RESIDENTS: Ed Sullivan

Ed Sullivan, circa 1935.

In this installment of our notable residents series, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Ed Sullivan ‒ journalist, television personality, and Tudor City tenant. Here is his life, in bullet points:

MC-ing the Harvest Moon Ball, 1939

✱  Born in East Harlem, 1901. Becomes a sportswriter, working his way up to writing the sports column in the Evening Graphic. replacing Walter Winchell, who has been promoted to the Broadway beat. This is the start of a longtime feud between the two. Sullivan was always replacing Winchell.

✱  Hired as the Daily News' Broadway gossip columnist in 1932 (replacing Winchell, who has decamped to the Daily Mirror). The column is called Broadway, later renamed Little Old New York.

✱ Rents an apartment in Tudor City, date unknown. We like to think it's right after he signs with the News ‒ so he can walk to work, of course. Soon his column is peppered with Tudor City items. Some examples:

. . . There is a Miss Dodge, in Tudor City, who has a white lamb for a street companion. . . Street scene ‒ C.D. Batchelor, famous editorial cartoonist, rushing up E. 41st St. to the Tudor City Art Exhib. . . Katherine Cornell, with a dachshund on a leash, ignores the "No Dogs Allowed" sign and strides into Tudor City Park. . . Eileen Dunn of Tudor City says her club is heartbroken over the news that Tyrone Power is secretly wed to Janet Gaynor. . .

✱ Hosts live variety shows as a sideline, which include vaudeville routines to warm up the audiences. In April, 1935, he runs an item in the News about rehearsing a routine in Tudor City with veteran vaudevillian Patsy Flick, a Yiddish dialect comedian.

1955 TV Guide cover

✱  Moves out of Tudor City in May, 1935, moving up to a seven-room apartment on E. 64th Street, his fortunes clearly on the rise.

✱  His hosting gigs come to the attention of CBS, and in 1948 he's tapped to emcee a television variety show called Toast of the Town. The show's a hit, quickly renamed the Ed Sullivan Show, and goes on to become the longest running variety show in television history, showcasing over 10,000 acts.

✱  The show goes off the air in 1971, and Sullivan dies three years later, aged 73.