What Do “Bonanza”, The Beatles And Bozo Have In Common?

Aside from the letter “B”, the amazing Alan Livingston…that’s what!

If you don’t know who he is, you are not alone, but he – alone – touched the lives of literally all of America’s children, teens and adults in some very important and, above all, entertaining ways.

At Capitol Records, Alan Livingston created the character of Bozo The Clown, revived the carrier of Frank Sinatra, signed The Beatles and The Beach Boys, and…as an NBC Programming executive, hired David Dortort to write the pilot episode of “Bonanza”.

While growing up, Alan took saxophone and clarinet lessons, and his brother, Jay Livingston studied piano. Jay’s writing credits include “Buttons and Bows,” “Mona Lisa”, “Silver Bells”, “Tammy” and “Que Sera, Sera” and more. These, and a surprise that will come below, were co written with his wring partner Ray Evans.

While at the University of Pennsylvania, Livingston and his brother paid expenses by forming an orchestra that played at fraternity dances and school events.

After serving in the Army as a second lieutenant during World War II, Livingston made his way to the west coast where he finally convinced Capitol Records to give him a job. In 1946 Alan was hired to launch a series of storytelling records with illustrated read-along books for children. He called the new concept a “record-reader.”

After writing “Bozo at the Circus,” Livingston worked with an artist to create the clown narrator – a composite design of Livingston’s based on various clown pictures – and he hired former circus clown and cartoon voice-over artist Pinto Colvig to supply Bozo’s voice.  The Bozo music was produced by Billy May and Bozo was a big hit, with the series reportedly selling more than 8 million copies over the next several years and spawning Bozo merchandise and Bozo-hosted TV shows. The first of which starred Colvig on KTTV in Los Angeles. By the way, Capitol later sold the Bozo rights to Larry Harmon, who once claimed to have created Bozo, but he eventually set the record straight by crediting Livingston.

Other Livingston-written and produced children’s recordings that allowed Capitol to dominate the children’s record market followed, featuring Woody Woodpecker and various Disney and Warner Bros. cartoon characters.

The next major phase of Alan Livingston’s success came with his
a promotion to vice-president of Capitol. He went from overseeing children’s records to working with adult artists such as Nat King Cole, which yields yet another surprise! “Mona Lisa”.

His songwriting brother Jay had written a song Alan felt was a hit, and very will suited for Cole, but Nat did not care for it. Alan was careful not to make a big deal over it, but kept suggesting and eventually Cole agreed to cut is as a B side of a song Nat thought would be a hit. DJ’s liked the B side better, and before you knew it, the song was Number One, and held there for eight weeks.

Not long after that, Livingston got call from Sammy Weisbourg, who was president of the William Morris Agency. They had taken on a star who’s career was at an all-time low, and were looking for a “fellow gambler” that thought there could be a grand revival.

Weisbourg asked whether Livingston would consider signing Frank Sinatra to a new recording deal and Livingston said yes!

Livingston believed Sinatra was a great singer and, if given the proper material and appropriate instrumental backing, he could be on top again, which lead to a sort of “shotgun marriage”.

Sinatra reluctantly agreed to try a session with Riddle on April 30, 1953. That session produced the classic “I’ve Got The World On A String.” Another session yielded “Young-At-Heart,” which put Frank Sinatra’s comeback in high gear in the spring of 1954.

Livingston left Capitol after a great 10 year run there to become the head of programming for NBC’s west coast Programming Department. That was 1956 and aside from working with Milton Berle, the newly “single” Dean Martin, Dinah Shore and Jimmy Durante, he Tom Sarnoff gave the go ahead to David Dortort’s idea that became NBC’s biggest hit of the ’50s and ’60s…”Bonanza”.

At this link, in an Archive Of American Television interview, Jay Livingston and writing partner Ray Evans talk about Alan and how they came to write the historic theme song for “Bonanza”. https://youtu.be/KiUBFXi81jI?t=19m38s

In 1961, Capitol asked Livingston to come back, and boy did he ever…and brought Capitol with him!

The Beatles’ records were being released in the United Kingdom by EMI, which was Capitol’s major stockholder, which in turn gave Capitol the right of first refusal on all EMI acts for distribution in America. Capitol’s Dave Dexter who reviewed all these artists kept rejecting them, even the Beatles’ early hits, as unsuitable for the American market.

