Edward Vincent Sullivan (September 28, 1901 – October 13, 1974) was an American television personality, sports and entertainment reporter, and longtime
syndicated columnist for the
New York Daily News. He is principally remembered as the creator and host of the television variety program
The Toast of the Town, later popularly—and, eventually, officially—renamed
The Ed Sullivan Show. Broadcast for 23 years from 1948 to 1971, it set a record as the longest-running variety show in US broadcast history. "It was, by almost any measure, the last great TV show," proclaimed television critic David Hinckley. "It's one of our fondest, dearest pop culture memories."