UMe ANNOUNCES GLOBAL DEAL WITH SOFA ENTERTAINMENT FOR THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW CATALOG; FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, FULL PERFORMANCE SEGMENTS OFFICIALLY AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE VIA STREAMING PLATFORMS IN JUNEBy Harvey Kubernik © 2020Nearly 50 years after The Ed Sullivan Show wrapped its final episode and charmed TV viewers for the final time on Sunday night June 6, 1971, it officially joins the streaming universe and lives on forever.  Courtesy of SOFA Entertainment/UMe UMe in June announced an agreement with SOFA Entertainment Inc. for the global digital rights to The Ed Sullivan Show library, which encompasses the influential television program’s historic 23-year primetime run on CBS. This marks the first time that Ed Sullivan Show performance and guest segments will be officially available in their entirety across streaming services worldwide. Launching today on The Ed Sullivan Show’s official YouTube channel, the first segments showcase landmark live musical performances. Universal Music Enterprises (UMe) is the centralized U.S. catalog and special markets entity for UMG. Working in tandem with all of the company’s record labels, UMe provides a frontline approach to catalog management, a concentration of resources, opportunities in new technologies and an emphasis on strategic marketing initiatives to engage all types of consumers across multiple entry points and platforms. A UMe media release further described the collaboration and the voluminous gems in this vast catalog are iconic clips that have primarily only been available in excerpted versions on EdSullivan.com or as low-resolution digital “bootlegs.” “Scores of rarities will also be available digitally for the first time. Icons and up-and-comers appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, which welcomed entertainers and influential figures from just about every category of cultural relevance, including music, comedy, sports, film, dance and opera. Many segments will be upgraded to high-resolution clips as part of UMe’s strategic curation of a national treasure that has achieved international acclaim. “Available now, the first seven segments to stream under this new arrangement celebrate music artists, with a new video premiering every day and thousands more clips from the catalog to stream over the next three years. “UMe plans one or more videos daily on The Ed Sullivan Show’s official YouTube channel and EdSullivan.com, both newly updated. “Bruce Resnikoff, UMe President & CEO, said, ‘UMe is proud to continue its successful relationship with SOFA Entertainment. Together we will transform an incredible treasure trove from The Ed Sullivan Show to the streaming era and to new audiences. Ed Sullivan was a pioneer of his time and is responsible for many pivotal TV performances and significant moments in entertainment history. We will now introduce these high-quality landmark television performances from musicians, comedians and Broadway that catapulted the careers of many icons to a global audience.’ “SOFA Entertainment is thrilled to continue its decade-long relationship with UMe,” said Andrew Solt, CEO of SOFA Entertainment. “The UMe team has the passion and expertise to honor Ed Sullivan’s legacy and create new ways for people around the world to enjoy it. I’m overjoyed that the SOFA Entertainment stewardship is now in the hands of my son, Josh, who has experience with digital content including five years at Google.” Josh Solt, who is now President of SOFA Entertainment, said, “We have enormous potential to build The Ed Sullivan Show into a global brand. I am extremely excited that UMe shares SOFA Entertainment’s vision to make The Ed Sullivan Show accessible to existing fans and future generations.” The Ed Sullivan Show featured history-making music performances from Elvis Presley, the Beatles, the Doors, the Rolling Stones; Diana Ross & the Supremes, Four Tops, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Marvin Gaye, Neil Diamond, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, the Beach Boys, the Jackson 5, the Supremes, and the Temptations. Other superstars included comedians Joan Rivers, Rodney Dangerfield, Richard Pryor, Carol Burnett, Lucille Ball, George Carlin, Johnny Carson, Smothers Brothers, Stiller & Meara; Athletes Jackie Robinson, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Muhammad Ali, Joe Namath, Arnold Palmer; Hollywood stars Julie Andrews, Elizabeth Taylor, Peter Sellers, Gregory Peck, Steve McQueen, Sophia Loren, Marlon Brando, Rock Hudson; Stage greats from the casts Of Oliver, Hello Dolly, South Pacific; Opera Singers Maria Callas, Beverly Sills; Artists Salvador Dalí, José Greco; Dancer/Choreographer Rudolf Nureyev; and political figures, Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. The Ed Sullivan Show brought the hottest performances from around the world and introduced emerging talent to America’s living room every Sunday night. Families also gathered together on Sunday nights to see their favorite film stars and sports figures. The Ed Sullivan Show previewed films (African Queen, American In Paris, Best Years Of Our Lives, Bridge On The River Kwai, Roman Holiday) and interviewed icons: Brigitte Bardot, Charlton Heston, Elizabeth Taylor, Gregory Peck, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Peter Sellers, Richard Burton, Sophia Loren, and Steve McQueen.  