Ed Sullivan Theater, Broadway NYC

The Ed Sullivan Theater (originally Hammerstein's Theatre, later the Manhattan Theatre, Billy Rose's Music Hall, CBS Radio Playhouse No. 3, and CBS Studio 50) is a theater at 1697 Broadway, between 53rd and 54th streets, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan. It opened in 1927. Today it is owned by Paramount Global, used as a television studio. The neo-Gothic interior was designated a New York City landmark in 1988, and the building is on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

Built from 1926 to 1927 as a Broadway theater developed by theatrical producer Arthur Hammerstein (1872-1955) in memory of his father, Oscar Hammerstein. The Hammerstein's Theatre was built in with a 13-story Gothic-style office building on Broadway. The two-level theater was designed by Herbert J. Krapp. The entrance vestibule and two lobbies lead from the entrance on Broadway to the auditorium on 53rd Street. The auditorium was designed to resemble a Gothic cathedral, with a domed ceiling with ribs and walls with stained glass. The seating arrangement and stage were modified from the original design, but many of the elements in the lobbies and auditorium are intact.

The theater opened on November 30, 1927, with a seating capacity of 1,265. Marguerite, a composition written by Oscar Hammerstein in 1896, and The Star-Spangled Banner, were played. Hammerstein operated the theater from 1927 to 1931, when the theater was sold at auction. In June, the same year, Hammerstein's theater was leased to Lawrence Schwab and Frank Mandel, who were among the most successful producers of musical comedy in New York. The theater became a venue for CBS radio broadcasts in 1936, and it was converted to TV broadcasting in 1950. Under the Studio 50 name, the theater housed The Ed Sullivan Show from 1953 to 1971, as well as other shows such as The Garry Moore Show and The Jackie Gleason Show.

Edward Vincent Sullivan (1901-1974) was a television host, impresario, sports and entertainment reporter. He was the creator and host of the television variety program Toast of the Town, which in 1955 was renamed The Ed Sullivan Show. Broadcast from 1948 to 1971, it set a record as the longest-running variety show in U.S. broadcast history. The Ed Sullivan Show presented most of the major rock-and-roll stars of the 1950s and 1960s, including Elvis Presley, Beatles, Bo Diddley, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly and the Crickets, Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, the Doors, the Four Seasons, the Mamas and the Papas, James Brown, Marvin Gaye and many others.

Studio 50 was renamed after Ed Sullivan in 1967, and Reeves Entertainment used the theater in the 1980s as a broadcast facility. The theater has staged CBS's The Late Show franchise since 1993, first under David Letterman, then under Stephen Colbert since 2015. By that time, the Ed Sullivan Theater was downsized to 370 seats.