Tweet The Beatles! How Walter Cronkite Sent The Beatles Viral... in 1963!

As we mourn the passing of the remarkable Walter Cronkite -- my mind goes back to the first time I met him -- and how I learned about his unheralded, but crucial, role in the breakthrough of the Beatles in America.

For the title of this essay is true in its broadest sense. Walter Cronkite set in motion the 1960s equivalent of the Beatles going viral.

A full two months before Americans "met the Beatles" on the Ed Sullivan Show -- Americans met them on Cronkite. He made the decision that "tweeted" (via TV in those days) the Fab Four to the American masses -- and triggered the series of remarkable events that led to 73 million people tuning in to see them on the Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday February 9th 1964.

Yes I know that the popular misconception is that the Beatles achieved their U.S. breakthrough because of the Ed Sullivan Show. But that is actually completely erroneous. Think about it... How could four totally unknown foreign kids command a then record-breaking TV audience of 73 million -- which was 40% of the US population? The equivalent of a TV audience today of 123 million.

The answer is that the Beatles weren't unknown in the U.S. by February 9th 1964. They had already been #1 on the U.S. charts for three weeks when that first Sullivan show aired. And that was almost entirely because they had been "tweeted" across America by Walter Cronkite on his TV news broadcast on a chilly winter night in 1963.

It was a chilly winter night 37 years later that I had the privilege of meeting this legendary broadcaster. Monday November 13, 2000. It was in New York City at the Manhattan Center. The Creative Coalition was honoring Cronkite and my pal Paul Shaffer with awards for their contributions to the arts. I was there lending a hand in the production of a musical tribute to Paul -- a performance by one of Paul's musician heroes -- jazz great McCoy Tyner. Once I had ensured that McCoy was happily set-up for his performance -- I made my way to the VIP reception where Walter Cronkite was holding court as a procession of well-wishers came by to pay their respects. I waited as folks such as Christopher Reeve, Richard Belzer, Ron Reagan and William Baldwin trooped by and greeted this American icon.

When my turn came to be introduced, I found myself immediately charmed by his twinkling eyes and warm presence. I asked him his recollections about the Beatles and he told me of a telephone conversation he'd had with Ed Sullivan after Sullivan had seen the Beatles on his news broadcast two months before their arrival in the US. I wanted to hear more -- but awards show receptions aren't conducive to long conversations -- so I made way for the next admirer -- intrigued by what he'd told me.

Three years later I found myself working with friend and fellow Beatles aficionado Steven Van Zandt on a grand salute to the 40th anniversary of the Beatles' first visit to the U.S. -- which we dubbed The Fab Forty. I'm a well-known Beatle-nut, but you can never know too much about the Fab Four, so as part of my research for our grand event I voraciously re-read every published account of that 1964 trip. I found myself increasingly fascinated by the incredible set of events that led to the Beatles' US breakthrough.

One new book titled The Beatles Are Coming did a very effective job of piecing together the story and it inspired me to write an essay at the time that distilled all the known research and recently unearthed facts of this momentous event in pop culture.

It helped bring into focus for me that -- alongside Beatles manager Brian Epstein -- one of the true heroes of the Beatles' initial success in America was undoubtedly Walter Cronkite.

I remember conveying this revelation to Walter Cronkite's dependable longtime right hand -- Marlene Adler. Steven and I were about to throw a raucous Beatles 40th anniversary party at New York's Hard Rock Café. I instinctively knew that our bash would not be a setting where the then 87-year-old broadcaster would be comfortable. Too loud... Too crowded...

So instead I sent him a copy of the DVD that had just been released of all the Beatles performances on the Sullivan show with a note that congratulated him on his essential part in the story. Marlene told me that "Mr. Cronkite" as she unfailingly called him, was indeed incredibly proud of his role in the Beatles' breakthrough in America. As he had every right to be.

I realize that Walter Cronkite's role in the Beatles' breakthrough is still comparatively under-sung. So I have dusted off my essay from five years ago, tweaked it a little -- and I present it here as my little tribute to the late -- but in Beatles terms incredibly early - Walter Cronkite.

HOW WALTER CRONKITE HELPED THE BEATLES
 CONQUER AMERICA

The story of how the Beatles first became successful in America is a fascinating tale - filled with astonishing coincidences. And more than a little help from Walter Cronkite... It's a story that very few people know.

They went from being virtual unknowns to mega-star status in just six weeks. On Christmas Day 1963 - practically no one in the US had ever heard of them.

By Sunday February 9th 1964, interest in the Beatles was so intense that a record audience of 73 million viewers tuned in to see the group's debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. (That was a staggering 40% of the US population at the time. The equivalent today of an audience of 123 million.)

How did it happen? Was it the music alone? The novelty of the haircuts? A nation yearning for something uplifting after the tragedy of President John Kennedy's assassination? A brilliant marketing scheme by their record company?

All of those elements played their part. And there was definitely a marketing campaign prepared by Capitol Records. But the Beatles also owe their initial success to a series of extraordinary events triggered by a decision made by Walter Cronkite.

