Short answers, pulled from the story.
Arthur Hammerstein built the Ed Sullivan Theater between 1926 and 1927 as a memorial to his father, Oscar Hammerstein I. He paid $1.5 million for the land and hired architect Herbert J. Krapp to design the interior in the neo-Gothic style, intentionally resembling a cathedral.
The Beatles made their debut performance in the United States at CBS Studio 50, the future Ed Sullivan Theater, in 1964. The theater hosted The Ed Sullivan Show, where the performance took place.
The Ed Sullivan Theater currently has 370 seats. The original Hammerstein's Theatre was designed with 1,265 seats; the number was reduced over successive renovations, most recently when new, larger audience seats were installed during the 2015 renovation for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
The Late Show broadcast its final episode from the Ed Sullivan Theater on the 21st of May, 2026, when CBS canceled the show for financial reasons. The Ed Sullivan Theater hosted the Late Show franchise from 1993, first under David Letterman and then under Stephen Colbert starting in 2015.
The Ed Sullivan Theater holds New York City interior landmark status, designated by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in January 1988 and ratified by the Board of Estimate in March 1988. This designation legally requires the building to remain a theater and prevents its demolition.
Before television, the theater served as a CBS radio broadcast playhouse beginning in September 1936, known as CBS Radio Theater No. 3. Before that it operated as Hammerstein's Theatre (a Broadway house), the Manhattan Theatre, and Billy Rose's Music Hall, a nightclub whose operations drew involvement from mobster Lucky Luciano and an investigation linked to J. Edgar Hoover.