Media Personalities

Ed Sullivan Biography

Ed Sullivan was an American television personality, sports and entertainment reporter, and syndicated columnist for the New York Daily News and the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate. Sullivan was born on September 28, 1901, in Manhattan, New York, U.S., and died on  October 13, 1974, in Manhattan, New York, U.S.

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10 Quick Facts About Ed Sullivan

• Name: Edward Vincent Sullivan
• Age: 73 years (dead)
• Birthday: September 28
• Zodiac Sign: Libra
• Height: 171 cm
• Nationality: American
• Occupation: Television Personality, Sports and Entertainment Reporter, and Columnist
• Marital Status: Deceased
• Salary: Under Review
• Net worth: $20 million

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How Old Was Ed Sullivan When He Died, Ed Sullivan Age

Sullivan was born on September 28, 1901, in Harlem, Manhattan, New York, USA, and grew up in Port Chester, New York. His parents were Elizabeth F. (née Smith) and Peter Arthur Sullivan, a customs house employee, all of Irish descent. As at the time of his death in 1974, Ed Sullivan was 73 years old.

Ed Sullivan Death

• X-ray examination in early September 1974, revealed that Sullivan had an advanced growth of esophageal cancer. The family chose to keep the diagnosis a secret from him even though his doctors gave him very little time to live.
• On the other hand, Sullivan still believed that his ailment was yet another complication from a long-standing battle with gastric ulcers. He died five weeks later on October 13, 1974, at New York’s Lenox Hill Hospital, two weeks after his 73rd birthday.
• His requiem mass was held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York, on a cold, rainy day and the funeral was attended by 3,000. Sullivan was laid to rest in a crypt at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. He stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6101 Hollywood Blvd.

Early Life, Education, and Career Beginning 

• Sullivan was born on 28 September 1901, in Harlem, New York City and raised in Port Chester, New York, where the family lived in a small red brick home at 53 Washington Street.
• He was a gifted athlete in high school, earning 12 athletic letters at Port Chester High School. He played football as a halfback, basketball as a guard as well as a track as a sprinter. With the baseball team, he was a catcher and the team’s captain, leading the team to several championships.
• He noted that, in the state of New York, integration was taken for granted in high-school sports: “When we went up into Connecticut, we ran into clubs that had Negro players. In those days this was accepted as commonplace; and so, my instinctive antagonism years later to any theory that a Negro wasn’t a worthy opponent or was an inferior person. It was just as simple as that.”
• Sullivan got his first job at The Port Chester Daily Item, a local newspaper for which he had written sports news while in high school and which he joined full-time after graduation. In the year 1919, he joined The Hartford Post, but the newspaper folded in his first week there. Later, he worked for The New York Evening Mail as a sports reporter.

Rise to Fame and Breakthrough Moment

• Sullivan was best knwn as the master of ceremonies for the immensely popular early TV variety program known as Toast of the Town (1948–55) and later as The Ed Sullivan Show (1955–71).
• In the fall of 1965, CBS began televising its weekly programs in color. Although the Sullivan Show was seen live in the Central and Eastern time zones, it was taped for airing in the Pacific and Mountain time zones. Excerpts have been released on home video as well as posted on the official Ed Sullivan Show YouTube Channel.
• By 1971, the show’s ratings had plummeted. To refresh the CBS lineup, CBS canceled the program in March 1971, alongside some of its other long-running shows throughout the 1970–1971 season (later known as the rural purge). Angered, Sullivan refused to host three more months of scheduled shows. They were replaced by reruns, and a final program without him aired in June. He remained with the network in various other capacities and hosted a 25th anniversary special in June 1973.
• Sullivan was diagnosed with an advanced stage of esophageal cancer in early September 1974. Doctors gave him very little time to live, and the family chose to keep the diagnosis secret from him. Sullivan was a lifelong smoker and believed his ailment to be yet another complication from a long-standing battle with gastric ulcers. He passed away on October 13, 1974, at New York’s Lenox Hill Hospital. Sullivan has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6101 Hollywood Blvd. In the year 1985, he was welcomed to the Television Academy Hall of Fame.

