NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 1964
AMERICA CATCHES BEATLEMANIA
See how The Beatles managed to break into the great America on page 2.
BREAKING NEWS
An earthquake occurred yesterday in Alaska at 5:36 PM on good friday. Across south-central
Alaska, ground fissures, collapsing structures, and tsunamis resulting from the earthquake caused
about 139 deaths. Lasting four minutes and thirty-eight seconds, it was the most powerful
recorded megathrust earthquake in the U.S. and North American history, and the third most
powerful ever measured by seismograph. It reached a moment magnitude of 9.2, making it the
third strongest earthquake ever recorded in history.
Read more at page 6.
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efore 1964, The Beatles weren’t known
at all in America. In fact, no store had
any of their records, and the first
imprints spelled the name of their band
wrong: B-E-A-T-T-L-E-S.
The “Fab Four” were not even sure that they
would conquer the USA one day because
Americans did not know them at all.
“We felt very insecure,” Ringo Starr told CBS,
“because the previous summer, George
Harrison had been to America. The four of us
were on Vee-Jay and Swan Records then, and
we couldn’t sell anything. He was going into
shops, and asking: ‘Have you got any Beatles
records?’ And they were saying no. When he
came back, he said: ‘Oh, it’s going to be tough.
They don’t know us over there.’”
B
When they landed in New York City airport on
the morning of 7 February 1964, the “Fab Four”
were welcomed by five thousands of fans,
mostly young girls. “All we knew was that a
couple of the records had done well in the
States. We believed there was still a huge
mountain to climb if The Beatles were really to
make it there.” John Lennon said
“There were millions of kids at the airport, which
nobody had expected. We heard about it in midair. There were journalists on the plane, and the
pilot had rung ahead and said, ‘Tell the boys
there’s a big crowd waiting for them.’ We
thought ‘Wow! God, we have really made it!’”
said Paul McCartney.
They were also assailed by two hundreds of
reporters, photographers and cameramen from
the radio, the television and the press clamoring
for their attention. This unbelievable figure was
due to the media which had informed of their
arrival, and The Beatles had to do a press
conference to answer all the questions fired by
the hundreds of journalists.
On Sunday February 9th 1964, The Beatles
performed on a famous show: The Ed Sullivan
Show. 50 000 persons wanted to get a ticket,
but only 728 lucky people got one. However, 73
The Beatles started to be listened to in America
million people watched the show on TV, an
in December of the year 1963, when DJ Carroll
amount of 40% of the American population.
James played their song “I Want To Hold Your
Hand” on a famous radio: WWDC. This song
Who would have known that four banal students
became their first hit over there
from Liverpool would become that famous in
.
such a short amount of time? Now that they
have millions of fans all around the world, they
In February 1964, newspapers and magazines
sure must think that they will stay in the spotlight
began talking about The Beatles. They were
for the rest of their life, and we hope they will!
even mentioned on TV, said to be “a
phenomenon.”
Article written by LECOEUVRE Laëtitia & JACQUET Marie.
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