Elvis appeared on three editions of "The Ed Sullivan Show". At the time it was shown on Sundays between 8:00 pm and 9:00 pm on CBS-TV. Elvis performed on September 9th and October 28th 1956 and on January 6th 1957.

Production

After Elvis had performed on "The Stage Show" several times, Colonel Parker wanted Ed Sullivan to book his client for $5,000. But to the legendary host he was nothing but a youngster, unknown to most people outside the south and not of any interest for his star-studded show. Later he also claimed, that the singer was a danger for the morals of young people.  But when "The Steve Allen Show" with Elvis on the guest list beat his own ratings he reconsidered his take on Mr. Presley within 24 hours and offered him a staggering $50,000 for three performances on his show. At the time it was the highest fee ever paid to a guest of a tv show. Just to set this amount into perspective: When The Beatles got a contract for three performances on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1963 they just received $10,000.

Anno 1956 "The Ed Sullivan Show" was the holy grail of television entertainment. When you were allowed to perform there, you had made it. The program had started in July 1948 as "The Toast Of The Town", in 1955 it was renamed to "The Ed Sullivan Show". Another change came in 1965 when CBS switched from black and white to color. After 24 seasons and 1,068 editions the last one was aired on June 6, 1971.

September 09, 1956

When Elvis performed on "The Ed Sullivan Show" for the first time, neither the host, nor his guest were at the CBS Studio 50 (today known as "The Ed Sullivan Theater") in New York. Sullivan recovered from a car accident in a hospital and Presley was shooting his first movie. Therefore the show was presented by Charles Laughton and Elvis' performance was transmitted from Hollywood. 

The show is opened by the acrobats "The Brothers Amin", then Dorothy Sarnoff sings "Something Wonderful" from the broadway musical "The King And I". This is followed by The Vagabonds with "Up The Lazy River". Now Mr. Laughton presents four Gold Awards, given to Elvis by the RIAA for selling four million records. He announces that Ed Sullivan would give them to the singer on the next edition of the show. With a buoyant "Away to Hollywood!" he leads over to the transmission from the movie metropolis where Elvis appears on a dark studio setting with guitar shaped silhouettes.

The singer is dressed in a fashionable jacket, casual pants and shirt. Of course he also has his trademark with him, a guitar. First he performs "Don't Be Cruel", his latest hit, then he takes off his guitar and continues with "Love Me Tender", the title song of his forthcoming movie. He introduces The Jordanaires, but not Scotty Moore, Bill Black and DJ Fontana. This was proplably requested by his manager, who wanted to present his client as a solo artist. However, The Jordanaires were quite popular amongst the conservative audience, so it was an advantage to link them to Elvis and provide him with some credibility in the target group. Colonel Parker knew that the older people had to accept his star if he wanted to have a long lasting career.

In New York the show  continues with the tap dancers Conn & Mack, a new interpretation of "Little Red Riding Hood And The Wolf" (in which the heroine kills the wolf by using weapons) by Charles Laughton and the song "I'm In The Mood For Love" performed by Amru Sani. They are followed by Carl Ballantine (comedy and magic) and Toby, the dog.

Then it's time for Elvis again, who performs a cover version of Little Richard's "Ready Teddy" and his own hit "Hound Dog". This time Elvis moves more than during his first two songs, but still much less than he had on "The Milton Berle Show".

The press wasn't favorable, but the program had a rating of 43.7%. In other words: More than 80 of 100 tv viewing Americans had watched "The Ed Sullivan Show"! Besides that "Love Me Tender" had been recorded illegally by some djs and was now played on the radio.That lead to unexpected promotion for Elvis' forthcoming single and resulted in over a million pre-orders.

October 28, 1956

By now Ed Sullivan has recovered and is back in the studio. The host leaves no doubt that Elvis is the star of his show, but first a children's choir called The Little Gaelic Singers perform. Then Mr. Presley appears and repeats his performances of "Don't Be Cruel" and "Love Me Tender". His outfit is more conservative and his hair has turned from dark blonde to black. Even though Elvis doesn't move all that much, the audience goes bonkers. Ed Sullivan tries to calm them down and promises another performance of the star. But first Senor Wences, a ventriloquist, performs his act. Then Elvis appears again, promotes his forthcoming album and sings "Love Me". At one point he stumbles upon the words, but manages to brush his mistake off in a very charming way.

Now Joyce Grenfell appears, dressed as a queen. With Richard Addinsell she recites the funny poem "The Countess Of Cotely". Then the cast of the musical "The Most Happy Fella" sings "Happy To Make Your Acquaintance" and "Big D". The last mentioned song is also accompanied by pianist Shorty Long, who played at Elvis' first RCA sessions at the beginning of the year. Ed Sullivan promotes the forthcoming episode of his show, then the rock'n'roll king returns. He introduces the next tune as the saddest song he's ever heard and extols the quality of the lyrics. Of course this is pure irony, obviously even the young Elvis regarded his iconic song as nothing but rubbish. The performance is very strong, but once again the lack of body English is evident. Before he leaves, the singer promotes his first movie and his next appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in January. The current edition is closed by the Austrian artist Franz Furtner, at the time known under his stage name Uranus, who balances on a crystal ball on his index finger (check it out, it's amazing).

Even though the rating has dropped to 34.6% "The Ed Sullivan Show" still is the winner of the evening. Nevertheless Ed Sullivan announces that in the future Elvis will be filmed from the waist up only to avoid any controversy. Of course nobody had complained and it was nothing but an attempt to hype Elvis' next appearance on the show.

January 06, 1957

Ed Sullivan opens the show in obviously great mood and reminds the screaming teenagers in the audience of the promise they had given him in advance. The stage design includes huge note sheets, Elvis and The Jordanaires are standing so close together, that their singing can be cought with a single microphone. The singer is wearing a flashy golden vest and performs a medley of "Hound Dog", "Love Me Tender" and "Heartbreak Hotel". He follows with "Don't Be Cruel", during which he clowns a bit and has to laugh about his own antics and the reactions of the audience.

The main attraction is followed by Arthur Worsley, Will Jordan and Carol Burnett. Then Elvis appears again and sings "Too Much" and "When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again". Just like during "Love Me" on the previous show, he messes up the lyrics a bit. After he has finished, he thanks his fans for the best Christmas ever and claims to have received 282 teddy bears. In reference to the sponsor of the show he also declares that he planned to give every fan a Lincoln in return, but the company had refused to sell him so many cars. The teenage idol is followed by boxer Sugar Ray Robinson who is interviewed in a somewhat harsh way by Sullivan regarding his lost fight against Gene Fullmer. The dancer Nanci Crompton performs, Leny Eversong sings "El Cubanchero". The show is continued with the clowns The Six Gutis, the dancers Bory & Bory and another performance of Leny Eversong.

As usual Ed Sullivan promotes his forthcoming show and introduces some celebrities in the audience (this time i.a. Jackie Robinson, at the time a famous baseball star). The host also promotes his star guest and mentions his next movie "Running Wild" (which would be renamed to "Loving You") and a concert for the regugee aid (which never materialized). The show is closed by Elvis' performance of the gospel song "Peace In The Valley". For the first time he gives the impression of being 100% serious and he sings in a very moving and emotinal way. Ed Sullivan also seems to be touched by the performance. He sends Elvis off in an unusual warm-hearted way and it's obvious that he honestly values him highly.

At the time the approval by Sullivan was some kind of an accolade. The freak with the hip swing was entering the establishment.

Elvis performing "Don't Be Cruel" on January 06, 1957