Andrew Solt has been added to the line-up of special guests for Elvis' Birthday Celebration.
Andrew will sit down with Argo for a Q&A about Elvis' appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" exactly 60 years to the day of the historic television performance at the Official Graceland Insiders Reception. Tickets are on sale now.
Andrew Solt is an Emmy- and Grammy-winning, producer, director, writer and documentary filmmaker. He owns the rights to The Ed Sullivan Show library and has created over 100 hours of new programming from the archive. Andrew has done a number of documentaries on the history of rock and roll, including feature films about rock icons Elvis Presley and John Lennon. His entertainment output also includes numerous specials and series for broadcast and cable television.
In 1979, Andrew teamed with producer/director Malcolm Leo to create one of the first documentaries about rock music, a two-hour television special called "Heroes of Rock and Roll." Other Solt productions in the music genre include "25 x 5: The Continuing Adventures of the Rolling Stones" and "Elvis: The Great Performances."
In 1990, Andrew purchased the exclusive rights to the complete library of The Ed Sullivan Show from Ed Sullivan’s daughter Elizabeth and her husband Bob Precht. This collection consists of 1,087 hours of kinescopes and videotapes that CBS had broadcast between 1948 and 1971 on Sunday nights. Included in the archive are over 10,000 live performances by virtually every popular entertainer of the post-war era, highlighted by appearances of Elvis Presley and the Beatles. The three shows from the 1950’s featuring Elvis Presley, including the last one where he was shown only from the waist up to censor his pelvic gyrations; and the American television debut of the Beatles in 1964 which attracted 73 million viewers have become part of television history.
Andrew's production company, SOFA Entertainment, cataloged, organized and cleared rights for the original shows. Over the years the shows have been edited into varying formats including network specials, half-hour series (airing on TV Land, PBS and Vh1), home video compilations, as well as iTunes video and audio downloads.
One of the earliest Ed Sullivan Show compilations produced by Andrew and SOFA Entertainment was "The Very Best of the Ed Sullivan Show."
Andrew has also created several DVD sets of the historical Beatles and Elvis appearances in: "The Four Complete Ed Sullivan Shows Featuring the Beatles" and "Elvis—The Ed Sullivan Shows." Each consists of restored versions of the entire shows on which the Beatles and Elvis appeared, including all the other acts as well as commercials.
Andrew's work has also included the writing, directing and production of a number of feature films. In 1981, "This is Elvis," the first in-depth film biography of Elvis, was produced, written and directed by Andrew and Malcolm Leo. The documentary includes Elvis performances, rare home movies and the first look inside Graceland. In 1988, Andrew released the critically acclaimed film "Imagine: John Lennon." The film, an intimate documentary about the most rebellious member of The Beatles, was executive produced by David Wolper, produced and directed by Andrew as well as co-written by Andrew and Sam Egan.