50 years later, fans remember the thrill of meeting the Beatles
By Jon Blau, Herald-Times, Bloomington, Ind. | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
Waves of anticipation for the British band came in December of 1963, when a radio station in
He scheduled them for three appearances, all in a row.
They didn't.
"It was like bombs detonating all at once," Gass said, "and we all watched at the same time."
Nobody had ever seen anything like the Beatles, Gass said.
They were perfect for their time. While parents reviled them, kids bounced on the couch as the Beatles started their set on Sullivan's show with "She Loves You." In the years to come, they would define what love meant.
The Beatles' unveiling on the Ed Sullivan Show, Gass said, coming only months after the assassination of President
"We couldn't dream them up in a million years," Gass said. "But we all said, 'Yeah, that's right. That's exactly right.'"
Of course, not everyone was easily swayed.
They used to talk down about the Beach Boys, one of Wildman's favorites. But, when the Beatles arrived, the Beach Boys became "clean-cut, American kids" to his gas station colleagues.
The Beatles defined the divide between the young and the old in the 1960s, and Wildman and his girlfriend were below the threshold for cynicism when they tuned into the "Ed Sullivan Show," watching from her parents' house. Wildman just wondered how they could wear their hair so long.
His girlfriend liked Ringo the most.
"John, Paul and George all sounded like they could be pope names," Wildman said. "Ringo was a rebel."
Her reaction was more tame than most. She bounced, but no screams. Wildman may not have been as sucked in, but he decided, as a guy, if girls were interested in it, he should be, too.
There was one girl at his high school in
He remembers his classmate saying she wished no one would scream when the band came on stage, so she could actually hear the music.
When one Beatle stuck his leg out from behind the curtain, she was the first one to scream.
With her father sitting at her side, earplugs in and eyes on his newspaper,
The only sound being screams.
"Every other female in the
From the Roberts family home in
Her father might not have enjoyed the fact that, on
It didn't matter that she couldn't hear them. At least she could see them.</p>
Years later, her brother, who was also at the concert, gave her a picture of Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr with the Indiana State Fair Queen. Her sister's daughter, on the other hand, stole one of her many albums, "Meet The Beatles," framing it and bringing it to graduate school on the
"I want it back," Roberts said, laughing.
Experts like Gass have to remind themselves and the general public about how short a recording history the group actually had. It was only seven years, but the depths of the band's successes almost maintain their perpetual youth in everyone's eyes.
Their last album, "Let It Be" in 1970, came before any of the band members turned 30.
But they hooked a generation, and where their parents wouldn't accept the Beatles, "Beatlemania" spread from the children of the '60s to the generations to follow.
Growing up, Baker had strict parents. She didn't plead too vigorously about going to the state fair, because she wasn't even allowed to go to the movies. Her parents listened to classical music, and her older sisters were hooked on Presley.
But, after hearing the Beatles on WIBC Radio in
"It was the right time and place for my generation," Baker said of the Beatles' appearance in the '60s. "It propelled us forward."
Fifty years later, just as many years have been spent collecting Beatles memories. She plans on bequeathing her stash, much of it in storage containers, to her 26-year-old son.
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