The Ed Sullivan Show
Louis Armstrong / Rosemary Clooney / Jose Ferrer / Alan King
TV Flash files “Louis Armstrong / Rosemary Clooney / Jose Ferrer / Alan King” as the first listed hour of season 13 — The Ed Sullivan Show (1948–1971) on CBS, season 13, episode 1, aired 1959-09-20, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S13E01: listed hour 209 of 690 in the The Ed Sullivan Show guide, first listed hour of season 13. It aired 1959-09-20 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “scheduled: Edith Piaf; Itzhak Perlman; Jack Carter” (S12E52). Next is “Invitation to Moscow” (S13E02). Broadcast log — titles and dates, not a plot bible.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Louis Armstrong / Rosemary Clooney / Jose Ferrer / Alan King sit in the The Ed Sullivan Show guide?
S13E01 is listed hour 209 of 690 — first listed hour of season 13, season 13 episode 1.
When did The Ed Sullivan Show S13E01 air?
Louis Armstrong / Rosemary Clooney / Jose Ferrer / Alan King aired 1959-09-20 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Where should I start?
If you want heat, start with Elvis’s first 1956 booking, then the Beatles on February 9, 1964. If you want the machine itself, glance at the 1948 opener, then jump to the crime scenes.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Sunday as a rope line: Sullivan’s clipboard decided who got to be loud in the living room. Watch the bookings as foreign policy — Elvis cropped, Beatles admitted, lyrics policed — and the feuds that still read like a publicist calling a freeze-out a scheduling conflict.
Flash: it is Sunday, the set is a Sunday best, and a man who looks like your accountant is about to decide whether America gets to scream. The Ed Sullivan Show was not a variety hour. It was a rope line with a full orchestra. Booking was foreign policy. One slot could mint a legend; one freeze-out could send a comic back to the Catskills with a publicist already calling it a misunderstanding. The museum wants a civic story about shared culture. I want the clipboard. Who got the eight o’clock heat. Who got the…
Filed against
- Ed Sullivan as Host
Ed Sullivan ruled Sunday night variety as the stone-faced kingmaker who put the Beatles — and every comic who needed a break — in American living rooms. Booking wars and censorship dust-ups made him hero or villain depending on the week.…
- Ray Bloch as Orchestra leader
Ray Bloch led the orchestra on The Ed Sullivan Show — Sunday as a rope line with strings, a bandleader under twenty-three years of living-room gatekeeping. Booking was foreign policy; the downbeat was Bloch’s. TV Flash still hears the…
- Ralph Paul as Announcer
Ralph Paul announced The Ed Sullivan Show — the Sunday-night voice that told a nation who was about to be loud. Booking was foreign policy; the clipboard was Ed’s. Paul was the rope line’s spoken architecture. TV Flash still hears the…
Also in season 13
- S13E02 Invitation to Moscow
- S13E03 Danny Thomas / Eartha Kitt / Julius LaRosa
- S13E04 Mario Lanza (on film) / Ethel Merman / Larry Blyden
- S13E05 Harry Belafonte (on film) / Ames Brothers / Wilt Chamberlain
- S13E06 scheduled: Della Reese; Wayne & Shuster; Betty Johnson
- S13E07 Paul Anka / The Step Brothers / Castle Sisters