Friday, February 7, 1964: The Beatles arrived at the newly named JFK Airport in NYC on PanAm Flight 101 to a hero’s welcome. Thousands of screaming fans clogged every inch of the airport and terminal to get the first glimpse of them coming off the plane. (Yes, the only way to get off an airplane in 1964 was on steps taking you down to the ground! Then you had to walk outside for a while before you got the entrance door.) Here is a link to a YouTube video marking the occasion. The Beatles were blown away by the reaction. It was just the beginning…
The Original & Longest Running Beatles Celebration, Since 1974!
Just noted the date, & today’s the 47th anniversary of the Beatles arriving in the US. My my – I was 11 going on 12 then. They were magic to us. Bless the young ones today who love them, however unless you were young then, you will never know just how magical the Beatles were to us. No one but us can understand. I watched some of the Anthology the other day that we had taped off of Lifetime years ago…something happened and I am off in a Beatles dream again…probably because the world has become too mean, too hateful. Lets start that dream again, with Love, with imagination, sound and color.
I agree with Lanie that the world is becoming more hateful–but as Beatles fans, our responsibility is to remember and be inspired by the creativity, love and acceptance of the Beatles and all other artists that follow their truth. If you are in Southern California on February 25th, you are welcome to come to a free event that I organized to honor George Harrison’s b-day. We will be showing Help, Ed Sullivan, special guests and look a like contests. It will be at Rockin’ Fro Yo. I used to do a cable show “Rock In the Rough” which interviewed WASP, Big Bang Babies (one of the players went on to play guitar for Alice Cooper, Keri Kelli, and the Coop’s 1st band was the Earwigs (blatant!). I would like to interview George’s fans to hear how George influenced their lives at put it on RITR. Anyway, I started to really be influenced by George based on a dream that I had recently, and I believe that he would like us all to honor his memory by showing how loving, kind and creative that we can be! I hope to see you at Rockin Fro Yo between 830 -1130 on 2/25. (corner of Fairfax/SM Blvd, WEHO) We are trying to keep it open and hope to have other artists showcase their music if this is a success!!!
That day, 2/7/64 was my favorite beatles date in history the Beatles arrived at NYC’s John F. Kennedy Airport and were greeted by over 45,0000 screaming girls. They were given a tour in a horse-drawn carriage of central park and they took pictures there, except George, who fell sick with tonsilitis and was unable to attend the ed sullivan rehearsals and Neil Aspinall filled in for him and took his place. The Beatles stayed at the plaza hotel and they were a bit nervous about their american tv debut. Two days later, Sunday February, 9th at 8:00 pm the Beatles made their first U.S. television apperaance on the Ed Sullivan show performing their first american number one, I Want to Hold Your Hand. This is the day Beatlemania began, ten years later, in 1974 Mark Lapidos went to John Lennon telling him we should do something to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Beatles arrival in America he told John about the idea of a Beatles fan convention with trivia contests art museum look-alike contest Beatles lip-sync special guests charity raffles auctions concerts and a marketplace. And John’s exact response is “I’m all for it I’m a Beatles fan too!”
According to Sir George Martin, if the Beatles wouldn’t have got a number one single in the U.S. charts they would not have came to America. It all happend when the Beatles came back to their hotel room from their concert in Paris, at the Olympia theatre Brian Epstein rushed in their room and shouted, “Boys, you guys are number one in the U.S. charts I want to hold your hand is number one in America!” When the Beatles heard the news they rode around the room on Mal Evans’ back