(Sullivan (engineering director for a private company) des...)
Sullivan (engineering director for a private company) describes a model for creating, directing, and leading a successful software development team. He outlines specific techniques and describes established practices. Advice is offered on recruiting and retaining personnel, building the right organizational structure, and creating the right corporate culture for software development. Project planning, execution, and closure are all detailed, and the necessary tools and methods identified. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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Ryan is a young man, eager to share the happy memories ...)
Ryan is a young man, eager to share the happy memories of a visit to the seashore with his sister, Emma. The six-day visit with Uncle Ed still influences his life. The days were filled with fun, adventure and learning. An appreciation for the unending wonders of the seashore is the gift Ryan offers in Spindrift Memories.
(Hungry tells the story of the Sullivan clan, who lived in...)
Hungry tells the story of the Sullivan clan, who lived in Rough Edge, Clebit, and Pickens, Oklahoma, from 1910 to 1962. Why "Hungry"? Because they always were... But that hunger-both for food and a desire to achieve more-pushed the Sullivan kids to reach further than they ever thought possible. Growing up in a harsh environment, the family suffered physical ailments and deprivation, but every one of the Sullivan children will agree: If not for their upbringing in the Clebit/Pickens area, they would not have had the courage and tenacity to accomplish what they have. Their father instilled a strong work ethic in his children, and their mother knew the value of a good education. The Sullivans were taught the value of hard work, sacrifice, and adaptability by not only their parents but by the community, the school, and the church. Hungry is a nostalgic memoir and a fascinating snapshot of American history. It's also a reminder that hard work, respect for others, and honoring your word can take you far. About the Author: The author, Sam L. Sullivan, spent his youth in a small isolated timber town in Southeastern Oklahoma. This book is a collection of stories from the Sullivan family during the first six decades of the twentieth century. The stories reflect the values held, not only by the Sullivan's of that area, but the values of the community members in those small towns as well. There is a reason for calling this book, "Hungry." Calling the book, "Hungry," has to do with food yes, but more so about the lessons learned that kept us hungry to achieve more in life.
Edward Vincent "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.
Background
Edward was born on September 28, 1901 in Harlem, then an Irish neighborhood in New York City, United States, the son of Peter Arthur Sullivan and Elizabeth Smith. His father was an employee of the New York Custom House in lower Manhattan. When Ed's twin brother and then an older sister died, the Sullivans decided that New York City was not a healthy place to raise a family. They moved to Port Chester, New York, a suburb in Westchester County, only twenty-six miles from Manhattan but a great distance socially and psychologically.
Education
Sullivan attended St. Mary's Parochial School and Port Chester High School, where he did his best work in English classes; he particularly liked, he said, the adventure-filled novels of Sir Walter Scott. Sullivan was also an excellent athlete, earning varsity letters in three different sports.
Career
Sullivan graduated in 1917 and, seeking to broaden his world, he ran away to Chicago to join the U. S. Navy, but he could not produce a birth certificate and was turned down for being too young. He worked briefly in the Illinois Central Railroad yards, until the cold winter drove him home. Sullivan went to work for the Port Chester Daily Item, where he covered local high school sports. This was the beginning of his lifelong career of writing for newspapers.
An opportunity for bigger things led him to the Hartford Post, but the paper closed down at the end of his first week. Despite his inexperience, he soon got a job with the Evening Mail in New York City, where his famous colleagues included Rube Goldberg and the "Believe It or Not" man, Robert Ripley.
His assignment again was to cover high school athletics. When he was sent to cover a dog show at Madison Square Garden, he wrote about it in such an engaging way that he received his first New York byline.
He went to work, writing mostly about sports, at many New York newspapers, including the Evening Graphic, the Morning World, the Morning Bulletin, and the Telegraph. He also wrote for the Philadelphia Bulletin and the Associated Press. About this time, Sullivan began frequenting the nightclubs of Manhattan, where he came into contact with many sports figures, showgirls, and actors. He said of them, "It was a pretty rough citizenry inhabiting the town at the time, " but in this period he began his lifelong association with theater people.
During World War II, Sullivan organized benefits at Madison Square Garden for charitable organizations that he admired. For the Red Cross he raised almost a quarter of a million dollars, a huge sum at the time, and raised almost as much for Army Emergency Relief.
In 1937, he and his family moved to Hollywood for three years. There he wrote his column and attempted a second career writing and acting in films. This was not a success. For example, the New York Times critic wrote of Ma! He's Making Eyes at Me! , "based on an original story" by Sullivan that it was "a limp and foolish little picture. "
He actually appeared in Big Town Czar in 1939. He had written the script and, in effect, played himself, a columnist who wrote about show biz. The Times again was unkind, noting that "the only word for Ed Sullivan's portrayal of Ed Sullivan is 'unconvincing. ' " Years later, when he was very famous, he said that he had "set Hollywood back thirty years. " This was typical of the way in which he could laugh about his failures.
One night in 1947, Sullivan was acting as master of ceremonies at the Harvest Moon Ball at Madison Square Garden. Unbeknownst to him (he said), it was being televised live. A CBS executive, who had been looking for someone to host a show to compete with Milton Berle's NBC "Texaco Star Theater, " saw Sullivan at work. Admiring his easy and relaxed manner before the camera (a trait he later notably lost), he offered Sullivan the job of host for the new show, "Toast of the Town, " which premiered June 20, 1948.
