November 2, 2017
Volume 47 - No. 43 by Friedrich Gomez
It was a sunny day in March of 1964 when San Diego Mayor Frank Curran’s office was stormed by Beatles fans demonstrating and carrying signs that read, “Bring Us the Beatles!” It was a friendly demonstration with Mayor Curran laughing and smiling broadly. San Diego was not officially on the Beatles’ tour schedule for that summer and San Diego’s Beatles fan club president, Kathy Sexton, organized the protest which was recorded by the print media. The fact that the Beatles overlooked San Diego as a stopover point in their first 1964 U. S. concert tour did not sit well with Beatlemania fans here. Now, for the second straight year, the Beatles 1965 U. S. Tour schedule, again, did not include San Diego and Beatles fans here decided they had enough, and loudly vocalized their discontent with Mayor Curran’s office, entreating him to intervene on their behalf and bring the moptops to San Diego.
Little did anyone know at the time that a historic change of events would place San Diego on the world map and the Fab Four from Liverpool, England, would acquiesce to their rabid San Diego fan base.
The Beatles had initiated the immortal “British Invasion” and the world of music had never, before or since, seen anything like it. The revolutionary British group already had their first American television exposure on NBC’s widely popular “The Tonight Show,” on January 3, 1964. But, on that first televised occasion, The Tonight Show host, Jack Paar, only presented them via film footage. The Beatles would not make a ‘live appearance’ on American television until February 9, 1964, on The Ed Sullivan Show. It was there, on The Ed Sullivan Show, that they would make incredulous history. The Beatles would be watched by a staggering viewing audience of over 73-million strong, in over 23-million households across America. Such an expanse of humanity glued to their television sets would amount to 34% of the entire population of the United States. It was a massive, unprecedented, and historic televised event. The The Paper Paper -- 760.747.7119 760.747.7119
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“According to the Nielsen ratings audience-measurement-system, the show had the largest number of viewers that had been recorded for a U. S. television program, to that time.” This, according to official television rating records.
The Beatles would morph into, arguably, the greatest and most influential rock ‘n’ roll group in world history. They would, most definitely, reshape the land-
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scape of American pop culture and seduce millions, worldwide, to their every beck-and-call. Like the seductive sounds of the ancient Sirens of Greek mythology, rabid Beatles fans would charge their stage, dodging security personnel, scaling barriers and fences, screaming uncontrollably, with girls succumbing to a dead faint in the wake of pandemonium. By the hundreds, riot police often carried these star-struck fans --
their limp, unconscious bodies -to safety.
The world of entertainment had never before seen anything like Beatlemania. In city after city, John, Paul, George, and Ringo, became a lightning rod of sorts. This unlikely foursome, springing forth from unpretentious beginnings in Liverpool, England, would do nothing short of revo-
When the Beatles Came to Town Continued on Page 2