Courtesy of SOFA Entertainment/UMe Ed Sullivan, who was personally involved in his show’s bookings, was known to have said he wanted to “entertain all of the people some of the time” – from providing grandparents with glimpses of vaudeville to offering parents Hollywood stars and sports figures to bringing teenagers their next poster idols, and youngsters the Italian mouse, Topo Gigio. Over the course of two decades, he cast aside racial, political and cultural boundaries to ensure that audiences witnessed the best and the brightest. In a time of segregation, Ed Sullivan, an influential Civil Rights advocate, invited African-American actors (Pearl Bailey, Diahann Carroll), athletes (Muhammad Ali, Jackie Robinson), comedians (Richard Pryor, Flip Wilson) and musicians (Harry Belafonte, James Brown, Motown artists such as Four Tops, the Temptations, the Supremes), to name just a few, to appear on the show. For many Motown artists, a performance on The Ed Sullivan Show represented a pivotal career milestone bringing their talents to mainstream America and catapulting them to the top of the charts with breakout success. He was the first to bring country music (Chet Atkins, Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Jimmy Dean, Brenda Lee and Buck Owens) to national television viewers. Ed Sullivan sought out international talent, entertainers, performers and influential personalities from the U.K. (18 Groups/Singers of the British Invasion, Julie Andrews, Cliff Richard), France (Johnny Hallyday, Edith Piaf, Brigitte Bardot), Italy (Sophia Loren, Gina Lollobrigida), Spain (Andrés Segovia, Salvador Dalí, José Greco), Germany (Obernkirchen Children’s Choir), Japan (The Blue Comets), Ireland (Peter O’Toole, The Clancy Brothers, The Dubliners) and Israel (Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion). Mainstream America’s introduction to Broadway, classical, opera and ballet was often through exposure on The Ed Sullivan Show. Broadway productions were frequently encapsulated into extended segments along with the great songwriters, such as Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin and Lerner and Lowe, who often brought the original casts of their musicals, including My Fair Lady (Julie Andrews, Rex Harrison), Bye Bye Birdie (Dick Van Dyke, Chita Rivera, Paul Lynde), Oliver! (Davy Jones), Camelot (Richard Burton, Julie Andrews) and more. Classical violinist and then 13-year-old prodigy Itzhak Perlman was invited to perform, and Louisiana-born classical pianist Van Cliburn appeared after winning the Tchaikovsky competition in Russia. Spain’s classical guitarist Andrés Segovia, and Japan’s Suzuki Violins, also graced The Ed Sullivan Show stage. Among the most famous and celebrated sopranos from the world of opera, Maria Callas, who rarely made public appearances, performed Tosca, and Beverly Sills performed an aria. Dance included mambo, tango, tap (Sammy Davis, Jr.) and Russia’s Moiseyev Ballet. The Ed Sullivan Show prided itself on celebrating the superstars as much as the up-and-coming and the offbeat, including acrobatic teams, dance teams, drill teams, college sport teams, rifle teams, marching bands, novelty acts, plate spinners and jugglers. Occasionally, Ed Sullivan also gave political figures a platform to speak to America, including presidents, senators and governors. The Ed Sullivan Show is the most popular primetime variety show in American history. For nearly a quarter century, Ed Sullivan hosted the greatest array of talent on television, including the Beatles, the Rolling  The Jackson 5 December14,1969 performance of “I Want You Back” onThe Ed Sullivan Show. Stones, Elvis Presley and Motown artists such as the Supremes, the Temptations and the Jackson 5. Every Sunday night at 8pm on CBS from 1948-1971, The Ed Sullivan Show showcased a wide variety of pop culture from the worlds of music, comedy, novelty and much more. The library of 1,000 hours includes over 10,000 performances. In 1990, Andrew Solt formed SOFA Entertainment Inc. and acquired The Ed Sullivan Show from the Sullivan family. The Ed Sullivan Show is the most respected and revered variety show in television history. SOFA Entertainment is the copyright holder of the original Ed Sullivan programs and over 150 hours of newly created programming. “Sullivan knew how to give a show that was for every generation that might be watching,” emphasized Andrew Solt during a September 2011 phone interview. “If you look back the show was such a launching pad for such great important iconic moments. Whether it’s Elvis or Bo Diddley. “When the Beatles stepped onto Ed Sullivan’s New York stage on Sunday, February 9, 1964, to make their American TV debut, 86% of all TVs on at that hour—73 million Americans—were tuned in. It was the most watched program in history to that point and remains one of the most watched programs of all time. To some, it will always be remembered by his introduction: ‘Here they are—the Beatles!’” Over the last decade filmmaker Andrew Solt of SOFA has been very generous to me providing photos and artifacts from his Sullivan library for my books and articles published in cavehollywood.com and Record Collector News magazine. I’ve viewed countless clips from Andrew’s archive that have aided my research which the whole world now can watch in digital platforms. |
“The relationship between Berry Gordy’s Motown label and The Ed Sullivan Show made music and television history,” reinforced Solt in our 2011 interview.
