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Posted on 07/22/2025 3:17:37 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Streaming now, the film explains how ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ amplified Black music and culture.
The Ed Sullivan Show is famous for its role in breaking the Beatles and Elvis Presley. But the variety show helped a wide range of performers connect with a larger audience—including, as a new documentary explains, a great many Black entertainers.
That film, Sunday Best: The Untold Story of Ed Sullivan, is now streaming on Netflix. Directed by the late Sacha Jenkins, it explores Sullivan’s commitment to showcasing Black talent on his Sunday evening broadcasts at a time when segregation and discrimination prevailed in the United States. Airing on CBS from 1948 to 1971, The Ed Sullivan Show drew between 35 and 50 million viewers per week. The host made it a point to get a diverse assortment of performers in front of that audience.
“He was a door opener, especially for Black artists,” Otis Williams of the Temptations says in the movie. “This man opened up his door and let artists come on his show to express and be seen.”
Featuring never-before-seen interviews with Williams, Harry Belafonte, Dionne Warwick, Berry Gordy, and more, the movie illuminates Sullivan’s impact on Black music and media as well as the The Civil Rights Movement. In addition to its interviews, Sunday Best features an exciting array of performances from some of the most legendary names in 20th century music. In addition to the Beatles, Belafonte, and Presley, viewers can see Ray Charles and Billy Preston, Jackie Wilson, Bo Diddley, James Brown, Ike and Tina Turner, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Nat King Cole, Nina Simone, Mahalia Jackson, Stevie Wonder, the Jackson 5, and the Supremes in action.
Jenkins, who died in May from multiple system atrophy, was a celebrated filmmaker and journalist. Perhaps best known for the rap zine ego trip and its assortment of related books, he also served as an editor at Vibe and Mass Appeal, wrote several books on graffiti, and co-authored memoirs with Eminem and the Beastie Boys among other written projects. His work for the screen includes the Showtime series Everything’s Gonna Be All White and documentaries about Rick James and the Wu-Tang Clan.
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Didn’t he introduce the BEE Gees to the world?
Had a new babysitter the night the Beatles were on Ed Sullivan. She spent the whole time screaming!
I thought my parents were crazy for hiring her!
Another show Hollywood Squares: Just a few statements.
The show ran 15 years from 1966 to 1981.
These great questions and answers are from the days when the “Hollywood Squares” game show responses were spontaneous and clever.
Peter Marshall was the host asking the questions, of course.
Q. If you’re going to make a parachute jump, at least how high should you be?
A. Charley Weaver: Three days of steady drinking should do it.
Q. True or False, a pea can last as long as 5,000 years.
A. George Gobel: Boy, it sure seems that way sometimes.
Q. According to Cosmopolitan, if you meet a stranger at a party and you think that he is attractive, is it okay to come out and ask him if he’s married?
A. Rose Marie: No; wait until morning.
“”I thought my parents were crazy for hiring her!””
If you were very young, it should have scared you. I remember the hoopla about it for weeks before. I was a teenager and watched it and thought, what’s the big deal? Never had a reason to change my mind..
Someone once said: “As long as other people have talent, Ed Sullivan will always have a job.”
I watched it yesterday and do recommend it.
Paul Lynde was hilarious
“By 1955, at the age of 20, Elvis Presley was emerging as a regional star in the south, touring and playing shows from Tennessee to Texas. Known for his lively performances and on stage gyrations, Elvis played a unique blend of R&B, country, gospel and rock ‘n’ roll....Elvis was recording for producers Sam Phillips and his Sun label. Parker got RCA to buy Elvis’ contract for an outrageous sum at the time — $35,000.”
“Sullivan and Colonel Parker agreed to have Elvis appear three times for the then mind boggling sum of $50,000....before Elvis had appeared nationally on television, Sullivan had turned down the opportunity to book Elvis on his show for $5,000.”
https://www.edsullivan.com/artists/elvis-presley/
You lost me at “To Netflix.”
Sullivan not only promoted black entertainers, he also aided in the activities of a fellow named Fidel Castro.
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