Graphic biographer Paul Belard published two books on Elvis’ appearances on the Milton Berle and Ed Sullivan Shows. These television appearances were a pivotal moment in American cultural history, they're often cited as the flashpoint where Rock and Roll's sexuality and rebellion collided with mainstream, family-oriented television, and where generational battle lines over the new music got drawn into the public domain.
There's a real asymmetry here. Sullivan is on record with sharp public criticism before he booked Elvis, while Berle doesn't have any comparable negative pre-show quotes; the record suggests he welcomed Elvis warmly from the start. Comparing the shows back to back so many years later, what do we learn?
Note on transparency: I assisted the author with the design of the cover and I provided feedback on the manuscript for these books.
Design
I won’t say anything about the covers of both books, they are by my hand, but in between the front and back cover the design of the book is Paul Belard’s work. And by now we know his modus operandi, writing little time-capsules on specific periods on the Elvis Presley timeline using public sources.
This explains the variation in the quality of the images, as the author included as many details as possible, letting the photo’s - most black and white, some colorized - tell the story. The quality of the Milton Berle images is better than that of the Sullivan Show. Added to that are original articles and documents, providing the original (historical) context.
The presentation of the images, memorabilia and documentation is easy on the eye but the “repetition” of images taken shortly after each other, or some hard to read original paperwork may not be everybody’s cup of tea. But from an historical perspective, these books provide images that you won’t find in the more glossy references on these shows, adding something new for collectors.
Historical Context
Elvis made various appearances on both television shows, and since Paul Belard already wrote a book on Presley’s third appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in 2023, I guess these two won’t be the last word on these legendary television moments.
Before booking Elvis, Sullivan was openly dismissive. He's quoted as calling Elvis "unfit for family viewing" and saying flatly, "He is not my cup of tea." He reportedly turned down an early opportunity to book Elvis for as little as US$5,000, unconvinced the new kid in town would fit in his family-audience format
According to Wikipedia (citing Greil Marcus's book on the ‘Ed Sullivan Shows’), after watching kinescopes of the Berle and Steve Allen appearances, Sullivan privately speculated that Elvis was using some kind of prop to exaggerate his hip movement and said flatly that it wasn't appropriate: "We just can't have this on a Sunday night. This is a family show!"
Sullivan only changed his mind after Steve Allen's July 1, 1956 show - which presented its viewers a “new Elvis” by making him wear a tuxedo and singing ‘Hound Dog’ to a basset hound - beat Sullivan's program in the ratings that week. Sullivan's telegram to Allen afterward captured his frustration: "Steven Presley Allen, NBC TV, New York City. Stinker. Love and kisses. Ed Sullivan." And within days, Sullivan had negotiated to book Elvis for three appearances at the unprecedented sum of US$50,000.
Milton Berle's path to booking Elvis looks quite different. Elvis’ manager, Colonel Tom Parker, worked through the William Morris Agency's Abe Lastfogel to arrange an audition with Berle. In a later interview, Berle recalled being taken with Elvis from the start, describing him as fresh and original rather than expressing reservations. There's no record of Berle publicly disparaging Elvis before his first appearance on April 3, 1956. If anything, Berle's team saw him as a ratings opportunity at a moment when Berle's own show was already facing cancellation and losing ground to CBS's Phil Silvers Show.
It was only after the controversial June 5th appearance that Berle faced backlash, not for booking Elvis, but for allowing the ‘Hound Dog’ performance to air. Berle later said he received around hundreds to thousands (some sources say 400.000) angry letters from parents, though he stood by the decision, telling Parker about ten days later that Elvis was clearly "a star." The good ratings may have had something to do with that …
So the contrast is telling. Sullivan's hostility to Elvis was a matter of public record before their working relationship began, and he only relented once it became a business necessity. Berle, by comparison, appears to have been an early booster who took a chance with the “young man with the big beat” and took the heat only after Elvis got the nation “all shook up”.
The Milton Berle Show, June 5, 1956
This was Elvis’ second appearance on Berle's show. Performing ‘Hound Dog’, he changed from the fast tempo of his usual arrangement, slowing the song into a grinding, exaggerated bump-and-grind finale, thrusting his hips and legs in a way television audiences had never really seen from a young performer. There was no guitar in his hands to "shield" the movement, which made it feel rawer and more overtly sexual to viewers than his earlier, more restrained TV spots.
In his book Belard takes us through Elvis schedule. Starting June 3, 1956, departing from an Oakland performance to rehearsals for the Milton Berle Show in Los Angeles. Leafing through the pages, Elvis looks both serious – he knows what’s at stake – and relaxed as he takes the time for his fans in the audience. Great as they are the “old” Jordanaires always look out-of-place next to Elvis. The rehearsals take up half the book.
