©MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES
While many people mistakenly believe that Ed Sullivan introduced Elvis Presley to the American public, that accolade actually belongs to band leaders Jimmy And Tommy Dorsey and their CBS-syndicated programme Stage Show. Backed by Scotty Moore and Bill Black, Elvis had his first national TV outing more than seven months before setting foot on Sullivan’s stage and went on to make five further appearances on the Dorsey brothers’ popular Saturday night programme. For his debut, Elvis performed Shake, Rattle & Roll and Flip, Flop, Fly as a medley and I Got A Woman. In his biography of Tommy Dorsey, Livin’ In A Great Big Way, author Peter J Levinson said Presley’s debut is an often unheralded watershed moment in TV history: “It was the raw against the cooked, post-war prosperity versus pre-war propriety, an atomic burst of sexual vitality…”