Among the first guests were Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, then at the height of their fame. Although only six stations carried the show, it marked the beginning of Sullivan's greatest fame and influence, and almost immediately it became a great success. This was due, in part, to the team Sullivan assembled, members of which stayed with him throughout his career in television. Along with singers, dancers, and a wide variety of acts that recalled vaudeville days, "Toast of the Town" also profiled figures important in modern show business, running "The Oscar Hammerstein Story, " "The Cole Porter Story, " and "The Walt Disney Story, " all of which featured the preeminent Broadway actors of the time, except for the Disney story, in which the Three Little Pigs, Peter Pan, and Mickey Mouse starred.
"Toast of the Town" was so successful, earning high fees for CBS from advertisers, and its host so central to the production, that the network renamed it "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1956. Sullivan was given an unheard-of twenty-year contract. He had already insisted on hiring black entertainers, though even entertainment was largely segregated along color lines at the time. He also brought high culture to the American mass audience, introducing them to many of the great figures of the time such as Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn of Britain's Royal Ballet.
He even gave Maria Callas, then the reigning operatic diva, famous for her fiery temperament, eighteen full minutes on the show, but the ratings fell six points in that short time, so future Met stars were lucky to get five minutes. Still, they did appear; this was before public television stations regularly aired operas and ballets. Sullivan introduced huge numbers of people to art forms they might never have seen elsewhere.
In a coup of sorts, he interviewed Fidel Castro, the dictator of Communist Cuba, during a period of escalating Cold War tensions. Under the aegis of the State Department, he took a wide-ranging mix of opera stars, dancers, musicians, and comics to Moscow and Leningrad in 1959 when relations between the United States and Russia were severely strained. The shows were a huge success in Russia and in their broadcasts at home. Sullivan may be cited, seriously, as one of the people who helped to humanize the old enemies and begin the process that melted away some of the frightening possibilities of nuclear war.
The popular icons of the era also appeared with Sullivan. He gave the first or very early exposure to such groups as the Beatles; 79 million people watched that show, a number that still ranks as spectacular. He at first overlooked Elvis Presley but not for long. When Presley did appear, however, Sullivan showed his prudish side by making sure that Presley's hips, gyrating and shaking, were never shown. Sullivan's show also influenced television in the establishment of performers' fees
Jack Paar, host of "The Tonight Show, " paid $320 to guests, while Sullivan, for admittedly more famous talent, sometimes paid up to $10, 000. The two men "feuded" about these fees and the public enjoyed the fuss, but Sullivan's higher fees pushed up the cost of producing other shows. In the mid-1960's, "The Ed Sullivan Show" went into a ratings decline; the audience was aging, and the acts booked by the show failed to keep up with the rapid changes in musical taste and social customs of the counterculture.
The Rolling Stones did appear, as did Herman's Hermits, the Stones provoking a near riot at the stage door of the studio, which had been renamed the Ed Sullivan Theater in 1967. Though its popularity declined, the show maintained sets and properties enough to fill a warehouse the size of a full city block.
In 1971, CBS canceled the show, which had become too expensive to produce, though it did maintain a commitment to future specials. Carol Channing, Robert Klein, Gladys Knight, and Topo Gigio, a little Italian mouse puppet whom Sullivan seemed especially to like, were the guests on the final show, which was actually a rerun.
Some compared his face to the figures on Easter Island and his lack of expression earned him the moniker "The Great Stone Face. " He seemed to have little personality, but none of that mattered because the audience seemed to identify with his nervousness, and because he had a great talent for picking and promoting talent.
Though the show's producers (ultimately, one of them was his son-in-law) forbade his making settled arrangements for a guest's appearance without their approval, Sullivan took chances and booked talent that they might have avoided or overlooked.
Only rarely did he seem unduly guided by public opinion; in the late 1950's he avoided presenting acts that might be deemed "anti-American. "
In 1972, "The Sullivan Years" drew a huge TV audience. In 1973, he again scored big ratings as host of "The Entertainer of the Year Awards" from Las Vegas. On March 16, "Ed Sullivan's Broadway" again scored high in the ratings, little comfort to its star, whose wife died the same day.
Ed Sullivan died in New York City, where he had spent almost all of his life.
Achievements
Edward Vincent Sullivan is principally remembered as the creator and host of the television variety program The Toast of the Town, renamed The Ed Sullivan Show. Broadcast for 23 years from 1948 to 1971, it set a record as the longest-running variety show in US broadcast history.
In 1996, Sullivan was ranked number 50 on TV Guide's "50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time". Sullivan was the recipient of many awards. He was elected Abbot of the Friars, an important New York club of theatrical leaders. He was made a Knight of Malta by the Roman Catholic Church and was elected president of Theater Authority, which had been created to protect theater people from being exploited by benefits and charity functions.
(First time in print what Charlie dared not write in his book)
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
Bing Crosby said, for example, "While he doesn't sing, dance or tell jokes, he does them equally well. "
As TV critic David Bianculli wrote, "Before MTV, Sullivan presented rock acts. Before Bravo, he presented jazz and classical music and theater. Before the Comedy Channel, even before there was the Tonight Show, Sullivan discovered, anointed and popularized young comedians. Before there were 500 channels, before there was cable, Ed Sullivan was where the choice was. From the start, he was indeed 'the Toast of the Town'. "
Connections
It was at one such nightclub that he met Sylvia Weinstein, who was not associated with show business. They were married on April 28, 1930, and had one child. Through forty-two years of marriage Sylvia Sullivan was always supportive of her husband's work, accompanying him to clubs and overlooking late night hours and a life spent almost entirely in hotels. She died on March 16, 1973.