It was a decision that resulted in a major TV segment about the Beatles airing on his CBS news broadcast on December 10th 1963 - two full months before the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. That TV segment inspired an enthusiastic 15-year-old schoolgirl living in Maryland to do something that caused the record company's entire carefully-calibrated timetable to be suddenly thrown out of the window and be brought forward by three weeks - much to the benefit of the Beatles.

This narrative explains the entire story in chronological sequence.


April 1st 1963 - October 31st 1963

In this 7-month period the Beatles go from being comparative unknowns in the UK to the most successful entertainers in British history. They become a phenomenon selling millions of records. They also conquer Europe.

But the Holy Grail of American success eludes the Beatles. Though there have occasionally been British records that have climbed the US charts - no UK act has ever achieved sustained success. So US record companies are naturally skeptical about the Beatles. Capitol Records - the US affiliate of the Beatles' UK label (EMI) - itself rejects the Beatles four times during 1963 - despite their British success. Two small independent American record companies (Vee-Jay and Swan) release Beatles records - but with no success. At this point their manager Brian Epstein and producer George Martin are beginning to despair. Then fate takes a hand...

Friday October 31st 1963

A chance encounter changes the Beatles' fortunes forever. Influential American TV variety show host Ed Sullivan is traveling to London Airport and his arrival is delayed by a riot of youngsters who are there to welcome the Beatles home from a tour of Sweden. Sullivan is intrigued by the fervor for this British rock 'n' roll group with the strange haircuts - and considers booking them for his show. Though at this point he probably envisions them making a single appearance as a quaint novelty act. A group of long-haired kids from stuffy old England having the temerity to try and play America's own music...

Tuesday November 5th 1963

Beatles manager Brian Epstein travels to New York for a previously-scheduled business trip. He arranges to meet Ed Sullivan on Monday November 11th and Tuesday November 12th. Though the group has no American record deal or prospects - Epstein persuades Sullivan to book his group for what will be an unprecedented three consecutive appearances on the show. Even more remarkably - without making a firm commitment on the point - Sullivan agrees to consider Epstein's passionate insistence that his unknown artists should headline the three shows. The first two shows are set for Sundays February 9th and 16th. (The third show is subsequently scheduled for February 23rd)

Mid-late November 1963

Epstein telephones the President of Capitol Records in Los Angeles and asks why the label keeps rejecting his group. Intrigued about a group whose recordings he has never heard (the rejections have been by a subordinate) the label president - Alan Livingston - decides to appraise the Beatles' latest record. He listens and then decides to over-rule his staff and sign the group. Skillfully using the promotional opportunity he has created of the three upcoming appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show - Epstein persuades Livingston to commit to a substantial promotional budget to launch the group. He convinces Livingston to spend $40,000 - a gigantic sum in those days for promotion. ($40,000 is the equivalent today of $250,000)

Saturday November 16th 1963

Determined to spark American interest in their upcoming US debut, Beatles manager Brian Epstein persuades Alexander Kendrick - head of the London bureau of CBS News - to shoot a news story for America about the phenomenon of Beatlemania that has engulfed Britain. So on this day - CBS sends a news crew to the quaint British seaside resort of Bournemouth where they film a Beatles concert and thousands of screaming teenage fans. They also grab a few soundbites from the Beatles. It will be the first major TV news story and interview with the Beatles to air in the USA. The film is edited in London and flown to New York to be broadcast.

Friday November 22nd 1963

It is customary then - as now - that TV news divisions amortize their costs by airing filmed news stories in more than one show. CBS News would often air a film segment on its mid-morning CBS Morning News - and then repeat it that night for the different audience that would watch the CBS Evening News. The Beatles film story airs on this day on CBS Morning News - hosted by Mike Wallace. Just two hours later President Kennedy is assassinated and all normal programming is suspended. There is no CBS Evening News that night - and the film can containing the Beatles segment is put away on a shelf...

Wednesday December 4th 1963

Capitol Records issues a barely-noticed press release announcing that it has acquired US rights to a young British music combo called The Beatles. Following conventional wisdom that it is pointless to issue new product in the holiday season - the Beatles' first Capitol release "I Want To Hold Your Hand" is scheduled for Monday January 13th. The Beatles are set to make the first of their three Ed Sullivan Show appearances just three weeks later - on Sunday February 9th

In those days - even the most successful new record would usually take a minimum of 6-8 weeks to climb the charts. So the most optimistic expectation of Capitol Records (at the time the release date was chosen) was that the first Beatles record MIGHT reach the Top 75 by February 9 - the date of the first scheduled Ed Sullivan appearance. And then those three Ed Sullivan appearances might then help propel the Beatles' record further up the chart.

There was certainly NO expectation that the Beatles might reach #1 by the time of their arrival in America. That would have been an insanely ludicrous aspiration. Nor that there might be any airport welcome, screaming fans or record-breaking TV audience. None of that would be remotely likely to happen in the short 3 weeks between the scheduled record release date and the date of the first Sullivan appearance. The forthcoming Ed Sullivan Show appearances are perceived as a device that may help make Americans become aware of this brand new group. That it might actually turn out to be a platform for the group to head into the stratosphere (having already reached #1 in America) is such an impossibility that it is just not on anyone's radar.

