RichL wrote:

> The story of Marsha doesn't preclude the idea that thousands of other
> young ears were stimulated by that December 1963 CBS Evening News piece,
> including my own.  Unfortunately, the web story that marcus refers to is
> couched in the hyperbole of present-day entertainment news reporting.
> 
> "Had it not been for a then-15-year-old suburban Washington, D.C. girl
> in 1963 and CBS News, you might never have heard of The Beatles"?  Come
> on, give your audience credit at least a modicum of intelligence.

True! There were pockets of airplay in the USA and Canada prior to the 
WWDC event.

WORC-AM in Worcester MA was playing both "She Loves You" and 
"I'll Get 
You" (the latter was more popular than the former) in September 1963. I 
talked to their former program director at one time, who was sincerely 
convinced that *his* station had launched the Beatles.

> I have no doubt that the underlying story is true, as saki says; I have
> seen references to it elsewhere, and I wouldn't be surprised if I had
> seen it discussed earlier in RMB or RMBM.  But the self-inflating
> conclusion of CBS news that the Beatles might have remained unknown in
> the US had it not been for its own news story and Marsha's response is
> utterly absurd.

Absurd is putting it too mildly. I'd rate it as a notable pile of 
codswallop, myself.

----
saki{at}ucla.edu

--

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