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Thursday, July 24, 2025

SUNDAY BEST (2025)

Rather than the expected hagiographic look at tv variety show host Ed Sullivan, a fixture on CBS Sunday nights for twenty-five years (late-‘40s thru early ‘70s), documentarian Sacha Jenkins takes a hagiographic look at Sullivan’s unprecedented progressive booking policy on largely excluded Black talent: ex-Vaudevillians up to The Jackson Five.  With generous clips of singers and dancers, the film touches on politics and representation as Sullivan puts his neck out where others did not.  Lots of wonderful stuff in here, some still surprising (Sammy Davis Jr in a duet with White smoothie Tony Martin?), Nat King Cole showing his jazzy piano chops.  But why no Moms Mabley?  Moms told the single funniest, dirtiest joke even heard on broadcast tv on a 1969 Sullivan show.  (How’d she get away with it?)  Sullivan’s fight to get Harry Belafonte on in spite of their political differences.  (Likely, Belafonte wasn’t held back by CBS execs for Leftist leanings, but for being the sexiest man ever put on the tube, period.)  Irresistible stuff.  But Jenkins, or whomever finished the cut (Jenkins died before this aired) also tries to cram in the usual personal details and check off some important White guests (The Beatles; Elvis; Original B’way Casts), which only points up how much else is missing.*

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  Jenkins misses two important points.  ONE: Right thru the 1950s, whenever you saw Blacks on tv, you knew you were seeing the absolute best. How else could they have made it on the air in that environment?  Now, check out any police or medical procedural to confirm that Black actors can be just as bad as anyone.  The other missed point is how important Sullivan was as a sort of ANTI-algorithm.  In addition to giving, say Elvis or The Beatles, an early and a late slot, the rest of the really big show would be filled with things completely different which you would have to sit thru.  So, you might accidently bump into something wonderful, something you kinda liked, even if it wasn’t cool to say so out loud.  A modern ballet company, an opera aria (with the famous Sullivan band snare drum adding a beat for extra emphasis), a foreign nightclub act, Yugoslavian tumblers, plate spinners.  Plate spinners!  Good Lord, two whole generations unaware of Plate Spinners!

DOUBLE-BILL:  *A DIY double-bill is waiting on youtube by adding the name of your favorite (see poster) alongside Sullivan and watching the videos pop up.

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