A Rarity…’Ed Sullivan In Las Vegas’
On April 25, 2014
- TV History
Sunday night, May 21, 1961, ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ was broadcast from the stage of The Stardust Hotel.
In the photo, we see that stage being used for rehearsal by Phil Harris, with producer Bob Precht sitting in front of the boom. The camera on the right is a Marconi Mark IV which is from the Television City mobile unit. It seem that CBS had Mark IVs earlier than the 1963 date we had thought. The camera debuted in 1959 at the BBC. This photo is from the personal collection of Eddie Brinkmann, who stage managed Sullivan from start to finish. Thanks to his granddaughter Dee Wexler for sharing it.
The microphone is an Electro Voice 642. It one an Academy award in 1963. I’ll have to see when it was commercialized. This would have to be one of the first uses of it.