The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show – July 12, 1964

It was back on February 9, 1964 that the Beatles made their first of three appearances that month on The Ed Sullivan Show. For many TV viewers, it was their first exposure to the mop-topped quartet, and the event is seen as the official start of Beatlemania, as well as the British Invasion of American popular music. And music has never been the same since.

The three appearances of the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show were rebroadcast during the summer, and that's what being promoted above on the Journal TV page of July 11, 1964.

There was certainly a lot of Beatles music played in our house while I was growing up. My older sister was a big fan, and had all the albums. Consequently the Beatles provided a sort of soundtrack for memories of those days. 

My three siblings and I each had a favorite Beatle (mine was goofy Ringo) and we each had one of the Beatle dolls. In later years, we turned over our dolls to my sister so she had a complete set.

We watched the TV cartoons on Saturday morning and had the Beatles "Flip Your Wig" game by Milton Bradley.

My parents played along with our Skyline Drive version of Beatlemania, taking us to see Help! (1965) when it came out in the theaters. I think we saw it at the Lorain Drive-in. I can almost play that album in my mind, sixty years later.

I kind of lost interest in the Beatles when they got into drugs and the hippie look, and started getting arrested frequently. I remember going to see Yellow Submarine (1968) and not liking it as much as the TV cartoons because of the psychedelic art.

For me the last straw – decades later – was a series of rude and insulting comments that Paul McCartney made about President George W. Bush, both during his presidency and afterwards. The remarks were classless and it changed my personal opinion of the Beatle.

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The pop quartet have popped up on this blog before. This post dealt with Beatle wigs on sale at the Patio Room adjacent to the Colony; and this post announced the availability of those Beatles dolls at Rigbee's Bargain Town.

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The TV listings on that July 11, 1964 page has some goodies. There's a Bowery Boys movie (In Fast Company) on Channel 8 at 6:00 PM and later that night, one of my favorite movies – Niagara.