An Exclusive From The Eddie Brinkmann Archives…Part 2

This is a rare run sheet for ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ for St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, 1957 which explains a the Irish theme. In green is the autograph of Dublin’s Lord Mayor Robert Briscoe. Yogi Bera was at the theater that night and after learning that Briscoe was the first Jewish mayor of Dublin was head to exclaim “Only In America”! Robert Mitchum was there that night to promote his new movie with Deborah Kerr, “Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison” and as you can see, actually sang a couple of times including a number with the Ames Brothers. Jo, Jac and Joni are an English musical comedy act. Along the way, we’ll see other run sheets, but this is the only clean one…all the others are filled with notes and last minute changes. Thanks again do Eddie’s granddaughter Dee Wexler for sharing these rare momentous with us.

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Another Look At The Sullivan Theater Balcony

Thanks to Dennis Degan, we got some new information on the balcony at Studio 50. In the comment section, I am posting an enormous photo of the balcony as it looked in 1927 and in that, you can see how big it was. I said yesterday that I thought the Letterman remodeling had removed the first tier, but as it turns out, that is backward. As you can see in the color photo, the upper balcony is now closed in and that space is used as a set. The photo on the left is from the late 80s and shows another view of the balcony and an awful lighting grid over part of the stage. There was a period of years after CBS sold the theater that it was used as a general production house. CBS had taken their equipment out including the lighting grids when they sold it. Hopefully we’ll have some photos of the mystery space soon.

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Ever See This Before? Me Either!

I acquired this and the other two very rare photos in the comment section Sunday afternoon, just hours before I saw them on the 8 o’clock CBS concert special. This black Mylar set was the first one up for the Beatles Saturday morning rehearsal. You can see Neal Aspinall standing in for George Harrison, so this was at the very start of the day as Aspinall was soon relieved of stand in duty by Vince Calandra. On seeing this, Sullivan immediately nixed Bill Bohnert’s set saying, “this is the Ed Sullivan show, not the Beatles show”.

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An Exclusive From The Eddie Brinkmann Archives…Part 1

How’s this for a resume? To help you get to know more about Eddie’s amazing carrier, that covers Broadway and television, I thought we should start with is resume. The first page (left) and half covers a lot of big names in theater, but be sure and take a look at the bottom of page two (middle) and all of page 3. The shows he stage managed are some of the biggest in television. Although he worked with Sullivan 23 years, that was usually just on Saturday and Sundays. The rest of the week he was stage managing other shows, including Jackie Gleason, The Ed Murrow Show, Red Buttons, Frank Sinatra and even CBS shows shot on film in NYC like the Phil Silvers and Sargent Bilko shows. How would you like to have references like those at the bottom of page three (right)? Thanks to Dee Wexler, his granddaughter for sharing this. There is much more to come! Please share this with your friends.

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Welcome To An Eyes Of A Generation EXCLUSIVE!

Starting now, we will all be privy to some very interesting facts, details and even a few secrets about ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’, that before now, were never available. Thanks to Dee Wexler, we are going to be able to explore the extraordinary photos and papers left behind by her famous grandfather…Eddie Brinkmann. As Ed Sullivan’s stage manager, Eddie was Sullivan’s right hand man from start till finish. They spent 23 years and 1,054 episodes together creating history on one of televisions most enduring and revered programs. That I know of, no one other than Eddie Brinkmann was there for the entire run of the show. Others came and went, but not Eddie. True, Sullivan did fire him numerous times, but always asked him to come back and among other things, we will see some of those “kiss and make up” letters. There are a lot of interesting things to come, including lots of Sullivan show schedule sheets, never before seen photos and more. I have sent some of the photos to former Sullivan staffers for help on putting names with faces and as we go, I’ll depend on your help too. Please share these posts so that your friends will not miss out.

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Ed Sullivan…A View From The Control Room

On the left is director John Wray and I’m not sure who the others are at this console. From the stage, this would be in to back left corner behind the audience and I think the booth was entered from a door that would be to the left of John Wray. This is a rehearsal with ventriloquist Rickie Layne but it’s interesting that only a couple of monitors have camera feeds. Perhaps other monitors out of range on the right are showing more. I think in the radio days, the audio booth was isolated but is now accessible from the control room.

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The Studio 50 Audio Booth

On the left you see the new audio booth built in 1936 when CBS took over the theater for use as a radio studio. In 1950, it was converted to a television studio. On the right, Lucy is in rehearsal for a 1956 Sullivan show and behind her, you see the audio booth again. Between the booth and stage, some audience seats had been removed to make room for The Ray Bloch Orchestra. The control room was at the back of the house on this same side and would be just behind the RCA TK30.

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A Rare View Of ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’

This is the only photo I know of that shows the RCA television projection system in use at Studio 50. The screen is roughly 16 x 19 and gives a good look at the broadcast image to those in the upper balcony. The balcony was built as a two tier affair with an upper and lower section separated by a an isle. On the night The Beatles played, there was a camera in the balcony isle and most of the screaming girl shots were from that camera. If you look closely at the lower left, in silhouette, you can see what looks like a camera there now and this is possibly a regular position for one of the six cameras. This photo is from a regular, non Beatles show. The act is Rickie Layne and his wooden friend Velvel. The lower portion of the balcony was removed when the Letterman remodeling took place. By the way, notice the RCA TK30 just above the projection head. It is atop of the stage right scaffold mentioned here last week. Also, you can just barley see a few of the orchastra members on the bottom right.

