Fact #98620
When:
Short story:
During the day, with George Harrison in bed at The Plaza Hotel nursing a sore throat, the other three members of The Beatles enjoy a horse and carriage ride in Central Park, New York City, USA. In the evening, seventy-three million Americans tune in to watch their first US tv performance on the Ed Sullivan Show. Also on the Sullivan show is Welsh entertainer Tessie O'Shea, and The Beatles take the opportunity of being photographed with her.Full article:
Brian Epstein (manager, The Beatles] : Television is the most important side of show business in America. There are large numbers of local radio stations in every state, so there isn't really any American equivalent to shows like Saturday Club and Easy Beat .
There are hundreds of local newspapers too. So there is no question of getting one really big press story of The Beatles, because America doesn't have national newspapers.
George Harrison : The Sullivan Show was funny because I didn't attend the rehearsal. I was sick somehow on the flight over.
Louise Harrison (George's sister) : The doctor almost said no, that he couldn't do it because he had one hundred and four temperature. But they pumped him with everything. The doctor wrote down this big list of stuff. He was thinking about getting a nurse to administer the medicine, every hour on the hour. Then the doctor suddenly realised that I was there and was his sister and he said to me, 'Would you see to it?' And the doctor said too, 'It's probably just as well that you're here because I don't think there's a single female in this city that isn't crazy about The Beatles! You'd probably be the only one who could function around him normally.'
George Harrison : The band did a lot of rehearsal for the sound people. They kept going into the control room and checking out the sound. And finally, when they got a balance between the instruments and the vocals, they marked the boards by the control, and then everybody broke for lunch. Then we came back to tape the show, and the cleaners had been round and polished all the marks off the board.
Frank Gorshin (actor/comedian) : I was in Australia. I had been hired to play some clubs down in Sydney. Now, when I got to Australia, all I heard people talking about was The Beatles. And at that time, I didn't know what The Beatles were. This was something brand-new. When I finished playing in Sydney, I went directly to New York to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show. Now, I didn't know who was going to be on the show with me. And I'm up in my dressing room. I look out my window. And I see thousands of kids, and I'm wondering, How did they know I was going to be on the show? Subsequently, of course, I found out that The Beatles were going to be on, too.
I was notified to go downstairs and get ready to go on. Which I did. I went downstairs and stood in the wings. Somebody had just finished performing, and Sullivan was saying, "And now ladies and gentlemen... creating a sensation everywhere they go... let's really hear it for The Beatles!" Well, pandemonium broke out. It was nothing but screams. Kids jumping up and down. I had never witnessed that kind of adulation. The Beatles did their numbers, but I didn't really hear them. I heard nothing but the screams. I was consumed with the idea that they could do this to people, that they could get this kind of reaction.
Then The Beatles finished. When Sullivan came back on the stage, the kids kept screaming, right through his introduction of me! So when I walked on, already I was getting screams. I went through all my bits, and they just kept screaming. I did a routine called Stars Over Washington. The premise was that actors were becoming so involved with politics that I could see the day when they'd be running the government. I finished up, and those kids were still screaming.
Ed Sullivan : I have never seen any scenes to compare with the bedlam that was occasioned by their debut.
Lenny Kaye (guitarist, The Patti Smith group) : Seeing The Beatles on Ed Sullivan opened up a whole new landscape of possibilities for me. I had learned to play guitar in 1963 and saw myself as a lonely folk singer type, hoping to bemoan my fate in song. Seeing The Beatles changed everything and by the end of 64 I was in my first band, The Vandals, playing mostly the college fraternity circuit. Our motto was 'Bringing' down the house with your kinda music'. We played all covers - Money, A Whole Lotta Shakin' Going' On and a version of What'd I Say that included risqué verses about 'See those girls from Trenton State, That's where they teach you to masturbate.' I remember choosing a song off the radio so we'd be the first to play it, and it was You Really Got Me by The Kinks.
(Source : interview with Johnny Black, March 2015)
Steve Lukather (guitarist, Toto) : Life went from black and white to colour for me when I saw The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show.
(Source : video interview, 2018)
Tweet this Fact
There are hundreds of local newspapers too. So there is no question of getting one really big press story of The Beatles, because America doesn't have national newspapers.
George Harrison : The Sullivan Show was funny because I didn't attend the rehearsal. I was sick somehow on the flight over.
Louise Harrison (George's sister) : The doctor almost said no, that he couldn't do it because he had one hundred and four temperature. But they pumped him with everything. The doctor wrote down this big list of stuff. He was thinking about getting a nurse to administer the medicine, every hour on the hour. Then the doctor suddenly realised that I was there and was his sister and he said to me, 'Would you see to it?' And the doctor said too, 'It's probably just as well that you're here because I don't think there's a single female in this city that isn't crazy about The Beatles! You'd probably be the only one who could function around him normally.'
George Harrison : The band did a lot of rehearsal for the sound people. They kept going into the control room and checking out the sound. And finally, when they got a balance between the instruments and the vocals, they marked the boards by the control, and then everybody broke for lunch. Then we came back to tape the show, and the cleaners had been round and polished all the marks off the board.
Frank Gorshin (actor/comedian) : I was in Australia. I had been hired to play some clubs down in Sydney. Now, when I got to Australia, all I heard people talking about was The Beatles. And at that time, I didn't know what The Beatles were. This was something brand-new. When I finished playing in Sydney, I went directly to New York to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show. Now, I didn't know who was going to be on the show with me. And I'm up in my dressing room. I look out my window. And I see thousands of kids, and I'm wondering, How did they know I was going to be on the show? Subsequently, of course, I found out that The Beatles were going to be on, too.
I was notified to go downstairs and get ready to go on. Which I did. I went downstairs and stood in the wings. Somebody had just finished performing, and Sullivan was saying, "And now ladies and gentlemen... creating a sensation everywhere they go... let's really hear it for The Beatles!" Well, pandemonium broke out. It was nothing but screams. Kids jumping up and down. I had never witnessed that kind of adulation. The Beatles did their numbers, but I didn't really hear them. I heard nothing but the screams. I was consumed with the idea that they could do this to people, that they could get this kind of reaction.
Then The Beatles finished. When Sullivan came back on the stage, the kids kept screaming, right through his introduction of me! So when I walked on, already I was getting screams. I went through all my bits, and they just kept screaming. I did a routine called Stars Over Washington. The premise was that actors were becoming so involved with politics that I could see the day when they'd be running the government. I finished up, and those kids were still screaming.
Ed Sullivan : I have never seen any scenes to compare with the bedlam that was occasioned by their debut.
Lenny Kaye (guitarist, The Patti Smith group) : Seeing The Beatles on Ed Sullivan opened up a whole new landscape of possibilities for me. I had learned to play guitar in 1963 and saw myself as a lonely folk singer type, hoping to bemoan my fate in song. Seeing The Beatles changed everything and by the end of 64 I was in my first band, The Vandals, playing mostly the college fraternity circuit. Our motto was 'Bringing' down the house with your kinda music'. We played all covers - Money, A Whole Lotta Shakin' Going' On and a version of What'd I Say that included risqué verses about 'See those girls from Trenton State, That's where they teach you to masturbate.' I remember choosing a song off the radio so we'd be the first to play it, and it was You Really Got Me by The Kinks.
(Source : interview with Johnny Black, March 2015)
Steve Lukather (guitarist, Toto) : Life went from black and white to colour for me when I saw The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show.
(Source : video interview, 2018)