Yes, even semi-retired old
fogeys need to relax.
After I have edited/written my stories and done everything else I have to do during the day, I get tired just like everyone else does after a long day, and I need to slow down a bit once it gets to the evening.
Now, with baseball season in full swing, I can get into the games held in the evening, so there is no problem finding things to watch at night to relax me.
During the off season, and on days where there is no night game for me to watch, I invariably watch the news shows, because quite frankly, there isn’t much else on in the early evening.
But I also watch the Decades channel, the channel that highlights television from the 1960s through the 1990s with its programming.
In early evening, they have given me something to watch, as reruns of the classic TV show “The Ed Sullivan Show” are part of their early evening programming.
These are not the full shows; honestly, you really cannot understand why this show was so popular for nearly a quarter of a century without seeing the full shows.
These are the half-hour shows that found their way into syndication in the 1990s, and were originally broadcast on educational stations, such as WLIW-TV on Long Island.
So what we get are the half-hour compressed shows, which are often the actual hour-long shows with all the fluff taken out—such as the greetings to those in the audience and l
After I have edited/written my stories and done everything else I have to do during the day, I get tired just like everyone else does after a long day, and I need to slow down a bit once it gets to the evening.
Now, with baseball season in full swing, I can get into the games held in the evening, so there is no problem finding things to watch at night to relax me.
During the off season, and on days where there is no night game for me to watch, I invariably watch the news shows, because quite frankly, there isn’t much else on in the early evening.
But I also watch the Decades channel, the channel that highlights television from the 1960s through the 1990s with its programming.
In early evening, they have given me something to watch, as reruns of the classic TV show “The Ed Sullivan Show” are part of their early evening programming.
These are not the full shows; honestly, you really cannot understand why this show was so popular for nearly a quarter of a century without seeing the full shows.
These are the half-hour shows that found their way into syndication in the 1990s, and were originally broadcast on educational stations, such as WLIW-TV on Long Island.
So what we get are the half-hour compressed shows, which are often the actual hour-long shows with all the fluff taken out—such as the greetings to those in the audience and l
the removal of lesser-known acts—or half-hour shows comprised of bits and pieces of a couple
of different shows rolled into one.
I was a big fan of “The Ed Sullivan Show” as a kid, and yes, I do remember watching certain specific shows, like that one incredible evening when the Beatles made their live American debut on national television that February night, less than three months after JFK was assassinated.
I remember watching lesser shows, such as the one where Gary Lewis—Jerry Lewis’ son and leader of the then-red hot Playboys--had his final appearance on the show before having to go into the Army.
I remember all the novelty acts, I remember the early days of Joan Rivers and Alan King and Richard Pryor and Robert Klein and George Carlin, and I remember that while Sullivan had no idea why they were so popular, he had just about every popular rock and pop act in America on his show, if for nothing else than to draw ratings.
But as an adult watching these shows now, I see other things, too, and I see that he evidently had certain entertainers on more often than others.
Further investigation shows that he signed hot acts like Petula Clark to long-term contracts, so that they would be on the show to promote their newest hit records without even thinking about it.
I know of Clark and a few others who had these contracts, but I suspect that another performer who had such a contract didn’t necessarily have many hit records, but she was as talented as could be, and as an added cherry on top, she was pure eye candy in the new realm of color TV—and since my family saw all the shows in black and white, watching these reruns now is the first time I have seen this performer in color.
Her name is Nancy Ames, and while her name wasn’t on the tips of many tongues during the 1960s, she was a solid performer with an interesting background.
I was a big fan of “The Ed Sullivan Show” as a kid, and yes, I do remember watching certain specific shows, like that one incredible evening when the Beatles made their live American debut on national television that February night, less than three months after JFK was assassinated.
I remember watching lesser shows, such as the one where Gary Lewis—Jerry Lewis’ son and leader of the then-red hot Playboys--had his final appearance on the show before having to go into the Army.
I remember all the novelty acts, I remember the early days of Joan Rivers and Alan King and Richard Pryor and Robert Klein and George Carlin, and I remember that while Sullivan had no idea why they were so popular, he had just about every popular rock and pop act in America on his show, if for nothing else than to draw ratings.
