Twenty-three years after its 1948 premiere, "The Ed Sullivan
Show" had its final broadcast on June 6, 1971.

For more than two decades, Sullivan’s variety show was the
premiere television showcase for entertainers of all stripes,
including borscht-belt comedians, plate-spinning vaudeville
throwbacks and, most significantly, some of the biggest and
most current names in rock ‘n’ roll.

In its first eight years of existence, there was no such thing as
rock ‘n’ roll to be featured on the program originally called
"Toast of the Town," yet even its first broadcast made music
history when Broadway composers Richard Rodgers and
Oscar Hammerstein II gave the world its first taste of the score
from their upcoming musical, South Pacific.

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

After earning big ratings for “The Steve Allen Show,” the
Dorsey Brothers “Stage Show” and “The Milton Berle Show,”
Sullivan finally reneged on his Presley ban, signing the
controversial singing star to an unprecedented $50,000 contract
for three appearances.

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.

   Ed Sullivan

Martha Raye (born Margy Reed)
(August 27, 1916 – October 19, 1994)

On February 7, 1964, Pan Am Yankee Clipper flight 101 from London Heathrow lands at New York’s Kennedy Airport—and “Beatlemania” arrived. It was the first visit to the United States by the Beatles, a
British rock-and-roll quartet that had just scored its first No. 1 U.S. 
hit six days before with “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”

At Kennedy, the “Fab Four”—dressed in mod suits and sporting their trademark pudding bowl haircuts—were greeted by 3,000 screaming
fans who caused a near riot when the boys stepped off their plane
and onto American soil.

Two days later, Paul McCartney, age 21, Ringo Starr, 23, John
Lennon, 23, and George Harrison, 20, made their first appearance
on the Ed Sullivan Show.

The Beatles 1st American press conference.