The King of Rock and Roll teamed up with TV’s reigning variety
program, as Elvis Presley (21) appeared on “The Ed Sullivan
Show” for the first time on September 9, 1956.        

With 60 million viewers—or 82.6 percent of TV viewers at the time—tuning in, the appearance garnered the show’s best
ratings in two years and became the most-watched TV
broadcast of the 1950s.

Although “The Ed Sullivan Show” was filmed in New York,
Presley performed remotely from CBS’s Los Angeles
studio because he was filming his first movie, Love Me
Tender, in California. 

  
Ed and Elvis