A *SPECIAL* TODAY IN BRIAN EPSTEIN HISTORY
February 9 1961 -- This was the first time the group played The Cavern under the name of The Beatles. The club would become forever associated with the group. This was a humble beginning to the saga - an unadvertised lunchtime session. George arrived in blue jeans, which were banned from the club, but fortunately he was able to convince the bouncer, Paddy Delaney, that he was part of the act. The club was small - each of the three vaulted arches was only five chairs wide -and airless, but it was free of violence despite the tightly packed audiences.
...John had first played The Cavern in August 1957 when The Quarry Men were a skiffle band, and skiffle was seen as an adjunct of jazz, but under the new management of Ray McFall, the venue had now adopted a broader booking policy.
1964 -- February 9, 1964 will be remembered as the day the Beatles made their first appearance on American television on the Ed Sullivan Show.
In front of a studio audience of just 728, this legendary performance set broadcasting history by being beamed to 23,240,000 homes, reaching an estimated 73 million people ... and it grabbed a record breaking 72.7% of the market share in the ratings!
♥ ... It is said that during the show, no crimes were reported in New York City ... ♥
The unlikely team of Brian Epstein and Ed Sullivan catapulted the boys' popularity into outer space with a mania that would last throughout the decade and continue forever after that.
Brian then had his boys pre-record another appearance on Sullivan's show to air on February 16, when they'd be back home in England.
 | ...STORY BEHIND THE FIRST SULLIVAN SHOW: Studio 50, West 53rd Street. Rehearsals for The Ed Sullivan Show took up the morning. Once again, Neil Aspinall stood in for the ailing George, but The Beatles' guitarist was sufficiently improved to appear for the actual taping of their performances.
In the afternoon The Beatles recorded numbers for another Ed Sullivan Show to be broadcast after they had left the country. This would be their third show - their first was to be done live that evening and the second was to be a live show from Florida on February 16. For the "third" show, they recorded 'Twist And Shout', 'Please Please Me' and 'I Want To Hold Your Hand'. There was a different audience for the third show recording than that which attended the live transmission that evening. Other guests included Gordon and Sheila MacRae and The Cab Calloway Orchestra.
That evening, for the 8pm live show, The Beatles performed 'All My Loving', 'Till There Was You' and 'She Loves You' followed by an Anacin advert. Then came Ed's other guests - Georgia Brown & the Oliver! Kids (including Davy Jones, who would in a couple years become a Monkee), Frank Gorshin, Tessie O'Shea - and the show closed after a Kent cigarette advert with 'I Saw Her Standing There' and 'I Want To Hold Your Hand'. Thirteen-and-a-half minutes of television had changed the face of American popular music. The Nielsen ratings showed that 73,700,000 people had watched The Beatles on Ed Sullivan, not just the largest audience that Sullivan had ever had, but the largest audience in the history of television.
Half an hour before they appeared on stage, Brian Sommerville handed them a telegram: "Congratulations on your appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show and your visit to America. We hope your engagement will be a successful one and your visit pleasant. Give our best to Mr. Sullivan. Sincerely, Elvis & The Colonel." George read the telegram and asked, deadpan, "Elvis who?" |
After the show Murray the K took The Beatles, minus George who still had a sore throat, to the Playboy Club, where Paul remarked: "The bunnies are even more adorable than we are." Protected by a police escort, they risked walking the few blocks to 59th Street where they were quickly ushered up to the Penthouse lounge for dinner. Afterwards they went on to the Peppermint Lounge, home of the Twist, where Ringo excelled at twisting to Beatles tunes with a young dancer called Geri Miller. They left at 4am.
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christine~_________________________
(Always on the lookout for Epstein photos)
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