On Jun 23, 8:27=A0pm, saki  wrote:
> pete wrote:
> > On Jun 23, 6:46 pm, saki  wrote:
>
> >>Prescience indeed, but it certainly helped that Sullivan, just a week
> >>before Brian Epstein's visit, was passing through the airport in London
> >>at the same time the Beatles were making their triumphant return from S=
weden,
> >>greeted by happy hordes of fans.
>
> > I don't think this story of Sullivan's has ever been
> > corroborated by an independent source.
>
> The most current independent (i.e. non-Sullivan) source is a
> London-based theatrical agent, Peter Prichard, who worked with Jack
> Babb, Sullivan's European-based talent coordinator. Prichard tried to
> interest Babb in the group during the summer of 1963 but the Beatles'
> fame was still slowly building. Babb wasn't interested at that time.
>
> Prichard also knew Brian Epstein and contacted him in early November
> 1963 to urge a meeting between Brian and Ed Sullivan, which Prichard
> helped set up. Sullivan mentioned to Prichard the airport reception he'd
> witnessed in London and this, according to Prichard, was one reason
> Sullivan was interested in booking the Beatles.
>
> Bruce Spizer's "The Beatles Are Coming!" (2003), pp. 54-55, has some
> good details about the situation. Prichard was one of the sources
> consulted by Spizer.
>

Thanks, I'm aware of this. I still think the story is apocryphal.
Sullivan
published several columns a week in the NY Daily News. Check
out autumn of 1963 and ask yourself why there's a dearth of
Fab mentions and certainly no airport story. Ask yourself, too,
what Sullivan and his wife were doing in England on a Thursday,
between broadcasts.

Sorry, I think this story is too pat but has been repeated so many
times that it's accepted as truth.

--

All follow-ups are directed to the newsgroup rec.music.beatles.moderated.    
If your follow-up more properly belongs in the unmoderated newsgroup, please 
change your headers appropriately.   -- the moderators
--
--- SBBSecho 2.12-Win32