hite Christmas’s singing and dancing Haynes Sisters represent a mainstay of American entertainment from the time of vaudeville. With the rise of radio, movies, and television, several sets of siblings captured the nation’s imagination. The hands-down champs of the genre were the 40’s stars the Andrew Sisters, with wartime hits such as “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree,” “ Rum and Coca Cola,” and “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.”
Sisters...
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The Fifties saw television and radio favorites, the McGuire Sisters and the sweet-voiced Lennon Sisters who were regulars on the Lawrence Welk Show. By the end of the Sixties, the sister act was virtually dead, overtaken by the shift towards rock and R&B non-related girl groups.
“A really big shew”
In 1948, newspaper columnist Ed Sullivan began hosting a variety show on the fledgling CBS television network. At first called Toast of the Town, the Sunday night show quickly took off in the ratings. As The Ed Sullivan Show, the Sunday night variety show became an American institution. Sullivan’s own stiff performance, odd diction (“Tonight we have a a really big shew for you”), and mangling of performers’ names became standard targets for impressionists. The Ed Sullivan Show was a mixture of every type of entertainment. Broadway stars, hot comedians, and operatic divas shared the stage with acrobats, jugglers, and ventriloquists. In the 1960s, a frequent guest was a puppet mouse called Topo Gigio, who is (anachronistically) referred to in White Christmas. Sullivan was one of the first to realize the power of youth culture on TV and his shows with Elvis and the Beatles are legendary. After 23 years, The Ed Sullivan Show left the air in 1971. In the 1955 film White Christmas, Bob and Phil make an appearance on the “Ed Harrison” TV show. In the stage production, the act will be shown on The Ed Sullivan Show. White Christmas isn’t the only musical using an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show as part of the plot. The 1960 Broadway hit Bye Bye Birdie uses a fictionalized version of an Elvis appearance on the show as its jumping off point. Sullivan himself even appears in the film version. SYRACUSE STAGE White Christmas STUDENT STUDY GUIDE
The Ed Sullivan Show
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