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  Date / Time: 5/31/2009 7:30 PM UTC

  SUNDAYS WITH SULLIVAN :: Bernie Ilson
  

  Kate Sullivan interviews author Bernie Ilson who wrote his new book as his dissertation for his PhD.
  Title: SUNDAYS WITH SULLIVAN: HOW THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW BROUGHT ELVIS, THE BEATLES, AND CULTURE TO AMERICA.
  

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  Ed Sullivan, who could not sing, dance, or act, was TV's greatest showman in its early years.
  For 23 years, from 1948 to 1971, he hosted America's premiere variety show every Sunday night on CBS, on which he introduced an eclectic array of talent that included everything from opera singers to dancing bears to Elvis Presley and the Beatles.
  
  This book is an inside view of The Ed Sullivan Show and the unusual story of one of the most unlikely television stars who played host to such diverse talents as Van Cliburn, Rudolf Nureyev, Robert Goulet, Richard Pryor, and The Rolling Stones. With his distinctive nasal voice, Sullivan regularly promised audiences a really big shew and delivered by offering up virtually every form of twentieth-century entertainment. Bernie Ilson, the Sullivan show's P.R. man for eight years, takes us on a trip down memory lane to revisit one of the most popular shows in television history.
  

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  From Publishers Weekly

  For more than two decades, Ed Sullivan's Sunday night show was, especially for fledgling stars like Elvis Presley and the Beatles, both a hallmark of success and the greatest exposure an act could get. Few people, however, appreciate the sizable cultural impact Sullivan's show had with regards to its commitment to color-blind booking and "high culture" acts from the worlds of opera, ballet and the theater. Buoyed by interviews with producers and executives, Ilson returns to the same few points: high culture bits were popular, but in small doses; Sullivan was not a great host, but a fantastic booker; and Sullivan's success was largely due to his experience in news media.
  Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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  Bernie Ilson, President

  Bernie Ilson was born and raised in New York City and attended school there. He graduated with honors from Brooklyn College, and received his Master of Arts Degree from Columbia University. He recently earned a Ph.D degree in Communications from New York University. Prior to opening his own agency, Ilson was a writer for National Broadcasting Company and a senior executive with Rogers & Cowan. He has taught Public Relations at Baruch College of the City University of New York. Ilson is a member of the Public Relations Society of America and the Writers Guild of America, and is listed in the current Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the World. In addition to The Ed Sullivan Show, Bernie Ilson's client list includes:

  
  

  Liberty Mutual Group
  On Sight Media
  Ed Sullivan Show
  NBC-TV
  Motown Records
  

  The Missoula Children's Theatre
  Tony Bennett
  B.B. King
  Simon and Schuster
  The Beatles on Ed Sullivan
  All In The Family

  
  

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  • Tags:
  • Ed Sullivan
  • Elvis Presley
  • The Beatles
  • Bernie Ilson
  • The Ed Sullivan Show
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