In 1963, Livingston received a call from the Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein, from London wanting to know why there was no interest in the group. When Livingston said he hadn’t even heard the Beatles sing, Epstein told him to listen to one of their records and call him back.

Livingston did, and the Beatles signed with Capitol, which agreed on a $40,000 budget to promote their first single. In February 1964, the Beatles made their first appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” and Beatlemania in America was in full swing.

He also played roll in signing The Beach Boys, The Steve Miller Band and more.

Livingston, who was married for several years to actress Betty Hutton, left Capitol again in 1968 and formed his own company, Mediarts, which was involved in movies, records and music publishing. Lightning struck again after Alan signed Don McLean and released the smash hit, “American Pie”.

He sold Mediarts to United Artists and joined 20th Century Fox as president of the corporation’s Entertainment Group.

Now THAT is a brilliant carrier! Gone but not forgotten…Alan W. Livingston left us March 13, 2009. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

In the photo, we see Livingston presenting The Beatles with their first, of many, gold records from Capitol.

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February 8, 1964…The Beatles & Ed Sullivan Prepare To Make History

On this date in 1964, The Beatles had their first rehearsal for “The Ed Sullivan Show” at CBS Studio 50 in New York. All prior highs in television ratings and record sales was about to explode.

Many still haven’t realized that The Beatles third appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” on February, 23 1964 was taped the afternoon of their first live appearance on February 9th. This time table is a great help in understanding the sequence of events that began on this day in 1964.

Some may wonder how the Saturday rehearsal was possible since “The Jackie Gleason Show” was also done at Studio 50 on Saturdays, and the answer may surprise you. Beginning around 1961, Gleason began taping the show on Thursday nights, but it was live-to-tape with no edits, which kept the show looking as live as it had since it’s start in 1952. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

Above is one of the world’s most unique selfies…Sullivan Assistant Director John Moffit (without his glasses) at Ringo’s black oyster pearl Ludwig drums, just after the Saturday morning rehearsal. The next two photos are from the two Sunday rehearsals and the tall man with the glasses is Moffit and the shorter bald man is Director Tim Kiley.

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From last year’s big 50th Anniversary coverage, here is my story on how to tell which scenes are from which shows, which were all taped the same day. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

Beatles 50th Sullivan Anniversary Count Down…15 Days

Today, A Primer In: How to tell which performance is which.
With the anniversary approaching, you’ll see a lot of photos and clips and with this guide, you can tell which performance is which. The Beatles first appeared on Ed Sullivan these three consecutive Sunday nights…February 9, 16 and 23 1964. The February 16th show was done live from Miami, but all four of their other performances were done at CBS Studio 50 on February 9, with the first performances of the day taped for air on the 23rd. The Beatles appeared twice in each show and each time, the song set and stage set was different. From left to right, here are the Studio 50 stage sets in order of air dates. The first live performance set featured big arrows and the second live performance set featured hanging stripes. The first appearance of the taped February 23 show was the only use of a flat wall set with a wedge facade, which was widely used on many Sullivan shows and matched his hosting corner backdrop. The final set of the February 23 show featured the free standing art nouveau columns. Now you know!

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What Do ‘Bonanza’, The Beatles And Bozo Have In Common?

The amazing Alan Livingston…that’s what!

Livingston was best-known for his years as president of Capitol Records during the 1960s, when he signed The Beatles, but he also created Bozo The Clown and as an NBC executive, was responsible for ‘Bonanza’ coming to the screen.

As Capitol’s president, he signed artists like The Beach Boys, Steve Miller and The Band. His most famous signing, however, took longer than might be expected.

Livingston first heard about the Beatles in 1963 when he read about the group in the English music press. The Beatles’ records were being released in the United Kingdom by EMI. And because EMI was Capitol’s major stockholder, Capitol had the right of first refusal on the Beatles in America. But Capitol rejected the Beatles’ early hit singles as unsuitable for the American market.

Livingston finally received a call from the Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein, from London wanting to know why there was no interest in the group. When Livingston said he hadn’t even heard the Beatles sing, Epstein told him to listen to one of their records and call him back.

