I wanted to thank Ed Rudy for giving me the permission to reprint his story. Be sure that you check out this sight to order your own Ed Rudy interview Cds and hear him talk to the Beatles during this time.
This part of the story appeared in issue #46 (April 1984) of With a Little Help from my Friends.
On Friday, February 14th, the Beatles were up
early. As I dressed, another member of
the press informed me that the Beatles had been out on the beach for hours
already. They were soaking up the
morning sunshine and posing for photographers on the beach and in the
surf. The Deauville Hotel is sealed
completely around by walls with fenced breakwaters. It is almost impossible for anyone to sneak
in under ordinary circumstances and with the Beatles visiting the hotel; the
management was extra careful, employing security men to watch for
trespassers. We felt sorry for the
hundreds of Beatle fans who tried all kinds of methods to try to get near their
idols.
During the day, all kinds of offers were extended to the
Beatle boys. A millionaire manufacture
offered his luxurious houseboat to the Beatles.
Another offered his beautiful yacht.
Still another offered his sumptuous mansion complete with Olympic size,
private swimming pool. It was here that
Life magazine took an exclusive group of photographs.
The Beatle boys took advantage of the lovely yacht, which
came complete with Captain and crew and they cast off to take in a sight-seeing
trip around the Bay of Miami. All
members of the press were excluded, although a local photographer and reporter
managed to stow away without being seen.
When they were discovered, the yacht was turned around and docked to put
them ashore. The Beatles and their
manager had decided that it was not fair to the other members of the press to
let them stow away and make exclusive pictures and get exclusive
interviews. In late afternoon, the
Beatles headed back to the yacht basic and then headed back to the hotel.
The special group of Miami Beach policemen assigned to the Beatles
during their stay was headed by Sgt. Buddy Dresner. Hoping the Beatle boys were interested in
seeing how a policeman and his family lived in America, he invited the boys for
dinner and an evening at his home. It
had been a long, long time since any of the Beatles had had a home-cooked meal
so they quickly took him up on his splendid offer.
The Beatles enjoyed the chance of pace with their evening at
the Dresner home. They met his wife,
Dotty along with his three children Barry, Andy and Jeri—all Beatle fans! They, particularly, enjoyed the tasty dinner
of roast beef, peas, green beans and baked potatoes with a delicious vegetable
salad on the side. They finished off the
terrific dinner with each Beatle getting a tremendous piece of strawberry
shortcake oozing with whipped cream.
They stayed until 11 o’clock, then bid their host a fond goodnight and
sped back to the hotel.
The floor show, in the hotel’s nightclub, was scheduled to
start just as they arrived back at the Deauville. Instead of going to their suites, they
decided to take the show in so the Beatle party headed for the night club and a
table to watch the show. Don Rickells,
the emcee-comedian of the show, brought the house by poking fun of the Beatles
in a friendly manner. Exclaimed
Rickells, “Look over there!” Then
continued Rickells, “Here’s Miami’s top policeman guarding four Zulus when all
over the city there’s fighting and stealing.”
The Beatles thought this and his other humorous but
insulting asides were quite funny and it broke them all up in uncontrollable
laughter. John and his wife broke away
from the Beatle party after the show was over to go to bed early while Paul,
George and Ringo stayed up a little longer to visit with Myron Cohen a well-known
comedian and Carol Lawrence a famous singer and dancer.
On Saturday, February 15th the boys attended
rehearsals for the Ed Sullivan Show that was scheduled for the early evening of
the following day—this was their purpose in coming to Miami. The boys had slept late, had breakfast
together in their suite, then for a few hours on the beach for some sunshine.
After a light lunch at 2:00, the Beatle boys headed for the
Deauville Hotel Theatre. The “Stamp-out
the Beatles” movement started to gain momentum when Beatle fans joined in the hundreds
because CBS wouldn’t give out any tickets to outsiders. Those people staying in the hotel were given
preferred seating with many parents and children greedily going to both the
rehearsal and the live T.V. show the next day.
