Going to America

Feature from 2008

Morecambe and Wise, although massively popular in the UK were unknown in America, and like every act at the time, wanted to break into that lucrative market. Their chance came, quite literally, by chance.

During a show at the Palladium with Bruce Forsyth, sitting in the stalls was a certain American entertainment host called Ed Sullivan. Regularly pulling in huge audiences, the largest being 73,000,000, this was a man who could make things happen.

Luckily for Eric and Ern, he liked what he saw and after the curtain had dropped, made a deal for them to appear on three shows. For this he offered them £5,000.

This was extended as Ed grew to like them more, but the audience just didn’t respond. The exact number of shows and routines is hard to trace, but from the shows own archives there are 8 different appearances plus repeats. IMDB (Internet Movie DataBase) has them doing 12, but does not go into details, and some may well be re-runs, and in interview with Michael Parkinson Eric states they did 14.

Despite getting a luke warm response, Ed Sullivan continued to bring the boys back between 1964 and 1968. The last show they did was a huge 90 minute spectacular to celebrate the 80th Birthday of Irving Berlin. Alongside them that night were legends such as Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, this alone showed just how much Ed believed in them.

Although not a complete washout, they never made it big despite doing the shows for Sullivan. Maybe it was the material that the Americans just didn’t get, or the accents, what ever it was the American dream never blossomed.

Ernie was disappointed not to have made a big impression; Eric on the other hand was never keen. He said on many occasions, including the Parkinson interview, that he hated changing the routines to fit the audience. He and Ern had rehearsed and fine tuned sketches and gags, and resented having to change words like pavement to sidewalk, just to ‘fit in’ with America. They were English, and that was that.

Another problem was the dialogue used in some of the routines. Having the kind of viewing figures Sullivan had, meant there was a huge cross section of viewers to cater for, and more importantly, to offend. They had to trim routines down in case they offend anyone. An example of this is the ventriloquist routine.

Ernie: I never you were a ventriloquist. I didn’t know you were interested in it. Eric: I’m not any more. I’m too old. That’s why I took up this.

This was deemed too racy and was removed.

The Ed Sullivan Show was not their only visit to that side of the Atlantic…

In May 1968 the whole team and crew from the Palladium show were asked to do a 2 weeks special in Toronto. This, like the Sullivan Show was not as successful as they had hoped, despite initial acclaim, and again it seemed that America was not ready for them.

Time…

Looking at the Sullivan archives now, it is clear what the problem was – time. Each appearance lasted no longer than 8 minutes, with sometimes weeks in between shows. This meant that they could not build up familiarity, and that characters could not come across. In all there is about 45 minutes of material from the Sullivan shows, of which only 5 has been released commercially (on a now deleted DVD of the Beatles).

It seems sad not to have this material available, it may not have suited American audiences, but it would still be worth seeing.

Shows:
According to IMBD they appeared in 12 shows…

Date	Show
1963 - 17 March	Season 16, Episode 24
1963 - 24 March	Season 16, Episode 25
1963 - 4 August	Season 16, Episode 41
1963 - 3 November	Season 17, Episode 6
1963 - 23 February	Season 17, Episode 21
1964 - 24 May	Season 17, Episode 33
1965 - 29 August	Season 18, Episode 40
1967 - 7 January	Season 21, Episode 18
1967 - 26 November	Season 21, Episode 12
1968 - 4 February	Season 21, Episode 22
1968 - 3 March	Season 21, Episode 26
1968 - 5 May	Season 21, Episode 34

According to the Ed Sullivan database they did 8 (plus a repeat)

Date	Act	Length
17th Mar 1963	Swiss dance routine, Paper bag routine	4m 19s
	Me and my shadow routine	2m 19s
24th Mar 1963	Judo - self defence routine	4m 30s
3rd Nov 1963	Comedy routine with Ed and Ray	7m 42s
23rd Feb 1964	Louis XIV sketch	4m 8s
24th May 1964	Battle of Waterloo/toy soldiers	4m 1s
	Song: Swinging down the lane (comedy)	2m 3s
12th Jul 1964	Battle of Waterloo (repeat?)	4m 3s
	Swinging down the lane (repeat?)	2m 42s
26th Jul 1964	New suit routine	4m 40s
2nd May 1965	Singing routine with Ed & Ray	6m 21s
26th Nov 1967	Ventriloquist routine	6m 47s

Footage: (ex. Repeats) 45 mins (approx)

Confirmed appearences (footage exists)

Date	Act	Length
17/3/1963	Slapping dance. Paper bag. Talking about each other. Me and my shadow.	4:20
17/3/1963	Talking about each other. Me and my shadow.	3:30
24/3/1963	Judo - self defense.	4:30
4/8/1963	Xylaphone.	5:15
3/11/1963	Boom Oo Yatta Ta Ta (version 1)	7:45
23/2/1964	Louis XIV brandy glasses.	4:30
24/5/1964	Battle Waterloo - toy soldiers.	4:15
24/5/1964	Swinging down the lane (stools)	2:40
26/7/1964	New suit for Eric.	4:40
5/2/1965	Boom Oo Yatta Ta Ta (version 2)	6:30
26/11/1967	[colour] Ventiloquist act.	6:35
7/1/1968	[colour] Stranger / Candid Camera.	2:40
7/1/1968	[colour] Magician act	5:20
4/2/1968	[colour] Moonlight becomes you.	4:50
5/5/1968	[colour] Putting on the ritz.	3:55

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