Tuesday December 10th 1963

Just as TV executives in 2001 waited for an appropriate passage of time to elapse after 9/11 before resuming normal programming - so TV news executives in 1963 waited for the right time to introduce lighter stories to relieve the deep post-assassination gloom. On December 10th - CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite feels that a nation recovering from the tragedy might be warmed by a light-hearted story. He recalls that there had been a fun film story from England about some long-haired musicians that had been shelved a few weeks earlier because of the tragic events in Dallas. He decides to air the story that night. It is a fateful decision for the Beatles...

Watching Walter Cronkite present the 4-minute story about the Beatles on the CBS Evening News that night is a 15-year-old schoolgirl living in Silver Spring, Maryland. Her name is Marsha Albert. And the chord that the Beatles strikes inside her - is about to accelerate the coming Beatles invasion to warp speed...

Wednesday December 11th 1963

Excited by the music of the Beatles that she experienced on the CBS Evening News - Marsha Albert writes to her local deejay - Carroll James, a disc jockey at Washington's WWDC radio station. She asks: "why can't we have music like that here in America?"

Thursday December 12th 1963

DJ Carroll James receives the letter. He too had seen the broadcast on CBS Evening News. He has never heard of the group. And he is oblivious to the fact that an American record company is planning to release a record by this British group in a month's time. The radio station policy is to try and please its listeners. So he resolves to find a disc by the Beatles. Since they are a success in their British homeland - he phones a contact in the DC offices of the British national airline (then named "BOAC" - now named "BA".) The friend arranges to have a member of the BOAC flight crew (then named "stewardesses" - now named "flight attendants") bring a copy of the latest Beatles record to Washington. A stewardess brings a Beatles disc to Washington two days later.

Tuesday December 17th 1963

Having received a copy of "I Want To Hold Your Hand" from England - Carroll James decides that its US premiere should be introduced by the young girl who had requested the record. He contacts Marsha Albert and invites her to the WWDC studios. She introduces the record with the words "Ladies and gentlemen for the first time on the air in the United States - here are the Beatles singing 'I Want To Hold Your Hand.'" (An audiotape of this historic moment has survived and can be heard here)

The oft-used expression "the phones lit up" does not begin to describe the reaction that WWDC experiences. Listeners phone in repeatedly to request the song. Carroll James and the radio station react by placing their solitary copy of the record in heavy rotation. The frequent playing of the record elicits even more listener response.

Wednesday December 18th 1963

Listeners start bombarding Washington record stores with requests for a record and artist that none of the stores have even heard of. The grassroots reaction has begun...

Thursday December 19th 1963

Executives at Capitol Records HQ in Los Angeles discover that a major Washington radio station is giving very heavy airplay to an imported copy of a record not due for release for another month. Anxious that this breach will damage its carefully timed game-plan - the first reaction of the record company is to request that the station STOPS playing the record! When the station indignantly refuses - the record company even hires an attorney to threaten a "cease and desist" order on the defiant station. Fortunately for the record company - and the Beatles - a wiser decision is made...

Friday December 20th 1963

Capitol Records President Alan Livingston ruminates that since record companies spend most of their time trying to get radio stations to PLAY records - that threatening a lawsuit to try to STOP a station playing a record is foolish. He makes a radical decision. Though the Beatles' record is not scheduled for release for another 3 weeks - and record companies never release new product in the period between Christmas and New Year - Livingston thinks that the incredible reaction in DC to the disc warrants the most unconventional of approaches. He orders that the record be rush-released on the very earliest date.

Because the manufacturing elements are already at the factories in preparation for the mid-January release - the company is able to effect the release in just one short week. Christmas leave for the staff of Capitol Records is canceled - and the machinery goes into overdrive.

Thursday December 26th 1963

The day after Christmas, radio promotion men from Capitol Records commence delivering the disc to radio stations in-person. The reaction is instantaneous. In New York City for example - the records are delivered at approx. 9am. By midday, three of the most influential radio stations (WMCA, WABC and WINS) are playing the record as incessantly as the Washington station. Major stations in other cities rapidly follow suit.

A crucial benefit of the spur-of-the-moment decision to rush-release the record the day after Christmas is about to manifest itself. During the Christmas vacation kids are out of school and at home - able to listen to the radio all day. That winter, most schools do not recommence till Monday January 6th - so for ten consecutive days that shook the American world - kids hear "I Want To Hold Your Hand" on their radios. (Had the record been issued on January 13th as originally scheduled - kids could not have heard the record at anything like the same frequency.) The impact on America's kids of exposure to so much intense airplay of the Beatles soon becomes apparent. Record sales take off like wildfire. The speed is beyond anything conjured up by the phrase "going viral"

Friday January 10th 1964

Just two weeks after its first release - sales figures indicate that the Beatles have sold over ONE MILLION records in the US. It is a staggering number by a previously-unknown artist. Especially from another land. Clearly the kids are reacting instinctively to something in the music. The Capitol Records marketing campaign hits full stride now. Millions of stickers bearing the legend "The BEATLES Are Coming!" are distributed. But the campaign does not CREATE Beatlemania. It simply fans the flames of what is already there. It builds on a genuine grassroots reaction to what kids are hearing on their radios...

