USPS Early TV Memories - Ed Sullivan Show

USPS on 11 August 2009 issued a First Day Cover stamp honouring Ed Sullivan and his TV series "The Ed Sullivan Show ", along with 19 other Early TV shows from the late 1940s and 1950s. Postmark cancellation originated from North Hollywood, California.

 The Early TV Memories sheet of 44-cent First-Class stamps celebrated 20 productions from television’s golden age: "The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet"; "Alfred Hitchcock Presents"; "Dinah Shore Show"; "Dragnet"; "Ed Sullivan Show"; "George Burns & Gracie Allen Show"; "Hopalong Cassidy"; "The Honeymooners"; "Howdy Doody"; "I Love Lucy"; "Kukla, Fran and Ollie"; "Lassie"; "The Lone Ranger"; "Perry Mason"; "Phil Silvers Show"; "The Red Skelton Show"; "Texaco Star Theater"; "The Tonight Show"; "Twilight Zone"; and "You Bet Your Life".

The Ed Sullivan Show 

As the host of his own television variety programme from 1948 to 1971, Edward Vincent Sullivan, born in Harlem, New York City on 28 September 1901, was an important leader in the entertainment field and a television pioneer.

 Often serving as master of ceremonies for high-profile entertainment gatherings in New York, he was picked to host the early CBS television variety program "Toast of the Town", which debuted on 20 June 1948, and slowly became a popular Sunday night fixture. Eventually it was renamed "The Ed Sullivan Show" as a tribute to its host’s own star power.

For each new show, Sullivan gathered together some of the hottest names in show business for an hour-long eclectic mix of music, dance, comedy and more. Classical music and Broadway show scenes appeared on the same programme as plate spinners, sports stars and fast-talking comedians. Sullivan hosted an early television appearance by Elvis Presley in 1956, and the Beatles in 1964. He was known for providing national TV exposure for black entertainers denied such opportunities elsewhere, and he welcomed acts as diverse as blues-rock singer Janis Joplin and Senor Wences, the latter a brilliant ventriloquist who painted a face on the side of his fist to serve as a head for his dummy partner.

Sullivan’s weekly show won a Golden Globe award in 1959 and a Peabody award in 1967. The CBS-TV Studio 50 theater on Broadway where his show took place each week was renamed The Ed Sullivan Theater in 1967.

Sullivan died on 13 October 1974. 

Source: Linn's Stamp News