Livingston did, and the Beatles signed with Capitol, which agreed on a $40,000 budget to promote their first single. In February 1964, the Beatles made their first appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” and Beatlemania in America was in full swing.

While growing up, he took saxophone and clarinet lessons, and his brother, Jay, studied piano. Jay later teamed with fellow songwriter Ray Evans, and they shared Oscars for writing “Buttons and Bows,” “Mona Lisa” and “Que Sera, Sera.” Jay Livingston died in 2001.

While at the University of Pennsylvania, Livingston and his brother paid expenses by forming an orchestra that played at fraternity dances and school events. After serving in the Army as a second lieutenant during World War II, Livingston was hired by Capitol Records in Hollywood in 1946 as a writer and producer of storytelling record albums with illustrated read-along books for children.

He called the new concept a “record-reader.”

After writing “Bozo at the Circus,” Livingston worked with an artist to create the clown narrator — a composite design of Livingston’s based on various clown pictures — and he hired former clown and cartoon voice-over artist Pinto Colvig to supply Bozo’s voice.

“Bozo at the Circus,” with music produced by Billy May, was a big hit, with the series reportedly selling more than 8 million copies over the next several years and spawning Bozo merchandise and Bozo-hosted TV shows.

Other Livingston-written and produced children’s recordings followed, featuring Woody Woodpecker and various Disney and Warner Bros. cartoon characters.

In the early ’50s, after becoming vice president in charge of creative operations at Capitol Records, Livingston signed Frank Sinatra, then at a low point in his career, and teamed him up with arranger Nelson Riddle — a pairing that launched Sinatra’s comeback on the charts.

Livingston, who was married for several years to actress Betty Hutton, left Capitol in the late ’50s. He became vice president of NBC network television programming, during which he supervised the pilot for the western series “Bonanza.”

Livingston returned to Capitol Records as president in the early ’60s and became chairman of the board before leaving again in 1968. He later formed his own company, Mediarts, which was involved in movies, records and music publishing.

From 1976 to 1980, he was group president for 20th Century Fox Film Corp.’s television production, records, music and film processing operations.

He then became president of Atalanta Investment Co., a position he resigned in 1987. He also wrote a novel, “Ronnie Finkelhoff, Superstar.”

Now THAT’s one hell of a carrier! Gone but not forgotten…Alan W. Livingston left us March 13, 2009. Thanks to Glenn Mack for recommending some research into Mr. Livingston. Enjoy and share!

In the photo, we see Livingston presenting The Beatles with their first, of many, gold records from Capitol.

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A Meeting Of The Minds…The Directors And The Beatles

The photo above was shot after the Saturday morning rehearsal on February 8, 1964…the more relaxed day of the weekend. In one of the world’s most unique photos, we find assistant director John Moffit posed behind Ringo’s black oyster pearl Ludwig drums (without his glasses). In the center we see Sullivan director Tim Kiley writing and behind him (with glasses) is assistant director John Moffit with Paul and Ringo. On the bottom, John Moffit and Tim Kiley with the whole band on Sunday morning.

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Beatles 50th Sullivan Anniversary Count Down…1 Day

Tomorrow, we’ll see pictures from the Sunday afternoon press gaggle, but today we’ll look at the Saturday afternoon press gathering. There had been a rehearsal that morning that had stand ins for George who was ill at the Plaza Hotel, but by late afternoon, he was well enough to help tape promos for the up coming shows and for photos. Notice that the crane mounted camera is up behind them as one promo background may have included the bank of photographers. If you look closely at the far right photo, you notice that all of the press have removed their flash attachments. Flash cameras and Image Orthicon television cameras do not get along well and multiple flashes into that Marconi Mark IV would have fried that $5000 IO tube.

