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From: saki 
Newsgroups: rec.music.beatles.moderated,rec.music.beatles
Subject: Re: Is this true?
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Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:36:14 -0500
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pete wrote:

> Thanks, I'm aware of this. I still think the story is apocryphal.

So you're aware that Peter Prichard remembered Sullivan telling him 
this, but dismiss it as apocryphal? This is a source independent of 
Sullivan, it's worth noting.

> 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.

Two questions for you: Are the archives for the NY Daily News available 
online or via microfilm? Have you checked this source yourself?

I don't mind checking it too if the material is available. But before I 
do, here's a theory. It's possible that the crowds at London Airport 
impressed Sullivan to the point where he would remember the hysteria 
but, being unfamiliar with the group's actual performance or musical 
abilities, he didn't comment in his own column on the group. At 
that time he would have known nothing about them, merely a name.

The New York Times did run a small piece on Nov. 4, 1963 about the 
Beatles' reception at London airport several days before. It focused on 
the group's reception at the airport and contained no other substantive 
information, merely noted the maniacal fans in the airport. As far as I 
know this was the first mention of the Beatles in the American press.

> Ask yourself, too,
> what Sullivan and his wife were doing in England on a Thursday,
> between broadcasts.

I always understood that they were checking out European talent on a 
quick get-away, mixed with a mini-vacation.

I haven't looked at the television listings for the prior weekend. The 
Ed Sullivan Show was weekly and prior air date would have been October 
27, 1963, unless it was preempted by something else. Was the show on 
October 27, 1963 a live performance or a repeat? Worth a perusal, I think.

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

I understand, and I'm all for revisiting legendary tales to make sure 
there's something substantive to them. But this particular anecdote 
appears to have legs, and does have a source independent of Sullivan 
himself.

----
saki{at}ucla.edu

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