The Beatles
Feb 9, 1964

Beatle History

The Beatles arrived at the newly named John F. Kennedy Airport in New York aboard Pan Am Flight 101. The Beatles had flown to America to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show. However, this might not have happened had it not been for Walter Cronkite and 15-year-old Marsha Albert from Silver Springs, Maryland.

Although the Beatles were a hit in Britain, Capitol Records had rejected the group four times. On November 22 when JFK was assassinated, the CBS London Bureau filed a report on the Beatles. Just a few days later on December 10, 1963, Walter Cronkite decided that Americans needed some good news, so he aired the report. Marsha Albert saw the report and sent a letter to a D.C. radio station requesting that they play a song by the Beatles. The radio station in turn contacted a British airline and a stewardess was directed to buy a copy of "I Want To Hold Your Hand" in England. When it arrived in the US, the radio station played the song hourly.

About that same time, Ed Sullivan attempted to land at Heathrow Airport but was diverted to an outer location for disembarking. When he inquired about the commotion that he could see out his window, he was told that a group called the Beatles had just landed.

By January 1964, Capitol Records had rushed the song into American record stores and it hit the charts as the number one single. Just three weeks later, 73 millions Americans watched the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. That was 30% of all Americans when many homes did not even have a television, and it was said that even the crime rate dropped!

Sources: Parade Magazine, CNN, beatles.com
 


The Beatles, WOW. It sure seems like years ago that the late Dianna Bohannan, Linda MacDonald and others thought Ringo Starr was the cutest thing that ever happened. We often discussed the FAB FOUR whenever we were on the road as a baseball, volleyball or basketball team. How Coach Voegtli ever tolerated the music, I don't know.

I vividly remember Bruce Watchman being the first to wear the boots and the first to wear that particular hair style. Sure brings back a lot of memories.

Shortly after the Beatle mania, it was the Monkeys, as I recall. I certainly can remember the 45 & 78 RPM and the record player. My son who is 23 now couldn't figure out what the arm was on the record player. We hooked up that ole record player to show him how it worked, the sound was not the best but he got the idea. Wonder if the record player is considered an antique. Ha!! Ha!! It sure is wonderful to stroll down memory lane.

Thanks for sharing.
Betty "Bea" Boyd, class of 69
 


The attachment of the "Beatles" was really cool. I really enjoyed both pics. It may have been many years ago but believe me it seems just like yesterday. And yes, I still love the "Beatles" and I still listen to them. Thanks for the pics.

Nonie Shebala-Lonjose
Class of "71"
 


Hey there,

Yes, it's Billy Speicher's car!! Some good times were had in that car!

Sue Speicher/McCauley class of 80'
Hi Eileen,


My name is Darlene Barstow, Class of '71'

I just want to thank you for telling your very interesting story because it brings back a lot of fond memories that seem like it was just yesterday. Although I remember the Beatles era well, my sisters and I were too young to really appreciate that period of time. I do remember that our family only had a small black and white TV that our father seldom let us watch, but we had our little transistor radio to listen to when he was not around to make us do our chores.

I remember the untouched beautiful hills and areas we use to hike and climb and the quietness that was almost deafening; the summer camps at St. Michaels Church and having the fathers and sisters for teachers; the Wednesday night CYO meetings and basketball games.

In fact, I still have a wooden letterbox holder that I made in a summer class when I was in 5th grade. It's amazing how your handwriting never changes. In making the letter holder, before gluing it together, we had to stain and varnish the individual pieces and in order not to lose our pieces, we had to write our name on each piece. Little did I know at the time, not to write in dark pencil, because after varnishing it, my name still showed through and my handwriting now is the same as it was then.

Although I was in high school when I started riding my fathers horse, Grey, after school, I had the same experience as you in getting Grey to go out away from home into the hills. I really enjoyed being out alone in the wilderness and running into herds of wild horses and being challenged by the stallion of the group. But as soon as I would turn Grey around and say lets go home Grey, I was lucky to make it back in one piece, but I loved to run her fast.

Our dog Smokey was a huge dog, half Wolf and German Shepherd that I had to tie up before leaving for my ride, because he did not like Grey.

Upon returning one day, Smokey had gotten loose and charged her. I had never seen him so vicious with the look to kill. Smokey had brought down sheep in the area so I knew I was in a bad situation, but Grey was also very big and strong. My father used her for riding high up in the mountains for hunting Elk and she knew how to defend herself. Be that as it may, I was caught in the middle of a fierce fight and could do nothing in getting Smokey to back off. I tried to stay on Grey while she bolted and jumped, but knew it would be more dangerous to stay on, so like you, all I could do was jump off and hold on to the reins for dear life.

I was eventually able to get between them while Grey continued to kick. By the time I got hold of Smokey, well, let me say, he avoided me for about the next month.

The more I write, the more I remember, so I will stop here.

Eileen, thank you for sharing your story.

Darlene Barstow, Class of '71'


 

Was so long ago, I don't think I was even able to watch as we were probably watching Bonanza, my Dad's favorite show, if it was a Sunday evening.

Lydia Hubbard-Pourier, Class of 66


I'm too young to remember.....ha.....

Christine Pitts McDonald
Class of 1965



I was in front of the TV set watching, even though I was a Beach Boy fan at the time.

Jim Robertson
Class of 1965


Hi Nancy.

I've been enjoying the Beatles related emails that have been coming in lately, so I thought I would toss in one of my own. I was only eight years old back then in '64, and didn't really have a clue of the Beatles scene going on. I remember watching them on the Ed Sullivan TV show, and it didn't make much of an impression. I thought it was kind of stupid.

But then my parents decided to throw a birthday party for me and invited all the kids in our circle/circus. One of those kids, Bobby, brought along a 45RPM single of the Beatles "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" to the party and my parents gladly brought out the record player to play it, and we all went wild - wouldn't you know. Now, I thought the record was a birthday gift, and after Bobby told me he brought it to the party just to play it, and it really belonged to his older sister and wasn't a gift, I was heartbroken. At that point in my life I decided that I would get that record and find out what all this exciting music was all about. A dyed-in-wool Beatles fan was born at eight years old, and it has never ended even now.

Bill Truesdell
Class of '74


Nancy,

To put it nicely, considering the age of some of my peers, I was "only" 8 years old at that time. So, as I recall, I was at the kitchen table doing homework for "spelling" for the next day. If you believe that, I have some property in Florida for sale.

Rod Hewett


That's a great picture of the Window Rock! All that snow, however, gives me a chill. I hope my teeth stop chattering before my golf game tomorrow morning....

Still lovin' California
Tim Worley '67



How about this one for memories. Is one of these Billy Speicher's car????

Christine Pitts McDonald
Class of 1965