The Ed Sullivan Theater on July 18, 2025, shortly after 'The Late Show' was given notice. Craig T Fruchtman/Getty Images In the if-these-walls-could-talk sweepstakes, the Ed Sullivan Theater might never shut up. Built in 1927, located at 1697-1699 Broadway between 53rd and 54th Streets, and in more or less continuing operation ever since, it has been home to virtually every great entertainment medium - theater, vaudeville, silent cinema, radio, and television - that is not rendered in pixels. The upcoming eviction of the latest tenant (as of May 2026, CBS is tossing The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Show to the curb) prompts a look back at the storied history of the house named for one of the least charismatic people ever to have performed there. Related Stories Business When Fox Made the Wrong Bets -- and Wound Up In a Hostile Takeover Movies Where Doubles Dare: The 100-Year Road to Recognition for Hollywood Stunt Performers The venue began life as the Hammerstein Theater, a legitimate house (that is, a home for hard-ticket theatrical productions) built by Arthur Hammerstein in honor of his father, the wealthy cigar maker turned theatrical impresario Oscar Hammerstein. Arthur bankrolled the building with $3,000,000 of profits from his wildly successful operetta Rose-Marie (1924), whose book and lyrics were written by his son Oscar Hammerstein II and Otto Harbach, with music by Rudolf Friml and Herbert Stothart. It was formally dedicated on December 3, 1927. Designed by architect Herbert J. Krapp, the Hammerstein was a monument to Jazz Age excess. The interior alone was worth the price of admission: ten stained glass windows, each illustrating one of Hammerstein senior's hit theatrical productions, a $50,000 pipe organ, an orchestra pit that could be raised or lowered for 50 musicians, mosaics, Czechoslovak rugs, and a $18,000 bronze statue of Hammerstein senior sculpted by Pompeo Coppini. "The house, which seats 1265, is like a Gothic cathedral," marveled a visitor. In addition to stage musicals such as Sweet Adeline (1928) and Good Boy (1928), it also served as an extravagant motion picture arthouse, capitalist Arthur being a cinephile with a penchant for Soviet agit-prop. He imported Vsevolod Pudovkin's The End of St. Petersburg (1928) and commissioned a special score by Herbert Stothart, played by a full orchestra. Top seats went for $1.50. The son did not honor his father for long. In 1931, beaten down by the Great Depression and a string of flops, Arthur filed for bankruptcy (he had $5.77 in his account) and the theater was sold at public auction. The Hammerstein kept going for the next few years under various names - Billy Rose's Music Hall (where it perked up as a cabaret theater) and the Manhattan (where it staged a hit Federal Theatre Project production of T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral). In 1936, it got the first of its may second lives when it was purchased by CBS and converted into a radio soundstage. The network spent $25,000 installing broadcast equipment and soundproofing the house. Now called Playhouse No. 3 and seating 1269 (adding four seats?), it was the network's largest studio-theater in New York. The early days: CBS Radio Playhouse number 3 on October 1, 1936. CBS via Getty Images In the golden age of radio, Playhouse No. 3 spotlighted a full roster of CBS stars before the microphone. Audience-friendly performers such as Kate Smith, Benny Goodman, and sports commentator Ted Husing found it "a laughy, intimate place where the audience is very apt to get jolly and take off its shoes." After the conclusion of each broadcast of Camel Caravan, host Walter O'Keefe invited the folks to stick around, watch the rehearsals for the next show, and provide feedback. "Our rehearsal audiences are so intelligent that we hope to train them to write our shows within the next few weeks," said O'Keefe. During World War II, Playhouse No. 3 served as the main stage for Command Performance, the popular military-minded variety show "recorded and short-waved every Sunday to America's armed forces all over the world, written and produced under supervision of the Radio Branch of the Bureau of Public Affairs of the War Department." In 1944, a typical show might have Bob Hope wisecracking, Judy Garland singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," and, by special request, Lana Turner frying a sizzling steak, thereby satisfying two GI appetites at once. When Frank Sinatra performed, his bobbysoxer fangirls were sequestered in the balcony to prevent them from rushing the stage. In 1950, television ousted radio from the premises and CBS converted Playhouse No. 3 "to full time television purposes and for AM-TV simulcasts." It was rechristened Studio 50. As in the radio days, Studio 50 was the preferred venue for television performers who craved the contact high of a live audience, none more so than the star of The Jackie Gleason Show. "Gleason manages everything around Studio 50 except the refreshment counter at the