Thursday January 16th 1964

On this day executives at leading industry trade journal Cash Box compile the sales statistics for the record charts that will appear in the next issue of the paper. The Beatles have leapt from #43 to #1. After being on sale for exactly three weeks - the Beatles are top of the American charts! The issue of Cash Box goes on sale on Saturday January 18th (with a cover date of January 25th) The rival trade publication Billboard lists the Beatles at #3 for the same week - and at #1 the following week. The word is officially out. The Beatles are obviously an unprecedented phenomenon.

Friday January 17th - Thursday February 6th 1964

For the next three weeks - three crucial weeks - Beatlemania explodes in America. Newspapers and magazines write reams of analysis of the phenomenon. Late-night TV hosts make jokes about them. A nation still aching from the gaping, emotional wound of President Kennedy's assassination finds a diversion. And the media reflects all this. Even though there is no MTV, no cable TV, no Internet - everyone in America knows that The Beatles Are Coming!

Friday February 7th 1964

The day finally arrives. Thousands of screaming kids waving banners descend on the newly-renamed John F. Kennedy Airport in New York to welcome the new conquerors. The day is dubbed B-Day to signify the Beatles Invasion - which will soon become a British Invasion.
Hundreds of cynical New York journalists crowd into a packed conference room at the airport to fire questions at this new teenage phenomenon. The universal attitude at the beginning of the press conference is that the peculiarly hirsute Beatles and the hysterical reaction to them at the airport is just another teen fad - like the Hula-Hoop. Questions are fired at the Beatles expecting them to be the stereotypical pop singers who will grunt laconic, monosyllabic answers. No one expects the exuberant, witty, self-deprecating charm of the Beatles. Gales of laughter greet their good-natured attitude. By the end of the televised press conference the Beatles have won over the toughest room in America - New York's press corps. After that - the rest of the nation is a breeze...

Sunday February 9th 1964

The Beatles perform six songs live on The Ed Sullivan Show. The show had received 50,000 ticket applications. Only 728 lucky people get tickets. 73 MILLION people watch on TV. A staggering 40% of the population. (Equivalent today to an audience of 123 MILLION.)


WHAT IF...

If the Beatles' "I Want To Hold Your Hand" had been released as originally scheduled on January 13th - at a time when America's kids were back at school - it is virtually impossible that the record could have been heard enough to generate the unprecedented momentum that drove the record to a million sales and the top of the charts in just three weeks...

If the Beatles had not been at #1 by the day they arrived in America (let alone #1 for three crucial weeks BEFORE they arrived in America) then there would never have been thousands of screaming teenagers to greet them at Kennedy Airport or outside the Plaza Hotel in NYC. Or hundreds of media scrambling to cover the Beatles at their JFK press conference. Without that hoopla - there is absolutely no chance that a record-breaking 73 million viewers would have tuned in that Sunday night.

The Beatles would still have succeeded in America. Of that there is no doubt. Their exuberant music and giddy optimism was an unstoppable force. But the sheer SPEED and MAGNITUDE of their breakthrough owes much to the unusual set of circumstances outlined above.


The heroes of this story? (apart from the Beatles of course)...

BRIAN EPSTEIN - the manager who would not take no for an answer. And who convinced Ed Sullivan to book his unknown group for three consecutive appearances as headliners. Then persuaded Capitol Records to sign and promote his band. Today he is an almost forgotten hero. You can help remedy that by signing the petition to have Brian Epstein inducted into the 'Non-Performers Section' of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.

WALTER CRONKITE - the news anchor who wanted to cheer up America after the Kennedy assassination - and chose just the right tonic for the nation.

ED SULLIVAN - the TV host who didn't 'get' the music but who instinctively understood the phenomenon - and gave it the unprecedented platform it deserved.

MARSHA ALBERT - the 15-year-old schoolgirl from Dublin Drive, Silver Spring, Maryland - who cared enough to write a letter to her local deejay...

CARROLL JAMES - the deejay who cared enough about a letter from a listener to arrange that an airline stewardess would bring him a record from London. And then refused to back down when a record company attorney instructed him and his station to stop playing the record.

ALAN LIVINGSTON - the record company president who signed a band already rejected four times by his own company - and who had the instinct to radically change an entire marketing campaign just 5 days before Christmas.

The rest is history...


Acknowledgment: This overview of the Beatles' American breakthrough draws on information in an excellent book titled "THE BEATLES ARE COMING! The Birth Of Beatlemania In America" by Bruce Spizer. (498 Press)

Follow Martin Lewis on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TheMartinLewis

Comments

[Tony Sachs - Huffpost Blogger]

What a fantastic post. I'm an obsessive Beatle fan but never knew about Marsha Albert and her role in breaking the Beatles until I read about it just now. Thanks for the great read!

