Beat up by The Beatles

A couple of years ago I featured comedian Morty Gunty’s lead-in to The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show from February 23, 1964. This week’s This American Life on NPR has a fascinating segment about the comedy act that preceded The Beatles, before the second set on their first Ed Sullivan Show appearance, February 9, ’64. Click here to listen to it, then watch this video, through the commercial and on to the fab boys. I’m one of those who feels what happened that evening cannot be overstated. And it wasn’t only the kids getting caught up in the excitement. Look for the grown woman in the audience.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2009/JAN/McCallBrill.flv 480 360]

There are two Star Trek connections in that video. When I tell you what they are I’ll show you Davy Jones, later of the Monkees, who was also on the bill that night.

P.S. According to WordPress this is post #1500, but I actually passed that number a while ago. Unfortunately, nearly 100 posts were lost in the great database debacle in June ’07.

4 thoughts on “Beat up by The Beatles”

  1. Now that we know that was just a young adult female, bravo for her taste in music. And remember, it was DAD who bought “Beet the Meatles,” I mean “Meet the Beatles” because he could just smell and see the talent but looking at their photo! It’s interesting how I’m beginning to like some of Molly’s music now. I had to give up the old “my generation had the best music” prejudice that we all have!

  3. There’s a bit of storytelling in their story. For example, John Lennon wouldn’t have been wearing granny glasses. At that time he wore Buddy Holly style black plastic rims. Paul also needed glasses, and there are pictures of the two of them together wearing them. Paul’s two front teeth were false even then. Trivia, but when everything else is known about something, trivia is all that’s left.

    The woman in the audience clawing the air during “I Want to Hold Your Hand” didn’t stand out?

  4. The “Enquirer” had a incredible photo of Paulie and his LATEST bird running on the beach, but I can’t find that so I’ll e-mail that to you separately. I’m not sure who the grown woman in the audience is; there are several. I swear I can see Ethel Kennedy in one shot. There’s another woman with bleached blonde hair, lots of jewelry, and a bald, amused husband (?) sitting next to her. Yes, Davy was there, too.

    The NPR show was brilliant. I WANT THOSE NAPKINS! Since the comedic couple is still married, they must have gone on to some success! You have to give them a LOT of credit for keeping their cool and pulling off an improvised sketch on such short notice. However, Ed was right; it would just go over the kids’ heads. However, one of them, Mitzi or her husband, was very smart to include the Beatles reference. I remember seeing an interview on them where she said she had “absolutely no memory of being on stage that night.”

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