50 years and two days ago...

[brianhenke]

   This past Sunday was the 50th anniversary of the Beatles appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show The show was seen by 73 million viewers. Today, only the Super Bowl gets that number of people (and then some).

   What is little known about that night was that at 10:30, What's My Line? aired live, originating from Studio 52, right near Studio 50 (now the Ed Sullivan Theater), where the Beatles had performed earlier that evening (and earlier in the day for the show that would air February 23). The WML? episode had Bobby Darin as the guest panelist.

   The Beatles were mentioned on that night's show. One of the contestants' occupation was that he made Beatle wigs (for $2.98).

   The mystery guest that night was Jane Fonda, long before she became Hanoi Jane, a workout book author, and  the future Mrs. Ted Turner.

   Within a decade, Darin, Dorothy Kilgallen and Bennett Cerf would all be dead.

   Brian

[PYLdude]

Why is it little known that What's My Line? aired as scheduled following the Ed Sullivan Show, as it usually did on Sunday night?

(allow me to edit to clarify...why is it necessary to link the two events together in this case? People actually care about that episode of Ed's shew back in '64 and a lot of them can still remember where they were when the show was on. There wasn't anything remotely interesting about what followed. Then again, this is Henke and he is known to stretch farther than a rubber band wrapped around the Equator to find a reference...)

[The Ol' Guy]

Makes me wonder if the Beatle wig seller was from the Lowell Toy Company, maker of many of the great home games of the 50s and 60s. I understand the Beatle wigs were one of the last shots from the company before it faded away. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Beatle-Wig-by-Lowell-IN-ORIGINAL-PACKAGE/250730649065?_trksid=p2045573.c100033.m2042&_trkparms=aid%3D111000%26algo%3DREC.RVI%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20192%26meid%3D4754471259244249540%26pid%3D100033%26prg%3D9059%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D4%26sd%3D330745962476

[PYLdude]

Makes me wonder if the Beatle wig seller was from the Lowell Toy Company, maker of many of the great home games of the 50s and 60s. I understand the Beatle wigs were one of the last shots from the company before it faded away. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Beatle-Wig-by-Lowell-IN-ORIGINAL-PACKAGE/250730649065?_trksid=p2045573.c100033.m2042&_trkparms=aid%3D111000%26algo%3DREC.RVI%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20192%26meid%3D4754471259244249540%26pid%3D100033%26prg%3D9059%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D4%26sd%3D330745962476

What the hell is that thing? Yikes.

(assuming it probably looks better on your head than in the bag, as most wigs do.)

[jjman920]

Funny thing is, the CBS Special commemorating the 50th anniversary ran for 2˝ hours, ending at 10:30. Part of me wished a special WML? had been mounted, or the rerun of the original post-Beatles episode had been run just for nostalgia sake. The other part realized how hardly anyone would be interested in it.

Considering that I'm just about tired of all of CBS' sitcoms (I'm still clinging to The Big Bang Theory for some reason), I'd like to have seen something other than The Millers after it.