Chapter 3 (1964-1966)
Chapter 3 (1964-1966) Beat Boy On Wednesday, February 5 th , 1964, The Knickerbockers News headline read, “New York Braces it self – Beatles Are Coming on a Wave of Rave ” The Associated Press story continued “A gear group with fringes that are fab crosses the Atlantic Friday on the crest of a rave wave. All of which, in British teenage jargon, the Beatles are headed for New York .” The article went on to describe the young British phenomenon including their hair cuts (“bell shaped black thatches that end in fringes nudging the eyebrows” , their Liverpool origins, their success on the British charts and of course, girls screaming and fainting whenever they appeared. The AP story finished with, “ In America, they will appear on Ed Sullivan’s television show for three weeks and will give two performances at New York’s Carnegie Hall.” America had been in a funk since the dreadful day in Dallas, November 22, 1963, when JFK was assassinated around 1:30 on a gray Friday afternoon. A little over two months later, things began to look up. Something new was happening. “The Beatles” were coming to the U.S and this was something an eleven year old boy could get excited about. A nonstop barrage of Beatle music rocked and jangled over radio airwaves. The major network nightly newscasts, watched religiously by Dad, began to report the Beatlemania hysteria erupting in England..Now households across America were primed for the Beatle debut on the Ed Sullivan show in a few short weeks. On Friday, February 7 th , 1964, the Beatles landed at Kennedy Airport in New York to a horde of teenage fans.
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