“Soon after the Supremes’ debut on Sullivan (December 1964), it was clear that showcasing the latest Motown releases on CBS on Sunday nights (35 million viewers was average) until 1971 was a way to expose the record company’s newest hits and boost the show’s ratings. Sullivan introduced nearly all the Motown acts, including the Supremes, the Temptations, Stevie Wonder, the Four Tops, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Marvin Gaye, Gladys Knight and the Pips, and the Jackson 5.”
Andrew Solt’s other credits include the 1979 TV special Heroes Of Rock And Roll and 1988 feature documentary Imagine: John Lennon as well as the 1991 Warner Brothers theatrical feature film This is Elvis to the 1995 TV documentary series The History Of Rock ‘N’ Roll and 2006 home video Elvis: The Ed Sullivan Shows. SOFA Entertainment has produced approximately 400 programs for television and home video.
“For us, being on The Ed Sullivan Show was so much more than record sales,” underlined Mary Wilson of the Supremes during my 2003 and 2016 interviews with her.
“It wasn’t about promoting us. It was about that we had grown up watching The Ed Sullivan Show. We had grown up watching shows where you didn’t see a lot of black people starring on those shows. For us, we were like every other family in America who spent hours watching Ed Sullivan. So for us, being on the show was such a great honor. Because we were there to see the world changing. To see America changing. We were excited! We’re on The Ed Sullivan Show.
“We came from a time when a whole family of all different colors didn’t sit around watching black people on television. The Dick Clark [Caravan of Stars] tours where before us and there were segregated hotels.
“For us, that is what it was all about. We were part of that change. We were part of helping America to see black people, black women, being proud, beautiful and successful. It wasn’t just us, many people before us. But they didn’t have the television to expose them to that wide range of people as we did at the time when we came. We were lucky. And we stood on a lot of shoulders. But we were there when the doors opened.
“The other thing was that we were seen in color after our initial appearances were in black and white. Recently, my granddaughter was watching a DVD collection of the Supremes. And she said to me. ‘Grandma! What happened to the color?’ ‘Cause she has never seen a black and white TV!”
In February of 1976, I interviewed David Ruffin of the Temptations in Hollywood for Melody Maker.
The Temptations September 28,1969 performance of “I Can’t Get Next ToYou” onThe Ed Sullivan Show.
Courtesy of SOFA Entertainment/UMe
“The Temptations were individuals who happened to sing together. I never regretted any of the songs we did and even the choreography on stage has been widely copied. I liked the dancin’ part of that group. Then you couldn’t just stand there and sing. The audience was moving and you just reflected what was goin’ on. If anything, I’d like my association with the Temptations to be remembered as that we gave something. We helped young artists get in a position.”
Barney Ales was Berry Gordy’s indispensable right-hand man and Motown’s ultimate insider, whose job was to get the records played and the company paid. He rose to become executive VP and general manager, but stayed in Detroit in 1972 when Gordy moved Motown to California. Ales became its president in Los Angeles during his return to the firm from 1975 to 1978.
Andrew Loog Oldham discovered, managed and produced the Rolling Stones from 1963 to 1967. He worked as a producer for Motown’s Rare Earth label during the very early 1970s.
“And let’s not forget that great American soundtrack-The Sound of Young America, Jobete Music,” Andrew Loog reminded me in a 2004 conversation. “You can still hear it every day…in Motown music and recently the U2 single ‘Vertigo,’ sure sounds like ‘You Keep Me Hanging On’ to me.”
“Barney Ales – the jewel in the crown,” reinforced Andrew in a 2016 interview. “His efforts on behalf of Mr. Gordy and the artists were the primary reason the sound of young America graduated all over the world.”
“It was really a battle in those days to get black artists on network television in prime time,” Ales emailed me in 2016.
