New Book To Reveal How One Girl Brought The Beatles To America
When The Beatles landed on American radio, it began the British Invasion of rock and roll, but how they got here – long before the days of the Internet – is a story that started with JFK’s assassination and ends with a girl who called her local DJ.
Photograph of The Beatles as they arrive in New York City in 1964
photo/Library of Congress
According to the forthcoming book Changin’ Times: 101 Days That Shaped a Generation by Al Sussman, The Beatles had not yet hit the American charts much when, in 1963, CBS Evening News had planned to air a story about their overseas success. It was bumped from its original airdate because on that same day — November 22, 1963 — President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Texas.
For the next couple of weeks, CBS anchor and managing editor Walter Cronkite saw fit to shelve the story, giving Americans time to process what had happened to their president. On December 10, he felt Americans could use something a little lighter and decided to air the piece on the mop-topped British band.
That’s when Marsha Albert, a 15-year-old girl from Silver Springs, Maryland, saw the belated airing of the CBS report, liked what she saw and heard, and wrote to her favorite nighttime disc jockey, Carroll James of WWDC in Washington to ask if he could play some music by The Beatles. James then obtained a copy of their new British single, “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” and had Marsha introduce the record on the air. And, in a scene straight out of Hollywood movies, the request lines into James’ show lit up like the Christmas trees then somewhat belatedly beginning to glow in homes around the country.
Check out the full article on DoYouRemember.com.
AUTHOR: DoYouRemember.com
DoYouRemember (www.DoYouRemember.com) is the web’s premier site where modern people indulge their passion for nostalgia. We feature vintage-inspired pop culture news, and help users discover retro products while sharing their memories.
