(CNN) Two of them watched on television. One of them was on television. And one of them was helping make television.

Andrew Solt, Ken Ehrlich, Debra Supnik and Vince Calandra were all part of the massive audience who watched The Beatles on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” Solt and Ehrlich were part of the then-record 73 million people who gathered around CBS that Sunday evening, February 9, 1964. Supnik was in the studio audience, one of 728 lucky souls. And Calandra, part of the Sullivan production staff, watched from offstage — when he wasn’t hustling to keep the show going.

Fifty years have passed since that day. Since then, the cultural world has splintered into countless pieces. The Sullivan show was one of the last vestiges of a time before our atomized society, points out pop culture expert Robert Thompson.

Read More: http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/07/showbiz/beatles-ed-sullivan-four-lives/index.html