Beatles

               It was 8:12 Eastern time on February 9, 1964.  After a commercial break for the pain reliever Anacin, it was time for The Ed Sullivan Show from New York City to resume.  The show was named for a former publicist and reporter, turned television host, Ed Sullivan. 

                Sullivan had been told a few days earlier that four lads from Liverpool, England were in a group they called the Beatles. They had already generated an unbelievable amount of excitement among teenagers in the United States. He had been told of the group’s popularity in England, and was encouraged to have them on his show.  And now they were about to perform to screaming teenagers in their studio and to a national audience. 

                And, as important as anything else, Sullivan had heard that the four Beatles were clean cut.  The four lads were not like Elvis Presley. 

                When word had gotten out days earlier that the Beatles were going to perform on The Ed Sullivan Show, CBS was bombarded with 50,000 ticket requests.  Only a fraction could actually been given tickets.  But sixty percent of American television sets were now turned to CBS.  The viewing audience was estimated at around 74 million.  It was an Ed Sullivan Show coup.  

                Teenaged girls screamed as the band opened with “All My Loving”.  That was followed by a solo from the Broadway hit, The Music Man, “Till There Was You”. The group then sang “She Loves You”.

                The name of each of the Beatles was flashed on the screen. However, there was a caption next to John Lennon’s name that he was married.  Some of the enthusiasm of the audience evaporated. 

                Before the show was over, the Beatles also sang “I Saw Her Standing There” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand”.  The United States embraced them. It had only been a few months since President Kennedy’s assassination.  Americans needed something refreshing.

                The British Invasion had arrived on American soil. British groups such as the Rolling Stones, from Newcastle, The Hollies, from Lancashire, The Zombies from Hertfordshire, The Dave Clark Five from London, as well as another Liverpool group, Gerry and the Pacemakers, and many others, had hits in the United States following the Beatles.  American groups such as The Byrds and The Buckinghams named themselves to appear as if they were British. 

                The Beatles were guests on The Ed Sullivan Show the following week as well, from Miami Beach.  The audience was just as enthusiastic. 

                But it was the first show on February 9, 1964, which people remember to this day.

                You might be saying to yourself that you have some Beatles items. Well, here is a sample of the most valuable Beatles items ever sold. 

·         The handwritten lyrics of “Nowhere Man” by John Lennon sold at auction for $455,000.

·         Lennon’s handwritten lyrics of “A Day in the Life” went for $1,200,000 and his “All You Need is Love” lyrics sold for $1,250,000.

·         George Harrison’s guitar that he used in the recording of the “Revolver” album sold for $567,000.

·         One of John Lennon’s decaying molars went for $31,200. Rumor has it that it was bought by a dentist.

·         The White Album numbered “0000001”, which presumably was the copy Ringo Starr had, fetched $790,000.

By the way, an unused ticket from that February 9, 1964 Ed Sullivan Show was auctioned for $9,375. Pretty impressive for a television show ticket. But it was not just any ticket.  It was a ticket for a show that served as the opening of a new era in American cultural history.