[tamdayc]

the beetles were performing Black Music they had stolen and never gave credit.

[Martin Lewis - Huffpost Blogger]

Ignorance is a terrible thing.

1) The name is spelled "Beatles"

2) The Beatles were inspired by - and drew from a wide range of - music. Including a lot of the superb music created by African-Americans.

3) The Beatles went out of their way to always credit and refer to the many musicians who had inspired them - including their African-American heroes

4) When the Beatles came to America they talked publicly about those musicians - including Little Richard, Chuck Berry and were horrified to learn that the vast majority of Americans regarded those people as "has-beens" rather than revering them as pioneers.

5) The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Animals, Who, Yardbirds, Kinks, Eric Clapton and so many more British Invasion artists spent a lot of their time in America educating American media and kids alike to the wonderful heritage this country had of black music. And reached a huge number of people.

6) My deepest apologies that they apparently didn't reach you. But now you have no excuse for your gross ignorance.

[temenos]

Thank you Martin Lewis for that little bit of history. I am old enough to remember 1963 and a Huntley Brinkley Report somewhat earlier that year. It was David Brinkley who showed film footage of the Beatles in England. In his best "what's the world coming to" manner he mocked their haircuts and the young girls who mobbed them and the music they played. It just goes to show how prescient Walter Cronkite was and how out of touch his rivals were with popular culture.
i would imagine it took Brinkley some time to wipe the egg off his face.

[Martin Lewis - Huffpost Blogger]

You are correct in your recollection. Huntley/Brinkley showed a little Beatles footage - but just to mock the group and their deluded teenage fans, ie a mini "Oddball" type story about some weird fad in England The records indicate that that footage was aired on Monday November 18. I don't believe there is a kinescope of that news broadcast. It is fascinating to note that Brian Epstein's efforts to get the London offices of the news divisions of the US TV networks motivated to file stories about the Beatles resulted in all three networks sending film crews to shoot the band on the same night - Saturday November 16. In Bournemouth, Hampshire - a few hours drive from London. What happened then is interesting. Though ABC reportedly sent a crew - historians have not uncovered any evidence that the footage was used. NBC evidently rushed their footage (presumably on the Sunday) to New York - and the film was edited to allow Huntley/Brinkley to use it as an "Oddball" snippet.

[Martin Lewis - Huffpost Blogger]

But it was the CBS team who put in the effort. Their London bureau chief Alexander Kendrick took the time to shoot additional material, edit the footage and then send a polished story to New York. Of course he (being older) also mocked the Beatles a little - but he showed enough of them performing that TV viewers could make up their own minds. And they did... That story was shown twice on CBS, The morning of Friday November 22 - introduced by Mike Wallace - instantly over-shadowed by the tragic events of that day. And then again on Tuesday December 10 - when Walter Cronkite aired it and kick-started Beatlemania in the USA

[temenos]

Thanks for the reply. I find at my age that recollections from 46 years ago are crystal clear. However, what happened last week is sometimes a bit hazy. :-)

[jennbeez]

HuffPost's Pick

I'm not young enough to be a Beatles historian, but I do remember a Beatles performance on Ed Sullivan. My dad, a devout country and western man who believed the Beatles were going to take America to hell in a handbasket began tapping his feet in time to the music!

I was thrilled- there was hope that I might be able to retire my tinny transistor radio with the earplug that I secretly listened to at night. Maybe we could actually listen to the Beatles on the family stereo instead. Heady with enthusiasm, I pushed it by saying "don't they sound great, daddy?"

Just then the curtains opened up behind the Fab Four revealing an orchestra playing along with them! My dad red-faced at having been caught enjoying the band exploded, "Of course they sound good! ANYBODY would sound good with a whole orchestra drowning them out!"

Ah, the good old days. Glad they are gone. Nowadays I'm the one complaining about what passes for music on the radio.

[RepugsOut08]

My parents were devout C&W fans as well, but by 1969, they were listening to The Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel right along with me.
Somehow, they never quite took to Hendrix or Led Zeppelin though. ;)

[mjb784533]

Your timeline does not match the statements made by Cronkite that were aired on tonight's CBS Evening News. Cronkite claims that Sullivan called him after the news piece ran on December 10, asking for more information about "those kids". It is as if Sullivan had never heard of them yet he had already met with Brian Epstein on Nov 11-12 and signed them. Was Uncle Walter not telling the truth?

I disagree with your reason for ignoring the Jack Parr Jan. 3 airing of two complete songs just because he made some jokes during the first song. The second song was aired without interruption. He had introduced the piece positively, talking of a phenomenon that was happening in England. It was that broadcast, publicized and aired during what you discuss as the important Christmas vacation, which showed the kids of the U.S. how the English kids have been reacting to the Beatles and TAUGHT them how they also should react. That was an important factor. How else would they have known to scream, and cry, and faint, and react exactly as had been happening in England? I had been hearing The Beatles on short-wave radio for six months by then and had already received a large packet of newspaper and magazine articles from English pen pals, so in New Jersey I knew what to expect, but there had been no coverage of those crowds in the U.S. media anywhere near like what was on Paar.

