Long before HBO turned Sunday night into TV-monoculture ground zero, there was Ed Sullivan. Born in Harlem and raised in Port Chester, New York, the sportswriter, syndicated columnist and radio-program personality was tapped by CBS to host a weekly variety show for the television network. The master of ceremonies had a few ideas about what he wanted to do. For starters, there were a handful of old-timey vaudeville acts that, by 1948, had no place left to perform. Sullivan felt they deserved a home, and this new medium would provide it. He believed that viewers across America deserved to experience the finest — and the most eccentric — culture that New York City had to offer, all from the comfort of their living rooms. And he wanted to showcase a lot of music. Specifically, Black music.

Everyone knows the stories about the respective Ed Sullivan Show appearances of Elvis and the Beatles, and how his immensely popular Sunday night program inspired several generations to pick up guitars, grow their hair long, and play rock & roll. What’s less talked about is the way that Sullivan’s “rilly big sheew” gave Mahalia Jackson, Harry Belafonte, James Brown, the Jackson 5, “Little” Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Diana Ross, Bo Diddley, Tina Turner, Nat King Cole, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Jackie Wilson and dozens of other Black artists a chance to speak to a national audience, notably at a moment when some parts of America wanted to isolate them or silence them altogether. And this is where Sunday Best comes in.

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