Q: Do you know American slang? Are you for real?Paul McCartney: For real.
John Lennon: Come and have a feel.
Q: Aren’t you afraid of what the American Barbers’ Association is going to think of you?
Ringo Starr: Well, we run quicker than the English ones, we’ll have a go here, you know.
Q: Listen, I got a question here. Are you going to get a haircut at all while you’re here?
The Beatles: No!
Ringo: Nope.
Paul: No, thanks.
George Harrison: I had one yesterday.
Ringo: And that’s no lie, it’s the truth.
Paul: It’s the truth.
Q: You know, I think he missed.
John: Nope.
George: No, he didn’t. No.
Ringo: You should have seen him the day before.
Q: What do you think your music does for these people?
Paul: Er…
John: Hmm, well…
Ringo: I don’t know. It pleases them, I think. Well, it must do, ’cause they’re buying it.
Q: Why does it excite them so much?
Paul: We don’t know, really.
John: If we knew, we’d form another group and be managers.
Q: What about all this talk that you represent some kind of social rebellion?
John: It’s a dirty lie. It’s a dirty lie.
Q: What do you think of Beethoven?
Ringo: Great, especially his poems. (Muttering to the others) I’m sick of that one.
Q: Have you decided when you’re going to retire?
John: Next week.
Paul: No.
John: No, we don’t know.
Ringo: We’re going to keep going as long as we can.
George: When we get fed up with it, you know. We’re still enjoying it.
Ringo: Any minute now.
Q: After you make so much money, and then…
The Beatles: No.
George: No, as long as we enjoy it, we’ll do it. ’cause we enjoyed it before we made any money.
After the press conference The Beatles were asked to say their names in the order in which they were standing at the microphones, as their individual names were still largely unknown to the American press.
Upon leaving JFK Airport, McCartney, Harrison and Starr got into a limousine, while John and Cynthia Lennon took another. Brian Epstein, Neil Aspinall and Mal Evans had to hail a taxi to get to their hotel in Manhattan.
I remember, for instance, the great moment of getting into the limo and putting on the radio, and hearing a running commentary on us: ‘They have just left the airport and are coming towards New York City…’ It was like a dream. The greatest fantasy ever.
The group and their entourage were staying at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan. The scenes there were as chaotic as those at the airport, with hundreds of fans being held back by the police, 20 of which were mounted on horseback.
That evening a near-constant stream of guests visited The Beatles in their 10-room, 12th-floor Presidential suite, including The Ronettes, Murray the K, and George Harrison’s sister Louise, who lived in Illinois.
At 6pm that evening The Beatles gave a telephone interview to BBC presenter Brian Matthew, to be broadcast on the next day’s radio show Saturday Club.
The Beatles’ first trip to America was filmed, not only by assembled crews from various television outlets, but by a team inside the entourage. A documentary was being directed and produced by brothers David and Albert Maysles, co-funded by Granada Television in the UK and with Brian Epstein’s NEMS company retaining some editorial control.
The Maysles took cameras virtually everywhere during The Beatles’ two weeks in America, providing a unique and insightful document of the unfolding events. These included scenes from inside their hotel suite and limousines, rehearsals for The Ed Sullivan Show, inside JFK Airport, Murray the K broadcasting, and The Beatles in Washington DC and Miami Beach.
Also on this day...
- 2013: Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band live: CBS Canterbury Arena, Christchurch
- 2012: Paul McCartney to headline Queen’s diamond jubilee concert
- 2012: US album release: Kisses On The Bottom by Paul McCartney
- 1970: John Lennon and Yoko Ono appear on The Simon Dee Show
- 1970: George Harrison produces Govinda by Radha Krshna Temple
- 1967: Filming: Penny Lane
- 1965: John and Cynthia Lennon return to England from Switzerland
- 1964: UK EP release: All My Loving
- 1963: The Beatles live: ABC Cinema, Wakefield
- 1962: The Beatles live: Cavern Club, Liverpool (evening)
- 1962: The Beatles live: Cavern Club, Liverpool (lunchtime)
- 1961: The Beatles live: Merseyside Civil Service Club, Liverpool
Want more? Visit the Beatles history section.
was there a stopover in boston before the beatles landed in N.Y. on feb 7 1964? i had heard of this happening several times but nobody seems to be sure if this happenned or not. Or should i ask did the fly from england to n.y. or was there a stopover first in boston?
I’ve never heard or seen anything to provide evidence of a Beatles stopover in Beantown on their first trip to America unless you want to count these words – “When I was a robber in Boston place, you gathered round me with your fine embrace” sung by Paul and heard on Anthology 3.
Boston Place is a street in London where Apple Electronics (headed by Alexis ‘Magic Alex’ Mardas) was based in the late 60s.