Media Affiliations

• In 1948, a producer at the CBS network, Marlo Lewis, got the network to hire Sullivan to do a weekly Sunday-night TV variety show, Toast of the Town. Later, the show became The Ed Sullivan Show.
• Actually, Sullivan was known as the creator and host of the television variety program The Toast of the Town which was then popularly and officially—renamed The Ed Sullivan Show. The show runs from 1948 to 1971, thereby setting a record as the longest-running variety show in US broadcast history having broadcast for 23 years. It is one of our fondest, dearest pop culture memories.
• The show debuted in June 1948 and was originally broadcast from the Maxine Elliott Theatre on West 39th Street in New York City. It moved to CBS-TV Studio 50, at 1697 Broadway (at 53rd Street) in New York City in January 1953, which in 1967 was named again the Ed Sullivan Theater (and was later the home of the Late Show with David Letterman and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert). From 1936 to 1953, Studio 50 was formerly a CBS Radio studio, and before that was the legitimate Hammerstein Theatre, built in 1927.
• The show’s ranking had diminished by 1971. CBS called off the program in March 1971, along with some of its other longtime shows throughout the 1970–1971 season to refresh its lineup. The series of cancelations later came to be known as the rural purge. Sullivan was annoyed and rejected to do a final show,
• While at Heathrow Airport in November 1963, Sullivan witnessed Beatlemania as the band returned from Sweden. Although he was initially reluctant to book the Beatles because the band did not have a commercially successful single released in the US at the time, Sullivan signed the group at the behest of a friend, legendary impresario Sid Bernstein.
• On February 9, 1964, the Beatles’ initial Sullivan Show appearance, was the most-watched program in television history to that point and remains one of the most-watched programs of all time. The Beatles are seen three more times in person and given out filmed performances later.

Ed Sullivan Family, Parents

His parents were Elizabeth F. (née Smith) and Peter Arthur Sullivan, a customs house employee, all of Irish descent. However, he named his daughter the name of his mother who had passed that year.

Ed Sullivan Wife

Ed Sullivan was engaged to champion swimmer Sybil Bauer. However, the couple never married as Bauer died of cancer in 1927 at the age of 23. Sullivan met and began dating Sylvia Weinstein in 1926. Weinstein tried to lie to her Jewish family, saying that she was dating a man named Ed Solomon, but her brother figured out she meant Ed Sullivan.

The affair was on-again-off-again for three years as both families were strongly opposed to a Catholic–Jewish marriage. Against the odds, the couple was finally married on April 28, 1930, in a City Hall ceremony, and 8 months later Sylvia gave birth to Elizabeth (“Betty”), named after Sullivan’s mother, who had died that year.

Ed Sullivan Children

Ed Sullivan and his wife Sylvia had one child named  Elizabeth “Betty” Precht who was born on Dec. 22, 1930, in New York City and died on Saturday, June 7, 2014. However,  Elizabeth was an American biochemist between the 1920s and 1940s at Russell Miller Milling Company.

Ed Sullivan Net Worth

Ed Sullivan had a net worth of $20 million after adjusting for inflation at the time of his death, he was an American television personality, reporter, and syndicated columnist.

Ed Sullivan Measurements and Facts

Here are some interesting facts and body measurements you should know about Sullivan

Ed Sullivan Bio

• Full Names: Edward Vincent Sullivan
• Popular As: Ed Sullivan
• Gender: Male
• Occupation / Profession: Television Personality, Sports and Entertainment Reporter, and Columnist
• Nationality: American
• Race / Ethnicity: Not Known
• Religion: Not Known
• Sexual Orientation: Straight

Birthday

• Age / How Old?: 73 years (dead)
• Zodiac Sign: Libra
• Date of Birth: September 28, 1901
• Place of Birth: Harlem, Manhattan, New York
• Birthday: September 28th

Body Measurements

• Height / How Tall?: 1.71 m
• Weight: Moderate
• Eye Color: Brown
• Hair Color: Dark Brown
• Chest Size: Not Known
• Waist Size: Not Known
• Arm Size / Biceps Size: Not Known

Family and Relationship

• Father (Dad): Allan Harmon
• Mother: Cynde Harmon
• Siblings (Brothers and Sisters): Jessica Harmon
• Marital Status: Engaged
• Dating / Girlfriend: Rhiannon Fish

Networth and Salary

• Net Worth: $3 million
• Salary: Under Review
• Source of Income: Television Personality, Sports and Entertainment Reporter, and Columnist

Contacts

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