February 9, 1964 Revisited Forty Years Later

Okay, okay, you all know about the impact of the February 9, 1964 episode of The Ed Sullivan Show. You know its historical importance. You know 73 million people watched. And if you didn't know that, there have been plenty newspaper and magazine articles lately detailing such things.

But here's a lookback of that legendary hour of television that goes for a different approach: This one sticks solely with what happened...not what it meant to America, or how it changed culture overnight, but just the actual events of the really big shoe's really biggest shoe of 'em all:

Shortly before 8:00 PM, sets tuning into CBS-TV caught the end of My Favorite Martian, on which, in an episode entitled "Who Am I," Uncle Martin is stricken with amnesia. After the end of its credits, Dezo Hoffman's famous "chair" photo of The Beatles in their collarless suits appears on the screen in a plug for the next program, in which we hear Ed's voice: "The Beatles make their bow to American audiences on our stage." That's next on CBS, another voice reminds us.

And then, the show begins with the usual introduction of opening curtain and mention of the sponsors (Anacin and Pillsbury) before the big man himself comes on to start the big shoe. Ed steps on and waves hello, and then tells the audience that The Beatles had just received a congratulatory telegram from someone named Elvis. He then mentions that tonight will be another memorable moment of the season, so far topped by the previous week's duet of Sammy Davis Jr. and Ella Fitzgerald (the song was "S'Wonderful," in case you were s'wondering.) But first...these messages, first for Aero Shave, and then Griffin Liquid Wax. One can imagine a very heavy atmosphere in Studio 50 during this break, everyone knowing all hell was about to break loose. Even the engineer must have been excited...for the first few seconds of the Aero Shave commercial, we still hear the theater audio rather than the commercial.

After being told that Griffin shines bright like a new layer of leather, Ed gives a quick intro about New York's reaction to the visitors. Then...

"Ladies and gentlemen..."

After a shot of some hyperactive attendees, Paul leads his mates into a nervous but energetic "All My Loving." He sings the first verse and chorus at his own mike, while George joins John at his (which is mixed lower than Paul's) for the chorus "oohs." After George's guitar solo, he joins Paul at his mike to harmonize the rest of the song. Next comes "Till There Was You." As Paul sings this quiet number, each Beatle gets some solo screen time, with his first name appearing on the screen (done in the ancient style of a second camera shot of white letters on a black board faded up, hence the slight overall darkness of the image whenever the name appears). John comes last, his name appearing above a second message: "Sorry girls - he's married." The audience laughs, and John appears to get a chuckle as well. The Beatles end their first set of the show with a strong "She Loves You." Particularly amusing during this version is one cut of the audience, clapping on the one and three.

They finish and take a bow (mostly missed by the cameras). We cut to Ed who dedicates those three songs to Johnny Carson, Randy Parr and Earl Wilson. (Whatever, Ed). He reminds the audience that The Beatles will be back later in the show, and leads into (appropriately, considering the high decibel screaming) a commercial for Anacin.

Next comes a pre-recorded segment with magician Fred Kapps. Kapps first performs a card trick in which his numbered cards somehow keep turning into face cards. For a comedic touch, he pretends his intended trick keeps getting messed up because of this, but it takes the audience a while to catch onto the gag (perhaps they thought Kapps truly was messing up). Next he performs a salt shaker trick that goes over much better.

He is followed by the cast of the Broadway show Oliver, who perform two songs from the popular score. First comes "I'd Do Anything," featuring a child-like (but actually eighteen years old) Davy Jones as the Artful Dodger, Georgia Brown as Nancy, Bruce Prochnik as the title character, and Clive Revell as Fagin (with some lines by cast member Alice Payton). After this song, the children and Fagin scramble off to the side as Nancy sings her solo number, "As Long As He Needs Me." She finishes and greets Ed, complimenting the audience.