More than 3,000 true Beatle fans had formed into a line
starting as early as 7:30 in the morning waiting for the opportunity to just
get in and be able to watch the Saturday rehearsal. By afternoon, most realized it was a lost
cause, many angrily heading to join the “Stamp out the Beatles” movement. The Detroit group of “S-O-T-B’s” headed for
the Deauville hotel to demonstrate but quickly broke up when they found too
many loyal Beatle fans still around to do battle. A few hundred fans managed to get into the
theatre to watch the Beatle boys during rehearsal. The balance, of thousands, went home sad and
forlorn to always remember the great disappointment in their life of not being
about to see the Beatles perform.
During the rehearsal period, the Beatles went over their
music and the songs that they would sing.
Then the boys rested while the other acts rehearsed. When they were called the second time, John
Lennon had disappeared. He was nowhere
around and the whole show was in a turmoil trying to figure out where he had
gone. Then somebody looked behind a
curtain and there he was…sound asleep! Exclaimed
Paul, “I thought he’d been kidnapped by the Detroit Stamp out the Beatles gang!”
Toward evening, with the Sullivan rehearsals over, the
Beatle boys headed back to their hotel suite to have dinner together. Then after dinner, they relaxed for a while
then turned to an evening of telephone interviews with deejays throughout the
United States and Canada. Each Beatle
went to bed early, to get plenty of rest, for tomorrow would be their third and
last to show for America.
On Sunday, February 16th the Beatle boys spent
the morning out in the sun and surf mingling with the hotel guests,
photographers and newsmen and those few Beatle fans who managed to get by the
security patrol. The Beatles were amazed
at the warm and even Miami weather with each day bringing its share of bright
sunshine while folks in England at this time were cold and shivering, as were people
in other parts of this country.
Toward noon, the boys headed back to their hotel suites to
have lunch and plan for this evenings T.V. show. Part of the afternoon was spent with Capitol
record executives setting up recording schedules and record releases planned
for the future.
Early in the afternoon, lucky Beatle fans began to line up
for the live T.V. performance. These fans
held tickets for the Sullivan Show and were waiting for the doors to open so
that they culd get front row seats. However,
CBS had printed up 3,500 tickets for a theatre that seated on 2,600 s that 1
person out of every 4 would be out of luck and unable to get in. As it turned out, hotel guests who held
tickets were allowed to go into the theatre first. Those people got the best seats.
When it came time to let the outside Beatle fans in, almost
all the seats were taken and only a few hundred were allowed to get in. This caused a riot and additional police had
to be called in to calm the many teenagers who had waited from four to eight
hours to get in.
Consequently, due to
hotel guests being given preferential seating, the real fans who would have
made the boys really give out with a great performance were missing and so were
their “oohs” and “aahhs” and their screams, whistles and shouts. Only a token group of fans were on hand to
cheer the boys on and this caused television viewers across the nation to think
the Beatles were slipping.
Thousands of Beatle fans sadly went home to watch the boys
on their T.V. screen while hundreds of fans, who held tickets, sat down in the
street and cried their little Beatle hearts out.
After the show was over, a large party was arranged in honor
of the Beatles. Maurice Lansberg, owner
and manager of the hotel was host and the entire cast of the Sullivan Show attended
along with technicians and orchestra members.
The Beatles enjoyed a buffet which included taste tempting dishes of
seafood, meat and fowl. The boys enjoyed
the shrimp and lobster the best with tender choice slices of roast beef next in
line.
After the buffet, the Beatle boys put their heads together
with their manager, Brian Epstein, and decided to stay in Miami for an
additional five days. They had planned
to go back to England to attend the big Oxfam Charity Luncheon, where they were
to be guests of honor. This was a big affair
to be attended by all the big names in England including Harold Macmillan as
the host along with Dir Alex Douglas-Home, Prime Minister.
From Monday, February 17th to Thursday February
20th, the Beatle boys enjoyed their Miami vacation of warm weather
and bright sunshine. Bags of fan mail
were forwarded to them to go over while the Miami post office delivered many
heavy sacks more every day.
All over the U.S. people were aware of the Beatle invasion
and everybody was talking about them.
The newspapers were printing news about them, radio and T.V. stations
were reporting all the latest gossip about them as their music was played by deejays
on just about every station across the land.