[Martin Lewis - Huffpost Blogger]

Two excellent points - that warrant a full response.

First about the Jack Parr Show. It obviously had SOME impact - for those that saw it. It was a prime-time show and it had a large audience. It did not have the stunning impact that the Cronkite broadcast did. As clearly set out, Cronkite's broadcast triggered events that led to the crucial decision to release the Beatles record 3 weeks earlier than planned. Without that having happened - Parr's producers would never have even heard of the Beatles that early in the year. It was precisely because of the genuine wildfire sweeping the nation on radio from December 26 onwards - that Sullivan started trumpeting the forthcoming appearance on his show (which would have been a pointless thing to announce prior to their record being played on radio). And once the phenomenon was going and Sullivan was trumpeting his extremely fortuitous coup - it was a given that his rival Jack Parr would try to find a way to upstage Sullivan. Hence the clever coup of licensing footage from the BBC. Parr made fun of the Beatles and their fans a couple of times - not surprising. To the older generation it seemed like a looney teen fad. Sullivan was not so judgmental.

(More in my next response)

[Martin Lewis - Huffpost Blogger]

Those teenage girls who happened to watch that episode of Parr's show certainly got a primer in what British fans were doing. But that does not account for the vast majority of the Beatles original teenage girl fan base in the US. They screamed for the same reason girls screamed at Sinatra and Elvis. And that UK girls screamed at the Beatles. Only louder and more hysterically. Teenage girls then - as now - as always - havehad the facility to decide for themselves what makes them scream. And the US gals didn't need to see a couple of brief moments one Friday night on Jack Parr to teach them to scream at the Beatles.

Now to your very pertinent query about Cronkite and his conversation with Sullivan. Neither was lying. Though time caused memories to blur and recollections to became a little hazy.

[Martin Lewis - Huffpost Blogger]

First of all there is absolutely no doubt that Sullivan contracted the Beatles on those dates in November. There are signed dated contracts that prove it. As do the recollections of all concerned. It is also highly probably that after Sullivan made the commitment for something that was not going to take place for another 3 months - of an act that AT THAT TIME Sullivan probably thought would be a fun novelty act with negligible chance of having a hit BEFORE appearing on his show (remember that as of November 12th the Beatles still lacked a US record company - what on earth was the likelihood that this novelty act from the UK would have a #1 hit in the USA within just 8 weeks? Come on! An impossibility! So the contract for these English boys was signed - and then they were out of mind. He would think about them again a couple of days before their first appearance on his show. In February.

Imagine then his astonishment on December 10th to see a 4 minute film segment on the prime-time CBS News about these entertainers he'd signed - whose name (he being Ed Sullivan) it was altogether possible he'd forgotten in the intervening month (a rather news-filled month at that).

[Martin Lewis - Huffpost Blogger]

I'm sure that he did phone Cronkite and gently pump him for information about the act. Did he tell Cronkite that he'd already booked them for his show? Perhaps he did. Perhaps he didn't. In the immediate wake of the Beatles' breakthrough and the massive tsunami of media coverage recollections got very hazy. Cronkite was obviously rightly proud of his coup. And he enjoyed telling the anecdote about Sullivan phoning him. I believe that Sullivan did phone Cronkite. And I believe that that led Cronkite to quite understandably believe that Sullivan first SAW them on his show. Which he did. (Epstein did not bring kinescopes or films of the Beatles with him. Just records, press clips and photographs.) And that probably led Cronkite to make the assumption that his news broadcast had also prompted Sullivan to book the band. However, the contract dates now reveal that Sullivan had already booked them. In my conversations with Cronkite's assistant in 2003, I didn't want to raise a minor point that was in very gentle conflict with an anecdote that had been part of his social repertoire for 40 years. The fact remains that Cronkite and Sullivan were the first two heroes of US TV in respect of the Beatles. And Parr - motivated more by his rivalry with Sullivan - has a very honorable place after them.

[RepugsOut08]

Thank you for this wonderful article. As one who was there from the beginning of The Beatles' stunning career, I thank my lucky stars that I was born in 1954.
Those who didn't get to experience them first hand, can never know how unbelievably fresh and creative each new Beatles record sounded at the time. From "I Want To Hold Your Hand" (which I thought was being sung by a black group the time I first heard it. Such was the state of mediocre pop music being offered by white artists in those days) to "Come Together" from their last recorded studio album, they always pushed the envelope of both creativity and quality. We'll never see their likes again.

[unitron]

If Sullivan's show had been on NBC instead of CBS, would footage about them have aired on Huntley-Brinkley instead?

(the DuMont network probably had as much chance of landing Sullivan as ABC in those days)

[Martin Lewis - Huffpost Blogger]

A good and fair question. Two responses.