The images from the show itself remains classics, who doesn’t know the classic poses from the ‘Hound Dog’ performance, they even made wiggling clocks from that pose! The various artworks with Elvis in his ‘Hound Dog’ pose illustrate this further. There are circa 40 pages with images – including screen grabs – from the actual show. A little less than I expected, but they captured the important moments.
Belard completed the timeline with 25 pages of original articles. I loved the article with Jack Gould’s review for the new York Times stating “he might possibly be classified as an entertainer” and “Mr. Presley has no singing ability”. Who would look the fool just a few months later, and the 21 years that followed!
The reaction was immediate and fierce. Newspaper columnists and TV critics excoriated him and descriptions like "vulgar," "appalling," and comparisons to burlesque and strip-tease acts were common. Some critics invoked class and moral panic language, framing Elvis as a corrupting influence on teenagers. This performance is generally considered the moment Elvis went from regional sensation to national lightning rod, it's the appearance that made "the Elvis Pelvis" a nationwide controversy.
The same-day and next-day coverage moved fast. Bob Hull's "TV Talk" column in the Los Angeles Herald-Express had actually previewed the broadcast that very morning (June 5), noting Elvis, who was already nicknamed "The Pelvis" in some circles even before the show aired, was closing out Berle's season.
But it was the days immediately following the broadcast where the real firestorm built. Jack Gould's New York Times takedown ran the next morning. The nickname "Elvis the Pelvis", which had floated around in scattered print references before this, took hold nationally in the days right after the broadcast, becoming the shorthand critics reached for over and over through the rest of 1956.
Radio DJ Jerry Marshall of WNEW in New York publicly scolded Elvis on-air on June 7, warning that Presley would need to drop his "hootchy kootchy" gyrations or risk becoming a burlesque-circuit novelty rather than a lasting star. In his June 8th column for Daily News Ben Gross's described the "animalism that should be confined to dives and bordellos".
This illustrates that several days after the broadcast, the outrage cycle kept building rather than blowing over in a day. The controversy snowballed instead of fading, and why it directly shaped how Steve Allen and then Sullivan approached booking him weeks later.
The Ed Sullivan Show, October 28, 1956
This was Elvis’ second of three Sullivan appearances (the first was September 9, 1956; the third came January 6, 1957). Sullivan himself had initially sworn he'd never book Elvis, considering him unsuitable for a family variety show, but reversed course after Elvis' ratings for competing programs made him too big to ignore, Sullivan ended up paying Elvis an enormous sum for the era (around US$50,000 for three appearances).
You could say that bringing Elvis to the Ed Sullivan Show was Colonel Parker’s greatest contribution to Elvis Triumph: he brought Elvis to the biggest show of all - despite Sullivan’s first reaction to Elvis’ - and to the widest possible audience. But the author does not think bringing Elvis to Ed Sullivan was Parker's greatest achievement. In fact, he really had nothing to do with it. When he first approached Sullivan, he asked US$5,000 and was rejected. After Elvis' appearance on Steve Allen, Sullivan's people approached Parker. All he had to do was negotiate a higher fee.
When Elvis made his appearance on October 28th 1956 the public outrage hadn't diminished Elvis' popularity; if anything, it fueled it. The show drew a massive audience share, reinforcing that television could make or break, but in this case, spectacularly make, a Rock and Roll career. Time magazine's review of the September Sullivan debut had already called the act "vulgar", and coverage of the October follow-up followed similar lines, though with somewhat less shock value since the public already knew what to expect.
Belard covers it all, with two-third of the book timelining the rehearsals but also Elvis taking a polio shot for a new campaign and the unveiling of a big marquee on Time Square in New York (the current location of the Hard Rock café) promoting his movie ‘Love Me Tender’. Added to that are 40 pages with original articles and documentation completing the picture.
It was the third Sullivan appearance, in January 1957, that's most famous for the network's response to the controversy: cameras filmed Elvis only from the waist up. But the October appearance was part of the same escalating story, with the network and sponsor anxiety about his body versus his undeniable pull with teenage audiences and record sales. This was previously covered by Paul Belard in 2023.
Conclusion
Berle was the explosion, and Sullivan was the extended, more calculated (and ultimately more lucrative) aftermath, a case study in how quickly outrage could be converted into ratings gold once networks realized viewers wanted to see for themselves what all the fuss was about.
What Belard neatly illustrates - literally through all the photographs - are two television nights that helped mainstreaming Rock and Roll into living rooms across the country, forcing a medium built on broad, safe, family appeal, to reckon with a performer built on raw sexuality and rhythm. It put the proverbial finger on the growing generational fault line, with parents, clergy, and critics on one side and teenagers driving record sales and ratings on the other.
The book also documents Elvis' transformation from a regional novelty into a genuine national phenomenon, thanks to the free publicity of the controversy and the subsequent record sales explosion and the bookings soaring.
Buy the books
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