Gourt Home::Gourt :: Ed Sullivan Theater
The Ed Sullivan Theater is a venerable radio and television studio in New York City. The 1200-seat theatre — of which 400 seats are currently used for TV audiences — has been used as a venue for live and taped CBS broadcasts since 1936. It is located at 1697 Broadway in Manhattan.
It is best known as the longtime home of The Ed Sullivan Show, though since 1993, it has been the home for The Late Show with David Letterman.
First 66 years
The facility was designed by architect Herbert J. Krapp. It was built by Arthur Hammerstein in 1927 and named after his father, Oscar Hammerstein I. It later went by the Manhattan Theater, Billy Rose's Music Hall, and the Manhattan once again. In the 1930s, it became a popular nightclub; after CBS obtained a long-term lease on the property, the network began broadcasting from there in 1936. It had various names during the network's tenancy, including Radio Theater #3 and the CBS Radio Playhouse. It was converted for television in 1950, when it became CBS-TV Studio 50.
The theater was renamed for Sullivan at the beginning of the 1967-68 season, though it is still TV Studio 50 in CBS's numerical list of New York television facilities, according to both the network and the actors' monthly Ross Reports. Sullivan, who started hosting his variety show from the Maxine Elliott Theatre (CBS Studio 51) on 39th Street in 1948, moved to Studio 50 a few years later.
In the 1960s, Studio 50 was one of CBS's busiest stages -- not only for Sullivan's program but also for several quiz shows. What's My Line?, To Tell the Truth and Password called the studio home after CBS began broadcasting regularly in color (they had usually been taped around the corner at CBS-TV Studio 52, now the disco-theatre Studio 54). Line and Truth remained at Studio 50 even after they moved from CBS to first-run syndication in the late 1960s and early 70s. The programs eventually moved to NBC's Radio City Studios at Rockefeller Center.
Probably because both were CBS stages in the 1950s and 60s, Studio 50 once had access to Studio 52, the current Studio 54, through an access door which was cinder-blocked during the Ed Sullivan Theater's Letterman renovation.
The Ed Sullivan Theater was also the first home for $10,000 Pyramid" target="_blank" >*, with its huge end-game board at the rear of the set, in 1973. Other short-lived game shows produced at the Ed included "Musical Chairs" with singer Adam Wade (1975), Shoot For The Stars with Geoff Edwards (1977), and Pass the Buck with Bill Cullen (1978). It is believed the last two game shows taped at the Sullivan were pilots of "White Star Block Out", and "Trip-Up", which never made it to CBS's daytime schedule.
During its tenure as a Reeves Entertainment teletape facility, it hosted the sitcom Kate & Allie.
The Late Show
When David Letterman switched networks from NBC to CBS in 1993, CBS bought the theatre it had leased for nearly sixty years and had it reconfigured into a more intimate 400-seat studio, with lighting and sound adjustments. The architectural firm that did the work, Polshek Partnership, notes on its website that "to preserve the architectural integrity of the landmark, all interventions are reversible."
In 2005, it took nearly four months to retrofit the theater with the cabling and equipment necessary to broadcast high definition television.
External links and sources
- Entry for the venue from the Internet Broadway Database
- The Ed Sullivan Theater, from the Polshek Partnership website
- The Ed Sullivan Theater from the Building Conservation Associates website
Broadway theatres | Buildings and structures in Manhattan | CBS television network | David Letterman | Landmarks in New York City | Television studios
"Ed Sullivan Theater"