Going to Kansas City … Kansas City Here I come
By Carol Mitchell
9/1/82
It was twenty years ago today… Well, really only eighteen years ago that I
first came face to face with four young men that we’ve all come to know so
well. I was eighteen then and just out
of school when I heard the Beatles might add a concert date to their already
announced ’64 tour schedule. It seems
Charlie Finley, then owner of the Kansas City A’s baseball team, couldn’t let “the
boys” disappoint all the “wonderful young people” in K.C., so he offered Brian
Epstein $100,000 and finally upped it to $150,000 to get the Beatles to
appear. I got in touch with some friends
in Kansas City (I was living in Iowa at the time) who sent for tickets for
me. (They were older and not inflicted by
this new insanity). And I finagled press
credentials from an old friend in Des Moines ‘cos sitting in a seat in a
stadium just wasn’t close enough!
My father drove my friend, Nancy, and I to Kansas City. I’m sure it was a long drive for all of
us. Nancy and I were eager to get there and
my poor father was cooped up in a car with two raving nervous Beatlemaniacs.
When we got in around noon, we cleaned up and hurried to the
Muehlebach Hotel (where THEY were staying) with press credentials in our hot
little hands. We had been forewarned
that the press conference was closed to anyone under 18. (Nancy was 17). So we had both made the ultimate sacrifice
and tucked our bangs behind headbands so we would appear more mature. Well, we got in touch with someone who
checked our credentials and sent us to room 111 to wait. This turned out to be a screening room where
people are just left and never get into the conference. I was getting itchy, so we left and took off
down the hall. We found someone else,
showed our credentials, swore on all that was holy that we were both 18and we
were ushered into a different room. This
was the real thing! These were other member
of the press with real equipment. Spying
a couple of empty seats in the front row over on the right side, I gave Nancy’s
arm a tug and we took off and settled into them. There I met a slender blonde who introduced
herself as Kathy. She was 16 but looked
older and had been brought in by a big wheel dj who wanted a fan’s
reaction. She shared her nerves with me
and asked if she could use some of the questions I had prepared. We wound up going to England together some
years later, but that’s another story.
The next thing I knew, Derek Taylor and Neil Aspinall came
in. Derek introduced himself and
explained the ground rules. First,
questions from the general press, then radio interviews, then TV and still
photographers. We would be free to mix
and mingle during the last two. Derek
looked fantastic and I was taken with him from the start. But very quickly in came Ringo, John, George
and Paul. Ringo sat down at the table
right in front of me! John had on a very
dark grey suit with red, white and black t-shirt and no tie. He had brown eyes and his brown hair had a
definite reddish cast. Paul looked
sleepy. He was wearing a grey suit with
a lavender and white pin-striped shirt and a black tie. He had brown eyes and very dark brown
hair. George wore a grey suit too. His had velvet trim on the collar. His brown hair had only a hint of red. Ringo wore a matching light blue and white
pin-striped jacket and shirt. His hair
was similar to John’s except for a thatch of grey. They all wore boots and smelled like “English
leather.”
I made a tape of the press conference on a little
battery-run recorder (back in those days we only had reel to reels, no
cassettes) Unfortunately this poor thing
ran at an uneven speed and the tape is mostly unintelligible now, but I did
make a written transcript of the conference then and here it is:
J=John, P=Paul, G=George, R=Ringo, DT = Derek, N=Nancy,
K=Kathy, C=Carol, O=general press, U=all
the Beatles in union
O: John, what does
your wife think about all the girls chasing after you?
J: She’s not
worried. She knows they’ll never catch
me.
O: Paul is it true
you are secretly married to Jane Asher?
P: No, it is
not. We are not even engaged.
(pause) That’s all I can say about that.
K: George, why did
you throw your drink in a reporters face in Los Angeles?
G: Well, he was a
very nasty man. And besides, we had
asked him to leave because he was taking too many pictures and we couldn’t see
anything. And so I just decided that he
ought to be baptized.
K: What kind of
cigarettes do you smoke?
