The Beatles Play The Ed Sullivan Show

On February 9, 1964, the Beatles stepped onto the stage at CBS Studio 50 in New York City to make their live American television debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. Over seventy-three million viewers tuned in, setting a nationwide broadcast record at the time. A studio audience of barely over seven hundred gathered inside an auditorium that had received fifty thousand ticket requests, far exceeding the seven thousand inquiries logged for Elvis Presley eight years earlier. The broadcast catapulted four young musicians from Liverpool into the center of American popular culture, setting off the phenomenon known as Beatlemania across the country.

The path to this broadcast took shape in the autumn of 1963. Variety host Ed Sullivan witnessed crowds of screaming fans greeting the Beatles at London Airport, now Heathrow, upon their return from Sweden on October 31. Intrigued by the public fervor, Sullivan initiated talks with the band's manager, Brian Epstein. Meeting at the Hotel Delmonico in Manhattan on November 11, the two men settled on a deal for three appearances, two live broadcasts and one pre-recorded set. Accounts of the fee differ, but it is usually reported as about ten thousand dollars in total, plus expenses. Demand grew rapidly when Capitol Records rush-released the single I Want to Hold Your Hand in late December, pushing the record to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 before the group even touched down at John F. Kennedy International Airport on February 7.