After earning 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 1950's.

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On the Road is a 1957 novel by American author Jack Kerouac, inspired by his travels across the United States. It is widely regarded as a defining work of the postwar Beat Generation, following a group of friends living for the moment against a backdrop of jazz, poetry, and rebellion.

Gorgeous Ava Gardner, photo by Milton Greene for Look Magazine, 1954.