How to Meet the Beatles (part 3)

Here is the last part of the three part article on "How to Meet the Beatles."  I am sure you all were wonder what the sure-fire way of how to meet them in 1965 really was.  It isn't a bad idea.  And we know that it did work for many fans.  This article was written by Sondra Lovell for BEAT magazine.  

 

What’s the best way and the only way to be sure you’ll meet the Beatles?  Become a reporter (but don’t call the BEAT – we’re onto that trick) It isn’t hard to do as it sounds.  A lot of girls did it last summer, including Donald O’Conner’s daughter, Donna.  A neighborhood paper might be interested in a story on their appearance.  And they might be especially interested in a review of the concert by a teenager.

Go to all the papers in town, although the biggest ones will most likely have their own reporters.  If that doesn’t work, ask your school paper to give you a press card.  Even though it is summer, the Journalism teacher can probably be persuaded into at least considering your story for the first fall issue.

Dress and act the way you would if you were applying for a regular job.  Try to sell them on your qualifications like for instance; you’re an authority on this type of music.  Well, aren’t you?  You know all about the different sounds and performers and what makes the Beatles great.

Even your age is in your favor for this job.  Not only do you understand the music, but you also understand the people who understand it.  You know why they scream and absolutely adore for “mop-haired” (a common adult phrase, so you must have noticed), British singers.  Now, how many adult reporters can say that?

And you know just the right questions to ask them at the press conference, because you’re really interested and not just doing a job.  Plus, of course, teenagers will buy the paper just so they can read a story on their idols, particularly when it’s written by a fellow fan.  If you’ve ever writer a paper before that’s another point in your favor. 

With all these qualifications, you really should be able to get an assignment from a newspaper somewhere.  So don’t get discouraged if the first one or two turn you down.

Once you get the press card or official letter, have the paper contact the people heading the press conference so you can get a press pass.   This won’t admit you to the Beatles quarters, or very many other places.  In Las Vegas last year, reporters were invited to a party with Connie Stevens and other stars, but that isn’t too common.  The card will get you into the press conference, where you can ask all the questions you want.  You’ll have the thrill of knowing that john and Paul and Ringo and George are talking and looking right at you.

Just to be sure they will be, get close the stage or wherever they’ll be as soon as you get into the conference room.  Don’t worry about what door they’ll be coming out of because they’ll be well guarded and you probably won’t get a word out of them on their way to the stage.  You wouldn’t even want to reach out and touch them.  It would ruin your professional image.  Besides, as soon as they arrive everybody will still pressing toward the platform and getting lost in the crowd is too unspeakable a fate to hazard.

You’ll have enough trouble being right up next to the Magnificent Ones, especially if there aren’t any chairs.  Reporters and photographers will shove you and shout questions as fast and loud as they can.  You’ll be competing with experienced star-meeters, so don’t get shy at the last minute.

Bring along a notebook of prepared questions, but if writing down the answers prevents you from asking more, wait and do that later.  Directing each question to a specific Beatle will give you a better chance of getting an answer.  As for the question you ask, they can be anything you ant.  These young men have already been asked everything imaginable anyway.

You’ll learn a lot more once you get into the frantic swing of the hunt, and you’ll meet a lot of interesting people.  There will be boys with long hair and rings on both hands who’ll try to fool you, and girls like yourself, and a Liverpudlian reporter named – of all things- George Harrison.  He’ll tell you everything there is to know about the four except how to get to them.

But the most important people you can hope to meet are, of course, the Beatles themselves.  Once you meet them you’ll know you’d love them even if they were not the Beatles.  Talk to Ringo and he’ll tell you how funny you sound as he mimics your accent and dances by himself.  Talk to John and you’ll get a dryly comical (to everybody else) insult or a negative opinion on press conferences.

Tall to George and Paul and tell me what they say.  I am dying to know.  That’s why I’m going Beatle-chasing again this summer.  See you then!