substantially increased salary, it was renamed "The Ed Sullivan Show" which continued until 1971.

Here is an especially informative excerpt from Maguire's Epilogue: "For someone of a later age to ask: What was it like? What was the nature of American culture between 1948 and 1971? The answer lies in these [1,087] videotapes. The twenty-three seasons of live performances fully capture American tastes and views at a defining moment, both in the history of broadcast and in national history. They reveal the very birth of television, and from its technical infancy to its first maturity, from a period when commercials were performed live on stage to the era when demographics began to rule the medium. They also reflect the American zeitgeist, from the dawn of the country's status as a world power to the era when the Baby Boom generation first exerted its influence. That the library of [Sullivan's television] shows offers such a telling panoramic record of these arcs makes it more than worth considerable shelf space it occupies in the national archives."

Fred Allen once suggested that "Ed Sullivan will stay on the air as long as other people have talent." In fact, that was Sullivan's greatest talent: recognizing others' talents, often well before anyone else did. Another of his most significant talents was his sensitivity to what mainstream America most enjoyed in a variety program. Week after week, Sullivan achieved a balance of traditional and edgy comedy (e.g. Myron Cohen and George Carlin) and popular and classical music (e.g. Elvis Presley and Maria Callas) as well as selected scenes from both serious dramas and Broadway musicals. Given the popularity of his weekly program, Sullivan offered a venue for major career breakthroughs just as Johnny Carson later did on The Tonight Show. As Maguire explains, Sullivan was a driven man...obsessed with achieving fame and fortune for himself, of course, but also with producing each week wholesome entertainment under his quite strict control. For example, the Rolling Stones reluctantly agreed to change "Let's spend the night together" to "Let's spend some time together" and Elvis Presley agreed to be shown on camera only from the waist up. On occasion, moments before a show began, Sullivan would rearrange the sequence of acts or eliminate those which (for whatever reasons) he considered inappropriate. He was in all respects both impresario and emperor.

Eventually, as so often happens over time, television viewers' tastes and loyalties changed. Younger persons preferred other programs (e.g. as The Wonderful World of Disney and The FBI) to Sullivan's show and other once popular programs such as The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, Lassie, and Hee-Haw. Sullivan was so upset by CBS's decision to cancel his show that he refused to participate in any final "farewell" program. On June 6th, 1971, on the last regularly scheduled program, the guests included Gladys Knight and the Pips, comic Robert Klein, and Broadway legend Carol Channing. Three years later, Sullivan died.

It is certainly possible but, in my opinion, highly unlikely that another show such as Sullivan's will ever appear again on television, at least on a weekly basis. Maguire suggests that "The Ed Sullivan Show was a self-portrait." It also offers "a telling panoramic record" of the age during which, for 23 years, Ed Sullivan's genius as a producer who guided and informed the evolution of television during what is generally viewed as its "golden years."

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Engrossing and compelling!, October 1, 2006

By	William Munroe (Connecticut) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I thought it couldn't be done, but James Maguire did it. In his recently published book, "Impresario," he actually made Ed Sullivan come to life. I was little older than a toddler when "Toast of the Town" premiered in 1948 and we (my family) regularly watched the show during the '50s. Even though Mr. Sullivan was part of the culture of the country for so many years, I knew practically nothing about his private life. That has all changed, of course, now that I have finished "Impresario." I'm a pretty voracious reader and, honestly, I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a book so much.

From the moment you pick up this beautifully-written book, you know that it is not the usual star biography-cum-gossip, written merely to pump up a star's image or to make a quick profit. Mr. Maguire's engrossing look at the public and private lives of this icon of American television is impossible to put down. The first page quickly turns into 200.

Through exhaustive research and intensive interviews with people who knew and/or worked with Mr. Sullivan, James Maguire has the rare perspective of one who is able to bring to this biography a special understanding and appreciation of the somewhat private and troubled Ed Sullivan. The reward for the reader is a compelling view, written with candor, insight and affection.

In closing, I'd like to emphasize again how much I enjoyed reading "Impresario." It's a pleasure to get my hands on a book with a subject that is interesting and that is written in a concise, articulate and very readable manner. Not a word is wasted. One last comment: James Maguire had made it easy for me to decide what I am going to giving friends for Christmas.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rilly Big Triumph, July 7, 2006

By	Gregg Z. Ostrin "greggzane" (Los Angeles, California USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Before he ever stepped in front of a television camera, before introducing Elvis, the Beatles and more plate spinners than you can shake a stick at, to American audiences, Sullivan had a career as a journalist and stage show producer worthy of biography. Maguire does an amazing job of not only chronicling Sullivan the sports writer, gossip columnist and of course, TV legend, he also uses that amazing life as a means to profile the evolution of the world of celebrity, not to mention movies, radio and television, from the Jazz Age to the TV Age. He beautifully evokes 1920s-30s New York, the heyday of Sullivan the bon vivant and journalist, whose punchy prose style rivaled, if not surpassed Walter Winchell's. He takes us through the whirlwind final years of Vaudeville, where Sullivan honed his craft and acumen as a producer and finally to the birth of television and the variety show, which Sullivan clearly pioneered.

Through it all, Maguire manages to capture, as well as penetrate the persona of the withdrawn, combative and often contradictory Sullivan. This biography ranks right up there with Neal Gabler's masterful "Winchell". It is both show business history and insightful biography, putting you right on stage during Sullivan's shows. It is a fantastic book that will thrill anyone who ever enjoyed Sullivan's show and will make converts of those too young to remember him. A truly great read. Bravo, Mr. Maguire!