Sunday Best: The Untold Story of Ed Sullivan

Two months ago, the world lost journalist, musician, and film-maker Sacha Jenkins to a rare neurodegenerative disorder. Jenkins was especially associated with hip hop culture and graffiti art. Throughout his amazingly productive career, he also wrote for The Boondocks, was music editor for Vibe, and created off-Broadway shows. As a producer and director of documentaries he created films about 50 Cent, Wu Tang Clan, Rick James, Louis Armstrong, and a controversial series called Everything’s All White. I am so grateful that he made Sunday Best: The Untold Story of Ed Sullivan for Netflix before he passed away. In general, but also because it’s highly germane to the book I’m working on!

The story of TV variety impresario Ed Sullivan is NOT untold, of course. I feel like it is constantly being told, though contemporary younger people are almost certainly out of earshot. The aspect of Sullivan’s career that this film focuses on, Sullivan’s devotion to providing a platform for black entertainers, is surely the justification for “untold” in the title, but even that element of his story has been frequently told, though many have might have missed it. I heartily approve of telling it, mind you, and this film is terrific, but the title reminded me of the recent Little Richard doc. “Most people” does not equal “everybody”.

Still the film does a wonderful job of conveying Sullivan’s importance overall, and with specific reference to his support of black talent. Among the many artists and personalities he presented on The Ed Sullivan Show, and who are shown in this film: Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Jackie Wilson,James Brown, Ike and Tina Turner, Louis Armstrong, The Will Mastin Trio with Sammy Davis Jr, Peg Leg Bates, Dr. Jive, Bo Diddley, Flip Wilson, Cab Calloway, Pearl Bailey, Ella Fitzgerald,The Ink Spots, Lena Horne, Hazel Scott, Gladys Knight,Dionne Warwick, Ethel Waters, Joe Louis, Eartha Kitt, Harry Belafonte, Nat King Cole, Nina Simone, Mahalia Jackson, Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder,The Supremes, The Jackson Five, Ray Charles, and Billy Preston. Among those he is known to have presented and are not shown: Pigmeat Markham, Tim Moore, and Fats Domino, among scores of others.

What was remarkable about Sullivan was that he was more than open to presenting daring younger acts who would be unmistakably challenging to conservative (and racist) sensibilities. Performers like Louis Armstrong, Pearl Bailey, and Ethel Waters could obtain bookings most anywhere. But Sullivan pushed the line by booking the distinctly left wing activist Harry Belafonte, for example, or “wild” acts like James Brown or Ike and Tina Turner. His investment in black talent meant that he was also open to rock and roll, which is also why he was the guy who is famous for presenting edgy new white performers like Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and The Doors. He claimed to just be looking for the best acts, no matter who was performing them.

Moreover, Sullivan made a point of selling these artists to the audience, encouraging warm welcomes and applause. He treated them as fellow human beings. He shook their hands. He put his around them. Diana Ross gave him a kiss! These don’t sound like major accomplishments to most of us in 2025, but it should not be underestimated how racist this country was 60 and 70 years ago. Sullivan got hate mail and death threats. There were boycotts of his sponsors led by Southern politicians. Sullivan dealt with these hurdles in the proper spirit — a combative one. He gave as good as he got. He did not mince words. If he thought a racist was stupid, he called him stupid. And if someone pissed him off, he was more than ready to do battle. Today’s liberal leaders would do well to emulate his pugnacious style, as it is the only way to win against the bad guys.

I was especially grateful that the movie did a great job of answering the question I always want to know the answer to: why? Why Sullivan? Why then? Why this cause? It’s largely explained by Sullivan’s own testimony. As an Irishman, he felt he related to a certain extent with the plight of black Americans. The Irish were seriously discriminated against when they first arrived in America in the mid 19th century through the early 20th. Sullivan’s paternal grandparents, and a set of great grandparents on his mother’s side had gone through that experience, and he surely heard about that from his older relatives. Sullivan was also born in Harlem, though he was mostly raised in nearby Port Chester. He never lost his affection for the place of his birth and later spent a lot of time there as a Broadway columnist, and later simply to scout acts. Also, Sullivan had played with black athletes when he was in high school, and continued to support athletes of color as a sports columnist. He claimed that his parents were “not broad-minded…just sensible”. And that his father “always fought for the rights of the underdog”.

The documentary is also rich in testimonials and interviews by people of color whose appreciation of Sullivan is great. Ice-T and Oprah talk about what watching The Ed Sullivan Show meant to them as kids. Motown’s Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson are interviewed at length, as is the late Belafonte, in what must have been one of his last interviews. Others in the film include Dionne Warwick, Otis Williams of The Temptations, and Jackie and Tito Jackson.

All of this is important because Sullivan’s show was one of the most important public platforms in the nation. Sullivan was widely admired and respected. The ripple effect from his influence is not to be underrated. Other tv shows emulated his. This was all happening at the same time the Federal government was taking steps to assure equality under the law for such things as voting rights, and access to public accommodations. (The fact that JFK was also Irish is surely not irrelevant to the story). And one can’t avoid observing that the era when Sullivan was put out to pasture, 1971, was the very time period when Nixon’s presidency largely put the brakes on the national conversation about equality, with seemingly permanent negative effects that still afflict this nation. Ed Sullivan was a great patriot and a great American. It’s high time the people in power recapture his conception of what those words mean.

For more on the history of show business,consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, and stay tuned for my upcomingElectric Vaudeville: A Century of Radio and TV Variety.