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Waaaaaaaaaay Down Memory Lane…

This is The Ed Sullivan Theater in 1928 as we look south from 54th Street. At the time, it was The Hammerstein Theater and had only been open about a year. The marquee display is for “Good Boy” which ran from September 5, 1928 till April 13, 1929 and starred Charles Butterworth and Evelyn Bennett. Busby Berkley choreographed, Arthur Hammerstein produced and Reginald Hammerstein directed. Thanks to our friend Rick Sheckman for the photo.

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“In The Bucket”

With the exception of the Chapman Electra in NBC’s 8H, there are virtually no crane cameras left in modern broadcast studios, but back in the day, when they were in wide use, the cameraman on the crane’s position was referred to as “in the bucket”. I suspect, but don’t know, that the term came from the bucket seats and sitting in one of them for several hours sure beats standing behind a pedestal camera. This is a great shot of Studio 50s Houston Fearless 30B crane shooting Ringo at the afternoon taping of the Beatles inserts for the February 23rd show. This may be Pat McBride in the bucket operating one of the six Marconi Mark IVs.

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A Hard Day’s Night…The Party After “The Really Big Show”

February 9th had been a very long, but amazing work day for The Beatles. To celebrate, NY DJ Murray The K took the boys clubbing. The night’s first stop (left) was the Playboy Club, but after they had seen the bunnies, they left for a much hipper joint, The Peppermint Lounge (right). That I know of, Ringo is the only one that twisted the night away on the dance floor, but a good time was had by all and the party ended around 4AM when Murray parted ways with them at the now quiet Plaza Hotel. How would you like to own this autographed postcard?

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It Was 50 Years Ago, Today…

Here is the CBS press release on the Beatles debut on Ed Sullivan and the TV Guide listing for the Los Angeles area. Thanks to David Schwartz at GSN for the TV Guide page. Tomorrow, a wrap up of a few very interesting weeks for me and, what The Beatles did after the show! I hope you enjoy all of tonight’s events! The bottom of the TV Guide page is interesting and was just a few months after that awful day in Dallas. Back then, there was no internet, DVD, VHS tape…nothing but books and 8mm home film for private consumption of major events of the day. My how times have changed! A good smart phone can do it all now.

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Without The Cameras, It Would’ve Been A Radio Show…

Below are a couple of shots of my Marconi Mark IV camera. It is one of only four known to exist in the US. Less than a dozen exist world wide. The night The Beatles performed for the first time in the US, six of these were in use at CBS Studio 50. In 1950, Studio 50 was transformed from a CBS radio studio to a television studio and was equipped with RCA TK30 cameras. ‘The Jackie Gleason Show’ moved from DuMont to CBS and Studio 50 in Sept 1952…Ed Sullivan moved from The Maxine Elliot Theater (CBS Studio 51) in fall 1953 and soon after, RCA TK31s were installed. Around 1962, CBS began using the new Marconi Mark IV cameras at Television City and Studio 50 was the first installation of these fine cameras in New York. My camera is an exact replica of those used fifty years ago tonight to make television history. To see where the Sullivan cameras wound up, see the next post on this page.

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Jimmy’s Last Late Night…

Here’s the monologue from last nights final show. At the end of the show, Fallon walked out of 6A and down the hall to 6B, the new Tonight Show home where he was greeted by his cheering staff. Break a leg Jimmy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1S86FiI3HY

In his last Late Night monologue, Jimmy recognizes some milestones over the years and expresses his gratitude to the staff and crew. Subscribe NOW to Late Ni…

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Thanks For The Tickets Daddy!

On the left is Nancy Cronkite and on the right, sister Kathy with Paul and Ringo after the Saturday rehearsal. I wonder if Walter brought them? The girls returned Sunday night for the live show. There is a story that Jack Paar’s daughter Randi, brought Julie and Tricia Nixon to the show, but the story is not true. One guest at the Sunday dress rehearsal was Leonard Bernstein.

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Hot Off The Press…New York Times

This week, I had the pleasure of meeting and comparing notes with reporter James Barron, who’s article in today’s New York Times appears at this link. Like me, he’s been doing a lot of deep digging through fifty year old details to uncover some of the people and circumstances that surrounded one of America’s most memorable and transformative Sunday nights…The Beatles first appearance on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’. Enjoy!

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/08/nyregion/the-beatles-debut-on-ed-sullivan.html?hpw&rref=nyregion&_r=0

The Beatles’ Debut on ‘Ed Sullivan’

Fifty years later, audience members who were present at the birth of Beatlemania remember the electric atmosphere and the screaming.

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Hail And Farewell Old Friend…

Johnny Carson would have been proud of the way Jay Leno continued the legacy of ‘The Tonight Show’. So would Steve Allen, Jack Paar and the man who had the vision to bring it to life in 1954…NBC’s Pat Weaver. On September 24, the show will celebrate it’s 60th Anniversary. Last night’s show was something special and Billy Crystal was the perfect friend to help Jay bring it in for a very sweet and heart felt final landing.

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