G: filter tips
J: But we’re not
going to do any free commercials.
O: I’m from Variety..
J: Well good for
you! (general laughter)
O: Who is the most
exciting woman you’ve ever met?
J: Ringo’s mother is
pretty hot. (Ringo looked hurt). It’s just a joke Ringo. Just a joke.
C: John, what do you
think of Paul? (Paul shot me a
look. John and George seemed to enjoy
this question)
J: He’s okay. We have to put him down sometimes.
O: Who is your
favorite actress?
P: Sophie Tucker
(then all the Beatles laughed)
K: What do you think
of Jayne Mansfield, Ringo?
R: She’s a drag.
DT: Drag;
D-R-A-G. That’s an English
expression. It means, “She’s a bore.”
J: I believe that’s
an American word, Derek.
O: What about
Mamie Van Doren?
U: Ugh!!
O: What do you think
of the Rolling Stones? (John lets out a
terrible groan)
K: Ringo, do you date
fans?
R: Yes, when I have
the time.
K: Ringo, show us
your grey hair.
R: No.
K: Why not?
R: Because it will
mess it up.
K: Well it already
looks messed up to me.
O: John, are you
writing a follow-up to the books you’ve written already?
J: No, I wrote book,
not books. No, I’m not writing anything.
O: What will happen
when the group breaks up?
P: Well, john and I
will continue writing music, and George will play basketball.
G: or I’ll roller
skate.
O: of all the questions
you have been asked what is the one question you wish you had been asked at a
press conference? (they thought for a few seconds)
P: I guess we’ve been
asked them all.
O: What place did you
enjoy the most in the U.S. and did you want to stay there longer?
J: New Orleans
because we liked and music. And we’d
like to go back there sometime.
C: Paul, do you
believe the rumors that you’re conceited?
(Paul just looked up at e and smiled and nodded his head “yes”)
O: Do you ever go to
any children’s homes or orphanages?
J: No, we never
do. (Then we all said we’d seen pictures
of them at one painting Easter eggs).
P: Oh well, that was
at Easter.
O: Do you like
baseball?
R: No. (Then everyone laughed at the Beatles. Finally, someone explained that their
promoter that night owned a baseball team and that they would be playing in his
stadium that night).
R: Oh well, we like
the A’s (then Paul made a thumb-up sign)
K: Will Mr. Finley
have you boys wear green and gold at the show tonight?
J: No, we’ll wear
what we usually do.
O: What do you think
of people copying your hairstyles?
P: We don’t
mind. When people start copying our
styles, we change them.
R: We change our
clothes too!
O: What special care
do you give your hair while on tour?
J: We wash it and
comb it
O: What do you do
about barbers?
J: Oh, we never go to
them anyway.
K: Paul, did you enjoy
your vacation in the Virgin Islands?
P: (smiling sweetly)
Yes, I did. Thank you.
O: Do you all speak German fluently?
O: Do you all speak German fluently?
U: No!!
J: Just well enough
to get along on the Reeperbahn.
K: John, due to the
recent anti-smoking reports, are you planning to stop smoking?
J: no, we all have to
sometime, you know.
O: Ringo, do you like
the girls tearing up your sheets and going crazy?
R: I don’t mind as
long as I’m not in them.
O: Does the U.S.
government get any money from you? If so, how much?
J: Ha ha ha! Not a cent!
R (aside to us) When the British government is done with us,
we’ll only have ten dollars to our name.
O: You boys are
getting $150,000 for tonight’s show. So
do you plan on performing extra-long?
J: No longer than
usual.
P: Just extra well.
O: When this is all
over, what will you boys miss most, the fans or the money?
J: We don’t see our
money. We have accountants that handle
it for us. We haven’t seen them for a
long time either. We’ll always have the
money, so I guess we’ll miss our fans.
O: Do you believe in
religion and politics?
J: Yes both, but we
don’t discuss them.
K: If you don’t
discuss them, then why did you say you’d support LBJ in Chicago?
R: We didn’t! We said Eisenhower!
