I'm sure The Beatles were pushed on the actual Ed Sullivan program but how would I, as an American in 1964, know to tune in to watch? Were they already hugely popular on the radio here before? Was it like a massive ad campaign, like we see now with blockbuster movies? Maybe I picture 1964 as a much simpler time for the arts, but it's mind-boggling to think how they could get 74 million people to tune in.
In my opinion, The Beatles changed the world of music forever and have influenced everything that came after them, but how did the average American KNOW to tune in or care to TUNE in to such a monumental occasion?
There is a fantastic article in this week's Billboard magazine that addresses this. Steve Greenberg describes the factors leading to the Beatles' "explosion" onto the American music scene as one of the first "viral" moments -- a lot of their exposure came from individual DJs playing their songs, and a lot of kids heard those songs because they got portable transistor radios for Christmas that year (1963), all of which helped contribute to the Ed Sullivan moment. Interestingly, Capitol Records was very late to the game, passing up on several early Beatles singles (they had first right of refusal in the USA) and so there were actually three different record labels involved in those early Beatles releases. By the time Capitol cottoned on to what an enormous cash cow they had on their hands, they committed to spend $40,000 in publicity money (about $300,000 in today's money) but wound up not even needing to spend it all because the Beatles' popularity was already taking off far past Capitol's ability to promote them. I highly recommend the article: http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/5894018/how-the-beatles-went-viral-in-america-1964