“Sammy Davis Jr. and Nat Cole were about the only ones—anyone else, they just weren’t accepted. But when the Supremes broke through, we knew we had an opportunity. They looked so great, as well as sounding great. And Harvey Fuqua and Maxine Powell did a wonderful job, grooming the girls, getting them ready for prime time.
“The Ed Sullivan Show was the real breakthrough. Sunday nights, millions of people watching. Once Sullivan took to the Supremes, we knew we were on the right track. And album sales picked up like crazy whenever they were on, so we always made sure to tell the distributors they needed to check their inventory.
“After the Supremes, we got everyone on Sullivan’s show: Stevie, Gladys, the Temptations. We had a good relationship with the producer, Bob Precht. He liked Motown, and Esther, Berry’s sister, used to take the dressing room keys afterwards as souvenirs. They’re probably somewhere in the Motown Museum to this day.”
The Rolling Stones appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show 1964-1969.
“Pre-production on The Ed Sullivan Show” explained Andrew Loog Oldham, “was where you let Sullivan, or Robert Precht know to start with. One of the things I was trying to get over with was letting them know that you don’t film the bass string and guitar solo. It was the rhythm, so one wouldn’t look stupid. Because if you’re being filmed stupid, you feel stupid, so one doesn’t need the Rolling Stones feeling stupid.
“They worked good on color. They were getting loaded, they would go shopping, and it worked. Keith’s army jacket, Brian’s red cords, and his shoes. There you have the happy times of drugs. The songs selected were usually the singles that were just being released. ‘Let’s Spend the Night Together’ for me is still one of the best tracks they ever cut, ’cause it doesn’t do anything-it just sits there.”
In 2006 Harvey Kubernik spoke at the special hearings initiated by The Library of Congress that were held in Hollywood, California, discussing archiving practices and audiotape preservation. In 2020 Harvey served as Consultant on Laurel Canyon: A Place In Time documentary directed by Alison Ellwood which debuted on the EPIX/M-G-M television channel.
Harvey Kubernik is the author of 18 books, including Canyon of Dreams: The Magic and the Music of Laurel Canyon and Turn Up The Radio! Rock, Pop and Roll in Los Angeles 1956-1972.
Sterling/Barnes and Noble in 2018 published Kubernik’s The Story of The Band From Big Pink to the Last Waltz. Kubernik is currently writing and assembling a 2021 book on Jimi Hendrix for the same publisher.
Otherworld Cottage Industries on July 30, 2020 will publish Harvey’s 500-page book Docs That Rock Music That Matters. Kubernik interviews with D.A. Pennebaker, Albert Maysles, Murray Lerner, Morgan Neville, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Andrew Loog Oldham, Paul Justman, Heather Harris, Curtis Hanson, Dick Clark, Allan Arkush, and David Leaf, among others.
(In July of 2017, Harvey Kubernik appeared at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio as part of their distinguished Author Series discussing his book 1967 A Complete Rock History of the Summer of Love.
Harvey and brother Kenneth Kubernik co-authored the highly regarded A Perfect Haze: The Illustrated History of the Monterey International Pop Festival, published in 2011 by Santa Monica Press. Harvey and Kenneth Kubernik also wrote the text and biographical portrait for legendary photographer Guy Webster’s first book of music, movie and television photos for Insight Editions; Big Shots: Rock Legends & Hollywood Icons: Through the lens of Guy Webster, published October 21, 2014, with an Introduction by Brian Wilson.
Harvey Kubernik’s The Doors Summer’s Gone was published by Otherworld Cottage Industries in February 2018. It was nominated for the 2019 Association for Recorded Sound Collections Awards for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research.
Kubernik’s writings are in several book anthologies, most notably The Rolling Stone Book of the Beats and Drinking with Bukowski. He was the project coordinator of the recording set The Jack Kerouac Collection.
Kubernik’s 1995 interview, Berry Gordy: A Conversation With Mr. Motown appears in The Pop, Rock & Soul Reader edited by David Brackett published in 2019 by Oxford University Press. Brackett is a Professor of Musicology in the Schulich School of Music at McGill University in Canada. Harvey joined a distinguished lineup which includes LeRoi Jones, Johnny Otis, Ellen Willis, Nat Hentoff, Jerry Wexler, Jim Delehant, Ralph J. Gleason, Greil Marcus, and Cameron Crowe.
Kubernik just penned a book jacket endorsement for author Michael Posner’s upcoming book on Leonard Cohen that Simon & Schuster, Canada, will be publishing this fall 2020, Leonard Cohen, Untold Stories: The Early Years).