O: Ringo, is it true
that you have to have your tonsils out?
R: Yes. We received a telegram today.
O: Is it true that
you are sending them to a girl who wrote you?
R: No. I’m not even keeping them myself.
J: We are going to
auction them off.
O: do you do anything
for free?
J: Yes, charity.
O: Is there anything
you don’t’ like about the tour? (Here
Paul got rather upset and really seemed to mean what he was saying)
P: Yes. Too much protection. We can’t see or shake hands with our
fans. They take us clear to the end of
the runway and then load us in a limousine and then we’re off to our hotel
suite.
C: Paul, is it true
that you lost your driver’s license and if so, how?
P: Yes, but I got it
back right before we came on tour. They
caught me three times for speeding … they catch you over there, you know.
K: George, how bad was
your accident?
G: It was nothing at
all. He just tapped me. That was all.
Nobody was hurt. It seems the
farther away from the thing you are; the worse the stories are about it.
C: What do you boys
do when you are confined to your hotel room?
R: Well, we sleep,
watch the telly, listen to the radio, play cards, and sometimes we talk to each
other!
O: What kind of cards
do you play?
P,G, & J: Poker!
R: Crazy Eights?
K: Who do you think
is the best of all of you?
J: We really aren’t
very good at anything, but Ringo is pretty good.
R: No, John, you’re
better than I am.
J: No, Ringo, you
know you’re the best.
(Finally they gave this up and let someone ask another
question)
O: George, what about
the girl who climbed nine stories and jumped in the window and grabbed you in
your night clothes?
G: She jumped on
Ringo, not me. No, actually I was in the
other room in bed asleep. The police
caught her before she got in my room.
K: Paul, pictures of your
father show that he doesn’t have much hair.
What’s going to happen to you?
R: Well, what do you
expect of a 65 year old man?
During the radio session that followed, we spoke with Ringo
and then scooted over to talk to Paul.
He put his arm around me for a few minutes. I went home vowing to never clean my
suit! It smelled of English Leather!
N: Ringo, do you know
how to play guitar?
R: Oh, I know two ro
three chords; but it hurts my fingers, you know.
N: We’re from Des
Moines, Iowa. Do you know where that is,
Ringo?
R: 20,000 cities and
I’m supposed to know them all?!
C: I’ve seen a picture
of your girlfriend, Maureen Cox, and she looks very nice. Do you like her very much?
R: No. Well, she just a girl and I like girls. And you’re a girl and like girls.
P: Oh hello girls (he
put his arm around me)
N: We’re from Des
Moines, Iowa. Have you heard of it,
Paul?
P: Oh yes. Are you ladies sisters?
N & C: Oh
no. We’re not even related.
P: Oh, well, you look
a lot alike.
C: Paul, how is your
brother Mike?
P: (quite flirtingly)
Fine, thank you. Good luck.
After that we stood and watched while they took
pictures. A Playboy bunny posed with
them. She had her hand underneath the
back flap of Paul’s jacket, down low. He
looked a little funny, but just stood there.
At the end of the session, I asked Derek if he’d have John autograph the
copy of his book that I was carrying. He
took it and said he’d be back and then they all left. We waited around a bit and were interviewed
by some reporters.
Finally, I decided we were going back to get my book,
autograph or no. So we got on the
elevator with some DJ’s from Kansas and rode up to the Beatles floor. When we stepped off, the hall was filled with
detectives. The DJ’s said they wanted
some autograph pictures someone had promised them. The detective sent them packing. And then turned to us. I told him Derek had my book and had promised
to return it. He looked a little
disgruntled, but took my name and went down the hall and knocked on one of the
doors. I followed. The door opened and I could see the Beatles
sitting around laughing about john’s writing and passing a small dark book
around. Then the detective blocked my
view and turned and came back. He had my
book (thank heaven I had scrawled my name in it) and I opened it and found four
more names inside it!
The rest of the trip and the concert were great, but I was
most delighted with all that happened that afternoon (And Derek Taylor thank
you!)
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