[7] Sullivan was raised in Port Chester, New York, where the family lived in a small red brick home at 53 Washington Street.

Sullivan 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.

"[10] Sullivan landed 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.

Throughout his career as a columnist, Sullivan had dabbled in entertainment, producing vaudeville shows with which he appeared as master of ceremonies in the 1920s and 1930s, directing a radio program over the original WABC and organizing benefit reviews for various causes.

In 1941, Sullivan became host of the Summer Silver Theater, a variety program on CBS, with Will Bradley as bandleader and a guest star featured each week.

[14] Time in 1955 stated that Sullivan resembled "a cigar-store Indian, the Cardiff Giant and a stone-faced monument just off the boat from Easter Island.

He moves like a sleepwalker; his smile is that of a man sucking a lemon; his speech is frequently lost in a thicket of syntax; his eyes pop from their sockets or sink so deep in their bags that they seem to be peering up at the camera from the bottom of twin wells.

Sullivan had a healthy sense of humor about himself and permitted and even encouraged impersonators such as John Byner, Frank Gorshin, Rich Little and especially Will Jordan to imitate him on his show.

The impressionists exaggerated his stiffness, raised shoulders and nasal tenor phrasing, along with some of his commonly used introductions, such as "And now, right here on our stage ...", "For all you youngsters out there ..." and "a really big shew" (his pronunciation of the word "show").

Jordan portrayed Sullivan in the films I Wanna Hold Your Hand, The Buddy Holly Story, The Doors, Mr. Saturday Night, Down with Love and in the 1979 television movie Elvis.

In November 1963, while at Heathrow Airport, Sullivan witnessed the Beatlemania spectacle as the band returned from Sweden and the terminal was overrun by screaming teens.

In 1969, Sullivan presented the Jackson 5 with their first single "I Want You Back", which ousted Thomas' song from the top spot of the Billboard Hot 100.

According to biographer Gerald Nachman, "Most TV variety shows welcomed 'acceptable' [B]lack superstars like Louis Armstrong, Pearl Bailey and Sammy Davis Jr. ... but in the early 1950s, long before it was fashionable, Sullivan was presenting the much more obscure [B]lack entertainers he had enjoyed in Harlem on his uptown rounds — legends like Peg Leg Bates, Pigmeat Markham and Tim Moore ... strangers to white America.

"Sullivan had to fend off his hard-won sponsor, Ford's Lincoln dealers, after kissing Pearl Bailey on the cheek and daring to shake Nat King Cole's hand," Nachman wrote.

Sullivan appeared as himself on other television programs, including an April 1958 episode of the Howard Duff and Ida Lupino CBS situation comedy Mr. Adams and Eve.

"[32] "Armed with an Irish temper and thin skin," wrote Nachman, "Ed brought to his feuds a hunger for combat fed by his coverage of, and devotion to, boxing.

A reporter who was there at the time described what happened: "Controversy raged at the CBS Studio 57, last Sunday ... in a verbal battle that started over one of the performer's refusal to do a number on the telecast which Sullivan had requested.

During the dress rehearsal, Bo Diddley ... agreed to do "Sixteen Tons," as Marlo Lewis, Toast of the Town's Executive Producer and Sullivan had requested.

However, at 8:29 PM, as Sullivan went into commercial, the folk singer hurried to the side of Ray Block, musical director, to announce he had 'changed his mind' and was going to do "Diddley Daddy".

[35] Later, Diddley resented that Elvis Presley, whom he accused of copying his revolutionary style and beat, received the attention and accolades on Sullivan's show that he felt were rightfully his.

"But Jagger prevailed," wrote Nachman, by deliberately calling attention to the censorship, rolling his eyes, mugging, and drawing out the word "t-i-i-i-me" as he sang the revised lyric.

[50][2] Moe Howard of the Three Stooges recalled in 1975 that Sullivan had a memory problem of sorts: "Ed was a very nice man, but for a showman, quite forgetful.

In a 1995 appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman (taped in the Ed Sullivan Theater), Ross stated, "he could never remember our names.

Tap dancer Paul Draper's scheduled January 1950 appearance on Toast of the Town met with opposition from Hester McCullough, an activist in the hunt for what she perceived as subversives.

Sullivan wrote in his June 21, 1950, Daily News column that "Kirkpatrick has sat in my living room on several occasions and listened attentively to performers eager to secure a certification of loyalty.

No concern was voiced by anyone, including Sullivan, during rehearsals; but on the day of the broadcast, CBS's Standards and Practices department rejected the song, fearing that lyrics equating the Society's views with those of Adolf Hitler might trigger a defamation lawsuit.

In 1956, actress Ingrid Bergman was planning a return to Hollywood with the film Anastasia after living in exile in Europe since 1950 in the wake of her scandalous love affair with director Roberto Rossellini.

When Sullivan arrived back in New York, Standards and Practices informed him that under no circumstances would Bergman be permitted to appear on the show, either live or on film.

Initially she told her family that she was dating a Jewish man named Ed Solomon, but her brother discovered it was Sullivan, who was Catholic.