Vince Calandra, Who Stood-in For George Harrison on Beatles’ ‘Sullivan’ Rehearsal, Dies

Vince Calandra, second left, stands in for George Harrison during the “Ed Sullivan Show.”

Courtesy SOFA Entertainment/CBS

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Vince Calandra, Who Stood-in For Harrison on Beatles’ ‘Sullivan’ Rehearsal, Dies

by Greg Brodsky

The Best Classic Bands

Paul McCartney with ‘Ed Sullivan Show’ talent exec Vince Calandra, during The Beatles’ rehearsal on February 8, 1964.

Vince Calandra, a talent executive for The Ed Sullivan Show who famously stood in for an ill George Harrison, wig and all, at the dress rehearsal for The Beatles’ legendary first appearance on the program in 1964, died July 19, 2025. His death at age 91, was shared by Jeff Abraham, a television publicist, pop culture historian and longtime friend of Calandra’s. The cause of death was not immediately known but Abraham attributed it to old age.

Calandra, was 23 years-old when he got the coveted job as the Sunday night TV show’s “cue card guy,” beginning in 1957. When The Beatles first appeared in February 1964 it was a milestone moment in American pop culture and the beginning of Beatlemania and the British Invasion in music. Seemingly every moment of their arrival in New York was captured by television cameras and news reporters, and thousands of screaming teenagers surrounded the Plaza Hotel where they were staying.

In a 2020 interview with Best Classic Bands, Calandra recalled when he was asked to stand in for Harrison during the band’s rehearsal the day before. The so-called “quiet Beatle” remained at the Plaza convalescing when Paul McCartney, John Lennon and Ringo Starr arrived at the Sullivan studio. Initially, the group’s road manager, Neil Aspinall, stood in for Harrison. But he was called away when he received a call that Louise Harrison, George’s sister, was being refused entry at the hotel.

“I had an instant rapport with them,” Calandra told Best Classic Bands. “John had asked me how long I had been with the show. And he wanted to know about some of the groups that had been here. He said, ‘What about Buddy Holly and the Crickets?’ And I said, ‘John, if you walk two steps to your right, that’s where he stood on the show. I held cards for them.’”

The Beatles’ Sunday night broadcast drew an estimated 73 million viewers, at the time a new record for U.S. television viewership.

Watch the Beatles perform “I Want to Hold Your Hand” on The Ed Sullivan Show, Feb. 9, 1964

Calandra got his start on the show, fresh from his service with the Army. “They were looking for somebody to hold cue cards. Some of the secretaries thought I was a cute guy… blonde hair, crew cut, the whole bit. I went down to the theater and met Mr. Sullivan. He took an instant liking to me. I was a street guy, brought up in New York. Never went to college. He felt a bond with me. I knew all the movies and I was a sports fanatic so I could talk to him.”

He was the one who had to deliver the news to the Rolling Stones that the CBS censors required the group to change a key word in the song, “Let’s Spend the Night Together,” which precipitated the infamous Mick Jagger eye roll. “Mick wasn’t too thrilled,” he laughed as he recalled the moment with Best Classic Bands.

Not every rock act acquiesced. On September 17, 1967, The Doors defied Sullivan and the CBS censors by refusing to change the word “higher” while performing their #1 hit, “Light My Fire.”

Doors’ guitarist Robby Krieger’s reaction was, “We thought they were joking. Who were they kidding? Wanting us to change the lyrics on the number one song in America? We decided to just do the song as-is and maybe they would forget all about it. What could they do? After all, it was live television! So, yeah, we never played The Ed Sullivan Show again.”

Watch the infamous clip of The Doors on The Ed Sullivan Show

The Ed Sullivan Show created elaborate sets for many of the stars that appeared on the program. “We didn’t just put a performer in front of a camera, we produced [their segment],” Calandra recounted, with pride.

He later served as a talent coordinator and executive producer for variety programs and talk shows such as The Mike Douglas Show and The John Davidson Show, as well as producing many AFI specials.

Industry historian Jeff Abraham first met Calandra in 2003 when he interviewed him for the Television Academy. They became friends and Abraham also made sure to call him each year on February 8, the anniversary of his stand-in for Harrison at the Beatles’ rehearsal. Abraham recalls telling him in 2024, “I’ll call you in ten years. You’ll be 100.” “Go F yourself,” was his friend’s reply.