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The Maysles Bros film of the Beatles first 1964 arrival in the USA.


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Have you guys seen this movie? I can't believe I've never seen it before (though I'm sure I've seen short clips from it in various places).

 

At age 49, I'm still trying to piece together how and why The Beatles were the enormous phenomenon they were.

 

Just some things I'm picking up from this film:

 

 

 

 

Powerful forces in the American entertainment business had to have given the green light to The Beatles and fully planned a media campaign... even before they had laid eyes on the boys, or heard any of their music.

 

The boys were very young, and despite their Hamburg adventures, were nice English schoolboys and really had little idea of what they were in for in the States.

 

Certainly the lads could not have, in 1964, appreciated just how vast the USA was, and how many shades of political and religious opinion there were. In 1964, they could not appreciate , I am convinced, the reality of the South and the Bible Belt, nor could they fully grasp the differences between NYC showbiz... and LA showbiz. They could not know, I'm guessing, that some American cities were hardcore about the music-- like Boston and NYC, Detroit and Miami--- and that other American cities were more about one's physical appearance and visual style--- like LA and SFCA.

 

Sure, they knew that they were being "marketed" in the USA, but I believe they grossly underestimated to what degree. I think, in 1964, they did not yet think of The Beatles as a financial institution.

 

Part of the Beatles appeal in 1964 was that America had never before embraced an English musical act. Can you think of an exception? I guess there was Julie Andrews, but she was strictly Broadway in 1964. By the time the 1980's "British invasion" happened, an English pop act was no longer that big of a deal. I remember going backstage in 1983 with ABC and Peter Gabriel... They were producing some amazing, sophisticated, first-rate music... yet the audience I saw them play before was lukewarm and even antithetical: some Texas rednecks shouting that they were fags and should go home. (to my enormous shame)

 

Could The Beatles have been ushered into the USA-- barely two MONTHS after Dallas 1963---- by VERY high level voices anxious to divert the public's attention away from The Warren Commission and the LBJ accession?

 

God, the Beatles were skinny and slight in 1964! Not one of them could've weighed more than 140lbs. Nearly all the Americans seen in this film, too, were also very skinny.

 

 

 

Discuss.

 

[video=youtube;zgYvLRhvnKs]

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It only takes a few hysterical people to rile up a crowd. I think this was the case for The Beatles, Elvis, Justin Bieber...

 

:facepalm:

 

 

I think its more interesting how skinny people were and the timing of their arrival to cover up JFKs assassination. All pointless at this juncture...

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Is that the film where Paul is squatting on a suitcase in a hotel room trying to snap it shut? If so its been a couple decades since I've seen it.

 

The Beatles had it all, natural charisma, great tunes that kept on comming, humor, and they looked different than most Americans at the time. Watch an episode of My Three Sons or Dragnet and that's how everybody looked and acted. Combine that with the depressing days of the JFK funeral that you couldn't escape. It was on TV, the radio, in the paper, very depressing. I remember buying Beatle gum with a few pictures of them in each pack, it was like collecting baseball cards. Then all of a sudden they're in a movie like Elvis. Total media blitz on TV, film, magazines, the newspapers, radio, they filled a vaccum.

 

Did you know that George came to America first to visit with his sister? He hung out in her town for a couple of weeks and even jammed with a local band with his Beatle haircut. There's a DVD on Netflix you can rent, forget the name of it. McCartney mentioned they released a few singles in the US that flopped so the industry wasn't keen on them until they made it in the UK where they had crowds of people lining up to see them. Beatlemania started over there, in fact they conquered Europe first.

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Powerful
forces in the American entertainment business
had
to have given the green light to The Beatles and fully planned a media campaign...
even before they had laid eyes on the boys, or heard any of their music.

 

 

Not really. Their first album here, "Meet The Beatles" was essentially their second album, "With The Beatles", in the UK. They already had four huge singles---"Love Me Do", "Please Please Me", "From Me To You" and "She Loves You" and a hit album in the UK. Capitol passed on those early releases and they got farmed out to small labels in the US where they all flopped. So by the time of The Beatles coming over the US coinciding with the release of "I Want To Hold Your Hand", Capitol knew they had a huge phenomenon on their hands, they just needed to 'introduce' them properly to America.

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What he said...no conspiracy to push them on America. They were a refreshing shock to both the public and the business shortly after Kennedy's assassination. The business structure that built up around them came later, and they contro;;ed much of it (other than losing many of their song rights - another story). There are any number of good books. You kind of had to be there. That was the beginning of the baby boomers creating the trends and the business catching up and eventually learning to co-opt them.

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