Sunday at 8 (Contd.)

When NBC's Steve Allen decisively beat CBS's Ed Sullivan a fortnight ago in the battle for TV's Sunday-at-8 audience (TIME, July 16), the burning question among television's hucksters was: Who had done it, Allen or his guest star, Elvis ("The Pelvis") Presley? Sullivan, in the unaccustomed position of runner-up, affected disdain for the Pelvis, snorted that he would not have the gyrating groaner "at any price" on his family-type program. "He is not my cup of tea," Sullivan said loftily.

But last week Allen, without Presley, was decisively beaten by Sullivan. The answer to the question was plain, and to no one plainer than to Ed Sullivan himself. Without batting an eye, Strategist Sullivan dropped his week-old scruples, signed the Pelvis for three appearances on his show at eight-week intervals, beginning in the fall. Sullivan will pay 21-year-old Presley the astronomical price of $50,000, or close to $17,000 per appearance--$2,000 more than he could have had him for if he had made up his mind a week earlier.

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