A videotape commercial demonstrating the wonders of doing the laundry with cold water, thanks to a special new formula All detergent, is immediately followed by famed impressionist and future Riddler on Batman, Frank Gorshin, nodding to the election year with a hilarious routine about the possibility of celebrities running for office and winning. His imagined conference has (the unimitated) Frank Sinatra as President, Broderick Crawford as Vice President, and with Anthony Quinn, Dean Martin, Marlon Brando, Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Sir Alec Guiness, Alfred Hitchcock and Boris Karloff all taking turns presiding. As usual, all his impressions are excellent, and Gorshin clearly wins the audience over, as young laughter and even occasional screams are heard throughout his routine. (One non-scripted moment of amusement comes toward the end when a piano chord suddenly sounds, prompting Frank to step out of his Kirk Douglas character to address Ed Sullivan's bandleader: "That's very good, Mr. Bloch, but what's it for?")

After greeting Frank, Ed then asks recent Olympic gold medallist Terry McDermott to stand and take a bow. A commercial for Pillsbury follows.

Good-spirited and pleasantly plump Tessie O'Shea, star of The Girl Who Came To Supper next does a segment of "I Got Rhythm," "The Tender Trap," and the song written in her oversized honor, "Two Ton Tessie." She sings and plays her banjulele (combination banjo and ukulele). Her extended conclusion even includes Ed walking onstage to give her a kiss.

Next comes the comedic husband and wife team of Mitzi McCall and Charlie Brill. In a rushed bit (more on that in a moment), Brill pretends he's a casting agent, with McCall pretending to be each of the three hopefuls, none of which impress him. He ends up considering his receptionist (also McCall) upon realizing how beautiful she is without her glasses...until he himself puts them on and takes another look. Their routine, consisting of only moderately amusing jokes, gets very few laughs from the audience, and it takes a mention of The Beatles to get any kind of notable response out of them. When the team finishes, Ed does not call them over for a handshake, which is telling. The story goes, Ed confronted the two backstage before showtime and explained that he did not find their material funny, and was cutting a few minutes off their allotted time. Ed left, leaving the two to then do some frantic last minute editing of their rehearsed bit.

A few minutes later, the door of their dressing room was knocked on again. It was Ed again with more good news...he was cutting them even further, now down to only two minutes. He left, and the two now had more frantic editing to do, both aware that it was a distinct possibility that Ed would soon come back and cut them from the show altogether. Sure enough, a few minutes later there was another knock on the door. Fearing the worse, they opened the door...but this time it was a 23 year old man with a mop haircut who asked, in an English accent, if they had a spare bottle of Coke. The two comedians, were happy to oblige this nice man, who introduced himself as John, who later brought in his friend Ringo, and later their slightly older friend Brian. The five never were interrupted by Ed, and McCall and Brill did get to appear on the show, but Ed still was not amused by their comedy. They were never asked to appear on the show again.

But he was fond of the next act...and he reminded the audience that they were coming up next, after a word from Kent Cigarettes. Sixty seconds of street scenes of various townspeople such as firemen, florists, electricians and shoppers and drivers being satisfied best passed.

Back at Studio 50, Ed once again initiates the screams heard around the word as he introduced The Beatles again, this time singing "I Saw Her Standing There" and "I Want To Hold Your Hand," the later featuring a memorable slow closeup of Ringo. They take their famous bow and come over to Ed for final handshakes and waves. They step off and Ed thanks the local authorities for all their cooperation during the maddening last few days.

Who could possibly follow The Beatles? Nobody, but novelty and acrobatic troupe Wells And The Four Fayes certainly try. To the sound of television sets being turned off all over the country, they dance through hoops, wear funny costumes, bend legs, and they even pretend to box (while the audience pretends to enjoy it).

A cocoa commercial follows, leading to Ed's final words of the night, telling the audience they have been wonderful "despite severe provocations." And so ends the memorable hour that brought John, Paul, George and Ringo's first moments of realtime television in the country.

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