How Did They Mic the old 50's bands?

The 50's might be a tad too broad a range in this case, the recording industry was growing, and driving changes (improvements) in technology at a rapid pace.
 
Ribbon microphones did rule the roost, at least in the USA.
 
Stereo recording came about somewhere in the mid 1950s, prior to that it was all mono, and some studios would mix several microphones together to create that mono track - but mixers were pretty rare too.
 
The studios and control rooms were pretty crude by today's standards as well, well, that's not entirely fair, some of the sound stages of that era were really quite remarkable, but the smaller studios were not.

With all of that seemingly working against them they still made great recordings!!
 
Many of the recordings from the first half of the decade were made with a single ribbon microphone direct to disc, which in this case was wax master<G>. As the decade wore on they did start using more microphones, and they did start to record to stereo (actually left, center, and right).
 
You might want to do some surfing for information about Harry Olson, Bing Crosby and Les Paul, all of whom had quite a bit to do with early advances in recording, and happened to be smart enough to capture some of that history.

It's watching Elvis sing but there no apparent mic by him. So I think they had a mic in front and the band played soft enough so that the vocals would come through.

I will check out that tune Rain.

 
That's Christmas w/ an attitude! :P

At first I thought that TV clip was perhaps mimed, as things are slightly out of sync. However at the end when Elvis starts to speak, you can hear the buzz of the amplifiers come through.
 
So however it was done it was pretty good. Maybe the song was played live along with the record, but the audio from the record was sent to air, not the live performance. Then perhaps not.
Just watched the video again and there is a part where the vocal fades a bit and then returns. Who Knows...

Rain

 
That's Christmas w/ an attitude! :P

That's what I'm talkin' about!  

quantumeffect
I don't think the audio and video in the top video from the television show are sync'ed correctly.  I think I hear the clapping on 2 and 4 but see it on 1 and 3.  Also, there are two short snare rolls fairly early on in the song (at around 0:25), the first one is visually almost in time but the second one is off. 

I found a video clip of the same event that is in sync and just updated my first post with it.

ok,  I take back what I said about miming,  but when he goes into Hound Dog his voice is lost almost entirely...
 
 
Incidentally, I spotted a mic under the piano.
 

Great pic Dave.  Where did you find that one?  Maybe they had a few of these hanging down but the mix sounds almost like one mic.  

I agree bit about the lack of rehearsal these days.  I just watch the documentary on "The Basement Tapes" and was impressed at how hard those great artists worked in a short amount of time to write and put together those songs.
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/stream-the-new-basement-tapes-featuring-elvis-costello-and-jim-james-20141105
 
Not all of us are that talented but I was impressed at the energy they put into it all.  Relating back to Elvis or groups like his, when you consider the song, lyrics, singing, playing, and arrangment for playing their songs live back in that day, there really was a huge amount of talent coming from the artists compared to the audio/studio production.  That is what I like most about the old stuff.  

Here is an article that might help...recording Ricky Nelson in the 50's. http://www.prosoundweb.com/article/inside_the_techniques_used_to_record_rick_nelson/
 
Ben

Yep, probably by the '60's the sound was wrecked in a way, with more infatuation with tampering by then popular groups -Beatles, Kinks, Yardbirds, others.
 
Don't forget the  Ricky Nelson website, where you can hear a song when getting browsing to it.
http://www.rickynelson.com/
(click on link)
Now, it is just mediocre home consumer equipment anyone can buy, not the simple type recordings of yesteryear.

 

Glad my superfluous research skills have assisted lol
 
Ben

quantumeffect
There were a number photos from other Ed Sullivan Show performances that showed an overheard mic.  This was the only one I found that (I think) was associated with the performance that Rimshot was asking about and showed any sort of mic placement.

Overhead mics were and still are standard TV studio practice. Occasionally you saw floor mics when filming music but overhead booms were used so people on stage could move around unhampered, the view wasn't cluttered and more sound could be picked up with fewer mics. Some recording studios used them too. Johnny Carson's desk mic was just for show ya know.
 
And the reason they sounded so good might have something to do with using one or two mics that, by today's prices, run in the $15,000 and up category. Also, anything you are hearing today is almost assuredly a digital remake/remaster of the original. To hear the true sound quality of the original record, get it out and play it on a real record player.