REALLY BIG SHOW Opens at MUSE/IQUE This Month

MUSE/IQUE’s next show in their 2024 season, themed Make Some Noise: Music and Stories of American Defiance and Hope, is Really Big Show: How Ed Sullivan Changed America Every Sunday Night. The concerts take place on April 30 and May 1 at 7:30pm at The Huntington, and May 5 at 3:00pm and 7:30pm at Skirball Cultural Center.
 
Sunday night after Sunday night, in front of a live studio audience, Ed Sullivan promised millions of Americans gathered around televisions in their living rooms a “really big show.” Beginning in the late 1940s and enduring for another 21 years, The Ed Sullivan Show was the ultimate primetime, must-watch variety show: a show that broke the mold and turned a revolving door of top-notch dancers, singers, bands, comedians, and a variety of entertainers into overnight sensations.
 
As critic David Bianculli wrote, "Before MTV, Sullivan presented rock acts. Before Bravo,he presented jazz and classical music and theater. Before the Comedy Channel, even before there was The Tonight Show, Sullivan discovered, anointed and popularized young comedians. Before there were 500 channels, before there was cable, Ed Sullivan was where the choice was. From the start, he was indeed 'the Toast of the Town'." In 1996, Sullivan was ranked number 50 on TV Guide's "50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time".
 
But the true magic of The Ed Sullivan Show was how its on-air talent reflected the true diversity of the American public — Ed welcomed guests regardless of their race, ethnicity, or nationality when it was exceedingly unpopular and difficult to do so. The Ed Sullivan Show held up a mirror to America and reflected the possibility of a more hopeful and harmonious future.
 
Edward Vincent Sullivan (September 28, 1901 – October 13, 1974) was an American television host, impresario, sports and entertainment reporter, and syndicated columnist for the New York Daily News and the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate. He was the creator and host of the television variety program The Toast of the Town, which in 1955 was renamed The Ed Sullivan Show. Broadcast from 1948 to 1971, it set a record as the longest-running variety show in U.S. broadcast history.
 
"It was, by almost any measure, the last great American TV show", said television critic David Hinckley. "It's one of our fondest, dearest pop culture memories."
 
Worby and her team have chosen from the wide spectrum of what appeared on the show: “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (The Beatles), the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, as performed on the show by
the then 13-year-old Itzhak Perlman, the Toreador Song from Bizet’s Carmen, performed on the show by Metropolitan Opera stars, and “Bein’ Green,” which featured The Muppets.
 
After the Rolling Stones performed “Time is on My Side,” Sullivan thought the band was unkempt.  The Sullivan website noted, “When the Stones’ manager tried to change Sullivan’s mind to re-book, Ed said, ‘We were deluged with mail protesting the untidy appearance—clothes and hair.  Before even discussing the possibility of a contract, I would like to learn from you, whether your young men have reformed in the matter of dress and shampoo.’  Just a few months later they appeared again wearing sports coats!”
 
Broadway was a Sullivan staple – and MUSE/IQUE will feature “Some Enchanted Evening” from South Pacific, “You’ll Never Walk Alone” from Carousel and “Before the Parade Passes By” from Hello, Dolly!  In 1967, as the original production was beginning to wane, producer David Merrick replaced the cast with an entirely African American company, which played to sold out houses and revitalized the show.  The star, Pearl Bailey, won a special Tony Award for her role and sang “Parade” on the Sullivan show.
 
Sullivan’s official website bio said, ”One of the most important contributions Ed Sullivan will be remembered for is how he bucked the system and embraced African American performers, giving them their first television breaks. He supported talent with a passion, regardless of race, introducing an audience to timeless legends like Nat “King” Cole, Harry Belafonte, Sammy Davis, Jr., Ella Fitzgerald and dozens more. He even held hands with Pearl Bailey on his show, much to the chagrin of his sponsors (especially in the South). He was very close friends of Louis Armstrong and paid for the Harlem funeral of dancing legend Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson, when he died penniless.”
 
Parade magazine noted [with an entirely different list of performers], “Ever the civil rights advocate, Sullivan continued to showcase African American performers such as comedians Moms Mabley, Nipsey Russell, Dick Gregory and Richard Pryor, as well as musicians such as Ray Charles, Nina Simone, Dionne Warwick, and James Brown, and Motown artists like Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, The Temptations, The Supremes, and the Four Tops. Their collective appearances underscored Sullivan’s leveling-the-playing-field-for-all philosophy.”
 
The MUSE/IQUE program includes songs performed on the Sullivan Show by the Ink Spots, Sam Cooke, Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jr., Louis Armstrong, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Duke Ellington, The Temptations and The Supremes.
 
American Songwriter magazine quotes George Harrison, “We were aware that Ed Sullivan was the big one because we got a telegram from Elvis [Presley] and [his manager] the Colonel [Tom Parker]. ‘I’ve heard that while the show was on there were no reported crimes, or very few. When The Beatles were on Ed Sullivan, even the criminals had a rest for ten minutes.’”
 
Joining Artistic and Music Director Rachael Worby and the MUSE/IQUE orchestra onstage as guest performers for these concerts are Ayo Awosika, Chris Pierce, Craig Colclough, Dominic Hyunjin An, members of Los Angeles Ballet and DC6 Singers Collective.
 
Reservations for Really Big Show: How Ed Sullivan Changed America Every Sunday Night are now open for members. For those new to MUSE/IQUE, please visit muse-ique.com to learn about attending MUSE/IQUE events and to explore membership plans.

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