LeonLouisRicci
Joined Apr 2012
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LeonLouisRicci's rating
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LeonLouisRicci's rating
Many Folks, and quite a Number who Should have Known, and if Known , Failed Fans Over-the-Years about the Many Ingredients that Made-Up Ed Sullivan,.
A Seemingly Awkward and Perhaps Undeserving TV-Host...A Showcase Guru that Somehow was There on National-TV. With a Barely-Acceptable Broadcast-Voice and the Jerky, almost Dyslectic Delivery of just a Few Introductory Lines.
He Wowed Them in the Mid-West, as Well as New York and L. A. In a Span of 22 Years, with a 1-Hour Presentation, with Roots in Vaudeville, Made a Lot of People a Lot of Money...and Gave the Masses a Lot-of-Joy.
Maybe it was the Overwhelming Zeitgeist of His Acts, both Big and Small, that were so Powerfully, Professionally Performed, that MC-Ed was Viewed as No More than a Carnival Barker...
"Tonight we have a Really-Big-Shew"...
was about as Colorful as Ed could Muster. In Relation to the Energy His 8pm-Sunday-Night-Show, Viewed as an Irrelevant Presence, in the Public-Mind.
No One Suspected the Machinations and Materialization of a Pitch-Perfect Showcase, Week-after-Week and it was Ed who Put it All Together.
He Called Every Shot, He Booked Every Guest.
A Gauntlet of Guests who Entertained, Mesmerized, and Made Ed's Show "The Toast of the Town", Amassing Legions of Loyal Fans Dutifully Plunked Down on Couches, Chairs, and the Floor Gazing at a 21-in Screen, Staring at Low-Def Images, Grainy, Cramped, Black & White Moving-Pictures Containing Low-Fi Sound from a 3-inch Speaker.
It Seemed Like TV was Some-Sort of Post-Modernist-Miracle. Sent by the Good-Times-Gods for the Pure-Pleasure of it All.
The "Event" Took-Place Religiously Across the Country on Sunday Nights. Usually with many Family Members and Friends to Witness Entertainment History in the Making, or Simply to be just "Entertained".
Consistently at the "Top-of-the Nilson-Ratings, but No One Noticed that No One Noticed this "Ed Sullivan Guy" and No One Cared or outed this Warm, Not Made for the Stage or TV but Insightful, Print-Columnist (Sports & Entertainment) Baby-Boomer Icon. Enigmatic to the Extreme, "Spotting Talent, was always My Forte" He Said.
But it Took Courage, and Took a Lot-of-Heart and a Lot-of-Heat. Not Only From Elvis-the-Pelvis Haters but Especially When Ed Decided, Against-the-Grain, and Against All Odds...to Actively Promote, Showcase, and Gave Warm Invitations to the Sullivan Stage, and an Audience of 24-50 Million......to See...African-American Entertainers Entertain.
Ed Said..."And everyone has a Front-Row-Seat"
That is the Theme of this 90 Min Documentary with Pretty-Much All Other Aspects of the Show Not Included...
So Seekers Beware...this Program is All About Ed's Efforts to Include Black-Entertainers on the Main-Stream-Menu of America's "Exceptionalism".
Despite the Many "Slings and Arrows" Ed Soldiered On, Never Wavering, Standing His Ground. His Tireless Crusade was Ultimately Ultra-Successful and...Paid Off for Everyone.
A Seemingly Awkward and Perhaps Undeserving TV-Host...A Showcase Guru that Somehow was There on National-TV. With a Barely-Acceptable Broadcast-Voice and the Jerky, almost Dyslectic Delivery of just a Few Introductory Lines.
He Wowed Them in the Mid-West, as Well as New York and L. A. In a Span of 22 Years, with a 1-Hour Presentation, with Roots in Vaudeville, Made a Lot of People a Lot of Money...and Gave the Masses a Lot-of-Joy.