1) There was zero connection between the story being on Cronkite's CBS News and Sullivan's CBS show. Just a good coincidence. In those far-off days - there was a firm divide between the news and entertainment divisions. So there was absolutely no suggestion made by Sullivan to the CBS News division that it ought to run a story on the Evening News in order to promote the upcoming appearance on the Sullivan shows. A far cry from today's elastic network ethics. In fact the only connection was that both shows were the result of the Herculean promotional efforts by the Beatles' manager Brian Epstein who is nowhere near as appreciated as he should be.

2) There WAS footage of the Beatles that appeared on Huntley-Brinkley's NBC news broadcast in late 1963. But it was a fleeting snippet screened as a novelty item as in "look at this bizarre clip of strange goings on in England". It created no major impact. The story that aired on Cronkite's CBS News was a crafted film segment lasting over 4 minutes. And that duration - coupled with Cronkite's introduction - was what made the impact.

[unitron]

But if Sullivan was on NBC would Epstein still have gone to the CBS bureau in London or would he have gone to NBC's.

Or did he go to everybody's bureau and only get anywhere with CBS?

[lovethesinner]

Thanks for this article, Martin. Somehow I forgot that the JFK assassination and my hearing The Beatles for the first time occurred within less than six months of each other. I remember hearing about both at a lunchtime recess, and at a particular place on my junior high school campus, but I didn't remember that they were separated by only one christmas vacation.

The memory of the Cronkite broadcast is lost to me, perhaps because of the dominance of my other memories of him. But, I'm sure I must have seen it. I was playing surf music in my first band when it would have aired. I do remember a "battle of the bands" on KRLA (LA) between the Beatles and the Beach Boys, right after the first Sullivan appearance which the Beach Boys won. (I remember being disappointed that my fellow Los Angelinos couldn't hear the wave of the future.) The first time I heard the Beatles, my interest in surf music died.

This was a beautiful way to honor the memory of Walter Cronkite. Thanks.

[ObamAtomic]

Hey ,we knew The Beatles long before their triumph in America.
Merchants marines and diplomatic parents brought ,send 45 rpm to us.
Viva Los Beatles.

[Panther71]

In your article you state - "Yes I know that the popular misconception is that the Beatles achieved their U.S. breakthrough because of the Ed Sullivan Show. But that is actually completely erroneous. Think about it... How could four totally unknown foreign kids command a then record-breaking TV audience of 73 million -- which was 40% of the US population? The equivalent of a TV audience today of 123 million."

I think the misconception comes from people who are rewriting history after the fact, and in some cases may not have even been alive in 1964. For the people, like me, who were around when the Beatles first hit the American airwaves, we know that the Beatles were very popular before the Ed Sullivan Show. The real significance of the Beatle's appearance on his show was seeing the group perform for the first time.

[tkondaks]

I was nine at the time. I had never heard of the Beatles until a few days before Ed Sullivan because I had an older brother of 4 years who HAD. And that's why he insisted that the entire family gather around the TV for Ed Sullivan that Sunday with the big, clunky family reel-to-reel tape recorder set up beside it.

And then all hell broke loose. The next day in school that is ALL that everyone talked about. But it was the long-haired-wearing young men that was more of a fuss than the music at that point. No one had ever seen men wear long hair "like girls".

And then it was one British group after another on the Ed Sullivan Show: Rolling Stones, Dave Clark 5, Animals, Manfred Mann, Freddie and the Dreamers. Indeed, at one point, the Dave Clark 5 overtook the Beatles in popularity, if you can believe it. But that lasted only a few months.

[RobinLandseadel]

Fascinating co-incidence here:

"Friday November 22nd 1963

It is customary then - as now - that TV news divisions amortize their costs by airing filmed news stories in more than one show. CBS News would often air a film segment on its mid-morning CBS Morning News - and then repeat it that night for the different audience that would watch the CBS Evening News. The Beatles film story airs on this day on CBS Morning News - hosted by Mike Wallace. Just two hours later President Kennedy is assassinated and all normal programming is suspended. There is no CBS Evening News that night - and the film can containing the Beatles segment is put away on a shelf..."

November 22 is St. Cecilia's Day, the patron saint of music, for what it's worth.

[victorvelasco]

What about a clip of the Beatles on the Jack Paar show? I didn't see a mention of it.

[Martin Lewis - Huffpost Blogger]

To be very precise - the Beatles themselves never appeared on the Jack Paar Show. What happened was that once the hoopla about the Beatles went into high gear (from December 26 onwards) - Ed Sullivan started promoting the fact that he would be presenting this new phenomenon LIVE on his show on February 9. Jack Paar had a rivalry with Sullivan and perceiving that the Beatles were the latest fad - he tried to steal a march on Sullivan by putting the Beatles on his show BEFORE they went on Sullivan. But the only way he could do that was by buying an old film clip of the Beatles from Britain's BBC TV. He duly did this and aired the clip on January 3rd 1964 - using it as a foil for jokes about the group, their hair, their fans etc etc. Finishing sarcastically, he said: “It’s nice to see that England has finally risen to our cultural level.”

