The Day Elvis Presley Took TV by Storm

By Mary Carter
EAGLE TIMES CORRESPONDENT
He’d made prior television appearances with The Dorsey Brothers, Milton Berle and Steve Allen. However, it was Elvis’ performance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” that set the music world on fire.

Nine percent of American households owned a television set in 1950. Less than a decade later, that percentage soared to 90. Television had become the new cinema. Sitcoms, westerns and variety and game shows became nightly family entertainment.

Despite a hunched posture and his consistently deadpan deliveries, Ed Sullivan was a nationwide viewing favorite. Actor and comedian Alan King said of Sullivan, “Ed does nothing, but he does it better than any other man on television.”

Elvis Presley was, at this time, just making his way into the music scene. With his good looks, drawling voice and suggestive dance moves, women adored him. Initially, Sullivan refused to have anything to do with the controversial rocker, even when offered a bargain booking rate of $5,000. However, after witnessing the ratings jump by having Presley perform, Sullivan signed Presley up for three performances at an astounding fee of $50,000.

The date was Sept. 9, 1956. Although “The Ed Sullivan Show” was filmed in New York, Elvis performed remotely from the CBS Studios in Los Angeles. Presley was on the west coast filming his first movie, “Love Me Tender.” Ed Sullivan had suffered a head-on collision only weeks before, and was not in his studio. Presley was introduced by Sullivan’s stand-in host, British actor Charles Laughton with the words, “And now, away to Hollywood to meet Elvis Presley.”

Sixty million people tuned in to watch, representing 82.5 percent of that evening’s viewing audience. Other TV stations didn’t even try to compete. One even showed an old movie.

Presley would join Ed Sullivan on his New York stage on October 26. With his hair now dyed ‘Elvis black,’ Presley toyed with the audience by stating that he was going to sing something a little melancholic, but then broke into “You Ain’t Nothing But a Hound Dog,” complete with his signature pelvic gyrations.

Throughout all this, the females in the audience kept screaming. But in living rooms across America, many viewers were fuming.

Ed Sullivan received thousands of complaint letters regarding Presley’s “lewd dance movements.” Sullivan appeased the public by stating that, for Presley’s final appearance on Jan. 6, 1957, Presley would be filmed only from the waist up.

Years later, it was confessed that this peace offering was, in reality, a promotional gimmick. Since his first apperance, Elvis’ dipped a bit. The production team knew that more people would be tuning in just to see if Ed Sullivan could be kept to his word.

In the end, it didn’t matter. Elvis Presley became an undeniable king of the music industry. His fees for a television multi-appearance contract sky-rocketed to $300,000. In 1959, Presley was paid $125,000 for an 8-minute appearance on “The Frank Sinatra Timex Show.”

Elvis’ record television audience was broken only by The Beatles with their Feb. 9, 1964, appearance on Ed Sullivan. Amplified over a screaming and frenzied audience, the Fab Four raked in 73 million viewers.