You may have never seen or heard of any, but i assure you the thousands of us screaming in Harvard Square can certainly remembet they were. I was one of the lucky ones… my Dad put me up on his shoulders so i could see. So,YES THEY WERE IN BOSTON!
You are remembering a different occasion. This flight was direct to JFK.
No, you are incorrect! The Beatles first flight to New York stopped in Gander, Newfoundland, first.
Boston Place is also the side road where the opening scene of A Hard Day’s Night was filmed as they ran toward the camera and where George fell while the balance of opening song was filmed in and in front of adjacent Marylebone Train Station which was off camera left in those first exciting moments.
What ever happened to that same plane they flew on (Pan Am Flight 101)? Anyone know where it’s located or if they scrapped it?
The Panam 707 aircraft in question has been scrapped.
My dad was a Pan American Pilot and he was the Pilot on the plane that flew the Beatles to America!!!!
Wish I had more information from him…… He was a grump I thought! I asked him if he got their autograph!!! He said “why?” Heck, I could be a millionaire now!!!! Damn!!!!
Suzanne Asher
Suzanne- that’s AWESOME that your dad was the pilot of the flight. i’m trying to research a rumor i was told that my grandfather was also on this flight sitting next to Brian Epstein or Neil Aspinall. He was a famous ice skating coach, full name Montgomery Wilson, but he went by Bud. i’m trying to find out if he was a passenger on the plane. Can you or anyone assist? i’d be forever grateful!! i’m at 4sandywhite@gmail.com. Julia Sidford
I think my uncle Glen Parks was also a pilot on that flight. Am I right?
Music is nourishment for the soul,Beatles music is a feast!PEACE!
Doubtful.
http://www.masslive.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2014/02/greenfield_womans_father_pilot.html
The 707 was Clipper Defiance – scrapped in Long Beach in 1977. It was sold to Air Vietnam in 1973, incidentally, then repossessed by Pan Am.
50 years ago today they’re in London preparing to leave. 50 years ago tomorrow they’re off for the US. I wonder what was going through their minds the night prior to the departure. Very exciting.
Fifty years ago today a truly historic moment as the greatest of the british bands without question arrives in America for the first time. Four lads from Liverpool who have forever shook the world
I was a flight attendant for NWA & was at NY airport when Beatles landed
I know dozens of people who were there, even though they weren’t born yet.
And they are poutingly jealous of those who were on the plane with them, even though also not born yet.
I was born already at the time, but I wasn’t on the plane with them because I arrived late at the airport.
Saw Beatles in Dodger Stadium in ’66. What a show. Limo had to turn around in center field and head for the dugout cause fans jumped from center field bleachers. Beatles played on 2nd base for about 45 minutes. 45,000 crazy fans that night including me!
Does anyone know when the Beatles left America after the British Invasion? I am creating a time line for history fair.
If you mean the first visit, they got back to England on February 22nd, 1964.
My understanding is the Beatles stopped over in Boston – very briefly – when they were traveling from England to the States for their 1966 U.S. tour (they would return to Boston less than two weeks later to perform at Suffolk Downs Racetrack). I never heard of them landing in Boston in February 1964, but I suppose it’s a possibility (despite their apparently being no footage of such an event). They did, however, perform at the Boston Gardens in September 1964.
I grew up in NY. Back in the 50’s to 1984 before moving on. I lived with a friend three blocks down from where John Lennon lived. We had a small studio and played music an recorded stuff all the time. I worked as a roadie setting up stage equipment at clubs and played just for myself for fun. Also worked on guitars and made dulcimers. We would hang out side of our building on the side and play on our guitars with our giant stereo blasting along. I was really getting into playing my electric guitar and goofing around dancing when (John and Paul) came walking by and stoped to hang out and listen. At first I had no idea who they where. And they kind of made fun of the Beatles song playing on the radio as I played and song along. I told them how much they influenced me and we loved them no matter what. My friend started to laugh at me cause I was clueless at first. We all had a good laugh as we introduced each other. Very kool afternoon that was only lasted a hour or so but great none the less.
PHIL SPECTOR WAS ON THAT PLANE AS WELL
I feel rather embarrassed for the American “reporters” who asked those ridiculous questions of the Beatles in that presser. I guess they were caught up in the frenzy themselves and lost their professionalism there…sad.
It just shows how “the establishment” had no idea how to react to the Beatles phenomenon, or to anything else about the youth culture at the time.
I was only 11 years old when the Beatles arrived in America. That was the start of my love affair with them. I never got to see them in concert but knew all the places they were playing at each concert. Many years later I had the thrill of seeing Paul McCartney and Wings in Miami, Florida. Couldn’t see much of the stage as I was too far up in the arena, but huge screens of the band could be seen. And I was so thrilled anyway!!
There was no live filming of the Beatles rehearsals for the Sullivan show.