As I wrote in my essay: "Late-night TV hosts make jokes about them"... So the sequence on Paar added a litle gasoline onto the blaze - but the fire was started by Walter Cronkite.

[CupOJoe]

Allan Sherman, the "Weird Al" of his day, had a song called "Pop Hates The Beatles" sung to the tune of "Pop Goes The Weasel" (http://www.metrolyrics.com/pop-hates-the-beatles-lyrics-allan-sherman.html) that I think pretty well encapsulate how "the mainstream" felt about the Beatles in those days.

A lot of pretty talented people back then made fun of rock & roll in general and The Beatles in particular. Hard to believe they could have all gotten it so very wrong. I wonder, as The Beatles changed from a typical pop-rock group into more polished musicians, if they ever changed their minds? Or if they continued to believe that The Beatles marked the decline of American music...

[DietrichMoody]

Helped introduce The Beatles to America, you say. I won't personally hold this against Walter Cronkite. He was a great journalist. Ed Sullivan was not a journalist. Sullivan was a Television Host.

I have my issues with Beatlemania and why its corporate enablers callously buried the American Popular Music that came before them .

[Martin Lewis - Huffpost Blogger]

"corporate enablers callously buried the American Popular Music that came before them"

Dear Lord! The Beatles didn't need or depend upon "corporate enablers" But if by that phrase - you mean their US record company - I can't speak for Capitol Records - but I do recall that it championed the American Popular Music of Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Stan Kenton, Merle Travis, Benny Goodman, Nat King Cole, Judy Garland, The Andrews Sisters et al.

What the Beatles, the Stones, the Animals and many other British Invasion artists DID do was to remind a criminally indifferent American public about the discarded heroes of American music who pioneered rock 'n' roll - and the superb blues musicians languishing in obscurity. And as for the pre- rock era of American music - that too was paid homage to by the lilting melodies that emanated from the softer side of the Beatles. "Yesterday" "Something" "Here There And Everywhere" "In My Life" are linear descendants of that fine tradition. America owes both Cronkite and Sullivan its thanks for bringing the Beatles to these shores

[unitron]

I suddenly forget from which Broadway musical "'Til There Was You" came, but that first album contained a very nice version of it with some very tasty guitar work.

[RepugsOut08]

I remember an early Bob Dylan interview in Rolling stone, in which he stated that (paraphrasing) America should build a monument to the Beatles. Dylan correctly stated that The Beatles gave America's real musical culture back to us by reintroducing rock n roll to young people.
Remember, when The Beatles were visiting Murray the K's radio station in NY, they were requesting Murray to play the Motown and 50's rock records they were inspired by back in England.
Paul McCartney stated that The Beatles had found themselves in the land of the music they loved, and no one was playing it. I myself, when I first heard "I Want To Hold You Hand," thought they must be a black group. No white artist at the time sounded anything like them.

[Moonlighter]

Good story, and to go even further back, the Beatles had spent several years honing their craft, playing one venue for eight hours per day, seven days a week. They had the chops to back up their buzz.

If you have any songwriting chops, check out The Human Levee Music Project http://www.humanlevee.com

[RepugsOut08]

Great points. If you listen to their live BBC covers of other people's music, they had learned how to play just about any song or style over those grueling club years. This, no doubt, helped their versatile and eclectic writing styles. What a band they were!

[JGriffin]

One of the claims of this article:

"But the campaign does not CREATE Beatlemania. It simply fans the flames of what is already there. It builds on a genuine grassroots reaction to what kids are hearing on their radios..."

is arguable. The fact is, by the end of 1963 and their appearance on Cronkite, the Beatles franchise was a megamarketing machine, the first ever assembled around a pop music group. Also, the Beatles were beneficiaries of perfect timing: America was coming out of its national mourning over JFK, and the Baby Boom generation was reaching record-buying age.

[Martin Lewis - Huffpost Blogger]

"megamarketing machine"??? That it was not. Not in the way that we understand such terms today. Brian Epstein had developed a very effective PUBLICITY machine - that effectively conveyed to the media of that era what was happening. And Capitol Records in the US was very effective at spreading the word. But all the hype in the world could not have sold the Beatles to the US public that swiftly. And in such an enduring manner. Just as in the UK and elsewhere - the kids were actually ahead of the record company and the media. Hard to understand in this present-day over-Tweeted, FaceBooked, MySpaced-out world - but the Beatles did it by MUSIC. The songs played on the radio. The kids reacted viscerally and immediately. Yes America was in post-JFK shock and yes there baby-boom teens with money to spend. But there were scads of artists issuing records into that vacuum. It was the Beatles that engaged with the yearning of a world without love - hungry for something uplifting. They did it with music and passion. To attribute their success to marketing and lucky timing indicates a lack of understanding...

[JGriffin]

Well, as with many discussions, this might be a case where we're both correct. Whether one calls it a marketing or publicity machine is semantics, the net result was the same. However that's not to say the Beatles were without personality or artistic merit: of course they had it, and I consider McCartney and Lennon to be songwriting geniuses. But the screaming hysterics? Puh-leeze. It was marketing mania, not Beatlemania.