Maybe it was the Overwhelming Zeitgeist of His Acts, both Big and Small, that were so Powerfully, Professionally Performed, that MC-Ed was Viewed as No More than a Carnival Barker...
"Tonight we have a Really-Big-Shew"...
was about as Colorful as Ed could Muster. In Relation to the Energy His 8pm-Sunday-Night-Show, Viewed as an Irrelevant Presence, in the Public-Mind.
No One Suspected the Machinations and Materialization of a Pitch-Perfect Showcase, Week-after-Week and it was Ed who Put it All Together.
He Called Every Shot, He Booked Every Guest.
A Gauntlet of Guests who Entertained, Mesmerized, and Made Ed's Show "The Toast of the Town", Amassing Legions of Loyal Fans Dutifully Plunked Down on Couches, Chairs, and the Floor Gazing at a 21-in Screen, Staring at Low-Def Images, Grainy, Cramped, Black & White Moving-Pictures Containing Low-Fi Sound from a 3-inch Speaker.
It Seemed Like TV was Some-Sort of Post-Modernist-Miracle. Sent by the Good-Times-Gods for the Pure-Pleasure of it All.
The "Event" Took-Place Religiously Across the Country on Sunday Nights. Usually with many Family Members and Friends to Witness Entertainment History in the Making, or Simply to be just "Entertained".
Consistently at the "Top-of-the Nilson-Ratings, but No One Noticed that No One Noticed this "Ed Sullivan Guy" and No One Cared or outed this Warm, Not Made for the Stage or TV but Insightful, Print-Columnist (Sports & Entertainment) Baby-Boomer Icon. Enigmatic to the Extreme, "Spotting Talent, was always My Forte" He Said.
But it Took Courage, and Took a Lot-of-Heart and a Lot-of-Heat. Not Only From Elvis-the-Pelvis Haters but Especially When Ed Decided, Against-the-Grain, and Against All Odds...to Actively Promote, Showcase, and Gave Warm Invitations to the Sullivan Stage, and an Audience of 24-50 Million......to See...African-American Entertainers Entertain.
Ed Said..."And everyone has a Front-Row-Seat"
That is the Theme of this 90 Min Documentary with Pretty-Much All Other Aspects of the Show Not Included...
So Seekers Beware...this Program is All About Ed's Efforts to Include Black-Entertainers on the Main-Stream-Menu of America's "Exceptionalism".
Despite the Many "Slings and Arrows" Ed Soldiered On, Never Wavering, Standing His Ground. His Tireless Crusade was Ultimately Ultra-Successful and...Paid Off for Everyone.
This Colorful to Look at Late 50's Western has High-Production Values, but Loses its Luster with a Deep, Conflicted Character Study.
That is Jumbled and Jarring, Hard to Follow and Never Quite Sparks the Fire that Robert Mitchum (who Produced as well) and Director Robert Parrish must have Hoped For.
Both Mitchum and Parrish Try Hard to Weave a Tapestry of a No-Frills, No-Nonsense Western, Forgoing Cliches to Capture Realism.
But the Story is Dense with Shifting Allegiances and Rapidly Changing Locations, Flip-Flopping Back and Forth Across the Rio-Grande.
The Violence is Quick, but Cuts Deep. The Romantic Triangle is Heavy-Handed Wavering from Red-Hot to Luke-Warm.
It's a Good Try from Mitchum's Company as He Brings Along Top-Notch Character Actors and the Stunning Julie London, although She, or more Precisely Her Character Doesn't Linger as a Memorable, Well-Worn-Woman.
Overall, it's a Good-Watch as Something Quite Different than what was Offered by the Wagon-Load for Insatiable 1950's Genre Fans.
Although it Doesn't Measure Up to the Mann-Boetticher "Westerns", few do, Not Even Close.
But, it is Above-Average and Quirky Enough (Mitchum juggling accents in a sombrero), and some Critics do Tout this as Something Special. That's Debatable.
Worth a Watch Worth a Watch.
