Elvis Presley makes first appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” | September 9, 1956 | HISTORY

The King of Rock and Roll teams up with TV’s reigning variety program, as Elvis Presley appears on “The Ed Sullivan Show” for the first time on September 9, 1956.

After Presley earned big ratings for “The Steve Allen Show,” the Dorsey Brothers “Stage Show” and “The Milton Berle Show,” Sullivan finally reneged on his Presley ban, signing the controversial singing star to an unprecedented $50,000 contract for three appearances.

With 60 million viewers—or 82.6 percent of TV viewers at the time—tuning in, the appearance garnered the show’s best ratings in two years and became the most-watched TV broadcast of the 1950s.

Although “The Ed Sullivan Show” was filmed in New York, Presley performed remotely from CBS’s Los Angeles studio. (He was filming his first movie, Love Me Tender, in California.) At the time, his first album, Elvis Presley had already debuted and “Heartbreak Hotel” was a hit single, but he wasn’t quite yet “The King.”