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.jpg) The Ed Sullivan Theater with The Late Show with Stephen Colbert marquee | |
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| Address | 1697 Broadway Manhattan, New York United States |
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| Coordinates | 40°45′49.8″N 73°58′58″W / 40.763833°N 73.98278°W |
| Owner | Paramount Global |
| Type | Television studio (Former Broadway) |
| Capacity | 457 |
| Current use | Television studio |
| Production |
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| Opened | November 30, 1927 |
| Years active | 1927–1936 (Broadway theater) 1936–present (broadcasts) |
| Tenants | |
| The Late Show | |
| Designated | November 17, 1997 |
| Reference no. | 97001303[1] |
| Designated entity | Theater |
| Designated | January 5, 1988[2] |
| Reference no. | 1381[2] |
| Designated entity | Lobbies and auditorium interiors |
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 1697–1699 Broadway, between 53rd and 54th Streets, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Built from 1926 to 1927 as a Broadway theater, the Sullivan was developed by Arthur Hammerstein in memory of his father, Oscar Hammerstein I. The two-level theater was designed by Herbert J. Krapp with over 1,500 seats, though the modern Ed Sullivan Theater was downsized to 370 seats by 2015[update]. The neo-Gothic interior is a New York City landmark, and the building is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Ed Sullivan Theater was built in conjunction with a 13-story Gothic-style office building facing Broadway. An entrance vestibule and two lobbies lead from the main entrance on Broadway to the auditorium on 53rd Street. The auditorium was purposely designed to resemble a cathedral, unlike other structures that were designed as Broadway theaters. It has a domed ceiling with ribs, as well as walls with stained glass. Though the seating arrangement and stage have been heavily modified from their original design, many of the design elements in the lobbies and auditorium are intact.
Hammerstein operated the theater from 1927 to 1931, when he lost it to foreclosure. For the next five years, the theater was leased to multiple operators as both a theater and a music hall. 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. Studio 50 was renamed after Ed Sullivan in 1967, and Reeves Entertainment used the Sullivan in the 1980s as a broadcast facility. The Sullivan has staged CBS's The Late Show franchise since 1993, first under David Letterman, then under Stephen Colbert since 2015.