That is Jumbled and Jarring, Hard to Follow and Never Quite Sparks the Fire that Robert Mitchum (who Produced as well) and Director Robert Parrish must have Hoped For.
Both Mitchum and Parrish Try Hard to Weave a Tapestry of a No-Frills, No-Nonsense Western, Forgoing Cliches to Capture Realism.
But the Story is Dense with Shifting Allegiances and Rapidly Changing Locations, Flip-Flopping Back and Forth Across the Rio-Grande.
The Violence is Quick, but Cuts Deep. The Romantic Triangle is Heavy-Handed Wavering from Red-Hot to Luke-Warm.
It's a Good Try from Mitchum's Company as He Brings Along Top-Notch Character Actors and the Stunning Julie London, although She, or more Precisely Her Character Doesn't Linger as a Memorable, Well-Worn-Woman.
Overall, it's a Good-Watch as Something Quite Different than what was Offered by the Wagon-Load for Insatiable 1950's Genre Fans.
Although it Doesn't Measure Up to the Mann-Boetticher "Westerns", few do, Not Even Close.
But, it is Above-Average and Quirky Enough (Mitchum juggling accents in a sombrero), and some Critics do Tout this as Something Special. That's Debatable.
Worth a Watch Worth a Watch.
Some of the "Super-Stars" of Classic Ufology are On-Camera...Dr. J. Allen Hynek, Lonnie Somora, Hector Quintanilla, Jacques Vallee...Bob Friend (Blue Book), Archival Footage of Gerald Ford
Coverage also Includes Phenom Like...Cattle Mutilations, a Contactee, Close Encounter Helicopter Pilot and Crew, "The Condon Report" is Mentioned Briefly...The White House Flyovers of 1952 and the Temperature-Inversion Debunking, the Utah and Montana Footage is Glimpsed as is some Astronaut/NASA Footage
For Ufologists of any Intensity, this is Repetitive, Standard Stuff, that Until the Modern-Era was the Go-To when UFO's and Flying Saucers are Mentioned.
Alien Abduction and Crop Circles are Neglected.
The Re-Enactments were as they are Today Hokey, Semi-Embarrassing, and Laughably Lame.
This is a Bit More Polished, then the Type Made, and there are quite a Few, but Reflects the same State-of-the-Art that these Hugely Popular Documentaries Employed, but that are So-1970's, and Today for Moderns Seem Rough, Raw, and Low-Budget (they were).
Based on the Book..."UFO's: Past, Present, and Future" by Robert Emenegger
Nominated: 33rd Annual Golden Globe Award (Best Documentary)
For Historical and Pop-Culture Inclusion
Worth a Watch
Note...Currently a Hi-Def version is circulating on YouTube (not always a given)
Coverage also Includes Phenom Like...Cattle Mutilations, a Contactee, Close Encounter Helicopter Pilot and Crew, "The Condon Report" is Mentioned Briefly...The White House Flyovers of 1952 and the Temperature-Inversion Debunking, the Utah and Montana Footage is Glimpsed as is some Astronaut/NASA Footage
For Ufologists of any Intensity, this is Repetitive, Standard Stuff, that Until the Modern-Era was the Go-To when UFO's and Flying Saucers are Mentioned.
Alien Abduction and Crop Circles are Neglected.
The Re-Enactments were as they are Today Hokey, Semi-Embarrassing, and Laughably Lame.
This is a Bit More Polished, then the Type Made, and there are quite a Few, but Reflects the same State-of-the-Art that these Hugely Popular Documentaries Employed, but that are So-1970's, and Today for Moderns Seem Rough, Raw, and Low-Budget (they were).
Based on the Book..."UFO's: Past, Present, and Future" by Robert Emenegger
Nominated: 33rd Annual Golden Globe Award (Best Documentary)
For Historical and Pop-Culture Inclusion
Worth a Watch
Note...Currently a Hi-Def version is circulating on YouTube (not always a given)
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