But as an adult watching these shows now, I see other things, too, and I see that he evidently had certain entertainers on more often than others.
Further investigation shows that he signed hot acts like Petula Clark to long-term contracts, so that they would be on the show to promote their newest hit records without even thinking about it.
I know of Clark and a few others who had these contracts, but I suspect that another performer who had such a contract didn’t necessarily have many hit records, but she was as talented as could be, and as an added cherry on top, she was pure eye candy in the new realm of color TV—and since my family saw all the shows in black and white, watching these reruns now is the first time I have seen this performer in color.
Her name is Nancy Ames, and while her name wasn’t on the tips of many tongues during the 1960s, she was a solid performer with an interesting background.
This beautiful blond singer combined folk, pop and rock, and other musical genres, as well as Las Vegas and Latin music, into an interesting musical combination way beck when.
She was born with something of a sliver spoon in her mouth, being the granddaughter of the president of Panama, and as a youngster, she was groomed to be a socialite in her birthplace of Washington, D.C.
But she wanted to sing, and with her talent and good looks, the entertainment world was very inviting to her.
She was the girl singer on the groundbreaking “That Was the Week That Was” TV show, and when that show fizzled, she was on her way to solo singing stardom, putting out more than a dozen albums during about a six or seven year period in the 1960s as well as many singles.
She never had a huge hit, although her “He Wore the Green Beret,” an answer song to Barry Sadler’s “The Ballad of the Green Berets,” did get her on the Hot 100.
Ames also had some other very interesting records that were beyond classification, sort of “Las Vegas meets Northern Soul” in the record sleeve I have posted here, “The Funny thing About It,” which landed on the “Bubbling Under” chart.
But her mix of very different song styles, as well as her look, definitely caught Sullivan’s eye, and Ames appeared on the show at least once or twice a year for about five or six years.
And she was quite a songwriter, too, penning the theme song to "The Smothers Brothers Show" with Mason Williams of "Clsssical Gas" fame, among other tunes.
As a kid, I guess I just looked at her as another part of the show, but now watching the shows as an adult, I see a bit more—yes, there is no doubt that she is absolutely gorgeous, but she was doing something so unique at the time that I don’t think that I—or the general public—actually got her as well as we should have.
Her mix of different styles of music back then was so different that perhaps it went over our heads.
Ames is still with us today in her 80s, and when she realized that she had gone as far as she could in show business—she was on just about every other variety show of the time beyond the Sullivan show too—she moved into event planning, and has run one of the top firms in that field for decades.
As an adult and even as a kid, I knew that “The Ed Sullivan Show” was a treasure trove of acts, many of which didn’t do much television unless it was this show.
But as an adult, I am now discovering acts like Ames and others, acts that I overlooked as a kid because I guess I was waiting for the plate spinners and rock and rollers more than I was waiting for them.
Sure, I guess I was late in discovering the talents of these acts, but the great thing about the show being rebroadcast is that these performances are out there for the taking every night, and I am so receptive to them at this stage of my life.
“A Really Big Shew” indeed.
As a kid, I guess I just looked at her as another part of the show, but now watching the shows as an adult, I see a bit more—yes, there is no doubt that she is absolutely gorgeous, but she was doing something so unique at the time that I don’t think that I—or the general public—actually got her as well as we should have.
Her mix of different styles of music back then was so different that perhaps it went over our heads.
Ames is still with us today in her 80s, and when she realized that she had gone as far as she could in show business—she was on just about every other variety show of the time beyond the Sullivan show too—she moved into event planning, and has run one of the top firms in that field for decades.
As an adult and even as a kid, I knew that “The Ed Sullivan Show” was a treasure trove of acts, many of which didn’t do much television unless it was this show.
But as an adult, I am now discovering acts like Ames and others, acts that I overlooked as a kid because I guess I was waiting for the plate spinners and rock and rollers more than I was waiting for them.
Sure, I guess I was late in discovering the talents of these acts, but the great thing about the show being rebroadcast is that these performances are out there for the taking every night, and I am so receptive to them at this stage of my life.
“A Really Big Shew” indeed.
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