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Beatles 50th Sullivan Anniversary Count Down…2 Days

Today, the sound problems. Notice anything missing in any of the Beatles stage photos either in New York or Miami? No? How about the guitar amplifiers…not a single one anywhere. As mentioned here before, “the sound” was a big problem for all three shows, and most of the problems were caused by the hidden amps. There are three areas of concern that intermingled to cause these problems…the band’s ability to hear their music and vocals, the audience’s ability to hear and the audio mix fed along with the pictures on the broadcasts. There was a concerted effort to make the sets really pop on TV and the set designer wanted to keep them clean by hiding the amps, but that meant putting them behind the scrim and miking them for air which would be fine for the broadcast mix, but the stage and house mix would suffer. I’ve been told that the house PA system at the time was not very good. It was quite adequate for audiences to hear dialog from actors, but it was not meant for music. Even Elvis had amps on stage when he performed there in the late 50s and as far as I know, this was the first attempt to hide the amps. The Beatles performances were totally live and in rehearsals, even without the audiences, it took a while to tweak the audio. But then, when the audiences came in, the screaming was so overwhelming that it drowned out that balance so another round of tweaking started. The audience was so loud, the cameramen could not hear anything in their headsets. The band had a #1 record and the performance had to match the sound on the radio. Brian Epstine and John Lennon were so flustered by the sound problems in the theater, even at the closed rehearsals, that he and the band went to the control room a couple of times to hear the playback of the rehearsal tapes just to make sure the broadcast audio was right. It did not help that the audio man’s grease pencil marks from the Sunday morning closed rehearsal had been erased prior to the 2:30 dress rehearsal. That lasted almost till the 4:30 taping of the performances to be inserted into the February 23 show.

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Beatles 50th Sullivan Anniversary Count Down…6 Days

Mayhem in Miami. The photo on the left was shot during the dress rehearsal and is a mirror reflecting the Beatles over the head of the audience of 2,500. One camera is shooting the crowd and one cameraman with his back to us is shooting the band. There were 6 TK30s there for the Miami show, but the only camera on stage was the CBS/Ikegami hand held we saw last week. On the right is a shot of The Deauville Hotel on Saturday, the day before the show and the crowds are already huge. Yesterday Betty Forster who was a Sullivan production secretary told me how hard it was for staff to get into Studio 50 on Saturday and Sunday the week before in New York, but the Miami mob scene was just incredible. The fire department had a hook and ladder at the hotel because girls were literally climbing the walls of the hotel to get inside. Barbara said the one work that would best describe the Miami show is “overwhelming”. Not only for the staff, but so was everything else, including the hotel’s power, air conditioning and security force. Generators had to be brought in to run the production truck as the hotel power source became unstable. Adding all the stage light heat to an unusually hot day and two audiences of 2,500 each, the air conditioning was straining and this was a problem. Mitzi Gaynor who was also on the show was shiny with perspiration in rehearsals and make up people were constantly adding powder to all the entertainers. The owner of the hotel wrote in a telegram to Sullivan that the security force was double the size of the one on hand for a visit from President Kennedy the year before, but as we’ll see later in this week, that still wasn’t enough. At the New York show, the camera crew had learned the hard way to do exactly what they did in rehearsals because you could not hear anything in the headsets because of all the screaming.

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Beatles 50th Sullivan Anniversary Count Down…7 Days

The more I dig into the details, the more interesting this story becomes. Most of us never knew George Harrison was very sick with the flu and up till the last minute, it was 50/50 on whether he would be able to perform. As I had posted before, Beatles road manager Neil Aspinall (left photo) stood in for Harrison at the short Saturday camera rehearsal (Feb 8, 1:30) and again at the 9:30 AM rehearsal, BUT…there was a “stand in” for “the stand in”! During the Sunday morning rehearsal, manager Brian Epstein rushed Aspinall back to the hotel to deal with a crises. Harrison’s sister, Louise, who’d been taking care of him, couldn’t get past security back into the Plaza Hotel with medicine she had just picked up. It was a mob scene and, the band was in danger of being booted out of the Plaza due the arrival of thousands of teenagers outside. In the center and right photos, we see Sulliavn’s 29 year old Vince Calandra standing in for Aspinall and Harrison. Vince started in the mail room, moved to Q cards and at this point, was an associate producer. He later said in his 14 years with Sullivan, no one had ever asked to go into the control room to see a playback of their rehearsal, but The Beatles did. Years later, Ringo recalled how bad the sound was and how hard they had to work with the audio people to improve the sound they started with. That’s the reason the 2:30 dress rehearsal lasted almost 2 hours and nearly pushed back the 4:30 taping of the February 23 show.

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