In Miami, Beatle talk was the biggest thing going. Said Richard Rodgers, famous composer, who
was on the beach on vacation, “The Beatles the healthiest thing to happen to
show business since the discovery of penicillin!” Stated Myron Cohen, comedian, “They’ll be
trying to stamp out the Beatles or the next thirty years and who cares?” Bob Hope cracked with, “Oh course I did the
Beatles. If I didn’t, my kids would take
my television set away!” In the
meantime, Don Rickells worked this one into his act, “Stamp out the
Beatles? I can’t even get close enough
to throw a stone at ‘em!”
During the week, the Beatle boys tried their hand at water
skiing. George lost interest quickly and
relaxed in the shade as he watched the other boys try their luck on the skis. Paul
was the greatest and he managed to stay on his skis longer than the other
Beatle boys. However, john and his wife,
Cynthia both did well too. Ringo
appeared to enjoy himself the most although his skiing was the worst of the
lot.
And during the week, as the Beatle boys soaked up the
sunshine in Alex Douglas home spoke out with praise for the boys even though
they had missed the Oxfam Charity Luncheon in their honor. Said Air Alex, “I say, the Beatles are really
great!” Replied the Beatles to this, “Wait
‘till he find we’ve taken over 10 Downing street for our rehearsal hall!” Stated Sir Alex, “They’re Britain’s
ultra-secret weapon!” Answered the
Beatles, “Let’s hope he doesn’t change his mind about us like he did with the
Skybolt!” Continued in Alec, “They’re
the biggest dollar earners England has at the moment!” Exclaimed the four Beatles, “Little does he
know that our money is being put into Swiss banks!”
With the world’s heavyweight championship fight scheduled
for Miami, both Sonny Liston, champion, and Cassius Clay, contender, were set up
in training camps nearby. The Beatles decided
to visit Cassius Clay, at his training headquarters so off went the boys
followed by photographers and reporters.
Cassius pretended to land a left on the jaw of each of the boys as
photographers snapped away. As he posed
for pictures with Ringo, he finished up the picture taking session by lifting
him up over his head with Ringo more surprised than anyone.
One evening, during this week, was spent going to a drive-in
movie. The film was “Fun in Acapulco” starting
Elvis Presley. They enjoyed the drive-in
and being able to see a motion picture while sitting in an automobile.
Another afternoon was spent making their rounds to record
stores buying up the latest Rock n Roll singles and albums to take back to
England with them. Part of this day was
also spent shopping for little knick-knacks to take back with them, also.
The Beatle boys took in motorboat racing, house boating plus
another yacht trip around Miami Beach. During
one afternoon a big barbeque was given in their honor and the boys enjoyed real
special steaks that were tender and luscious as well as the biggest they had
ever had in their lives.
On Friday, February 21st, the Beatles made
preparations to fly back to New York’s Kennedy airport, then back to
London. They packed all their apparel,
made room in their luggage for their newly purchased gift items and records,
said their goodbyes to their Miami friends and headed for the Miami airport.
At the Miami International Airport, thousands of Beatle fans
were on hand to bid them adieu and the Beatle boys took time to wave their fond
farewells to all their friends before they stepped onto the jet plane.
Arriving at Kennedy Airport in New York, the Beatles were
quickly hustled to their Pan-am jet that would take them to London. The New York police wanted to get the Beatle
boys off and away before any hysterical outbursts from fans might occur. Because of this, a great many fans didn’t
even get a fast glimpse of the boys and the Beatles were not given the
opportunity to wave to their fans.
Our last interview with the Beatles took place inside he
Pan-Am jet plane. The Beatle boys, all
four of them, think America is real great and that they can’t wait to get back
for their month long trip in August and September. They want to thank everyone for making their
stay in America a great moment in their lives.
They will never forget their tumultuous welcomes by Beatle fans everywhere
they went. It was great—real fab—absolutely
the gear!
Then we were told it was time to leave the plane unless we
wanted to go to London. So we gave the boys
our very best, turned and left the jet plane.
It was sad, indeed to watch the plane taxi out to the
runway, then pick up speed and fly away growing smaller in the distance. The Beatles were going home after a two week
period in America. And so was yours
truly, Ed Rudy and as I turned and walked back to the terminal building, I
happily whistled. The Beatle boys had
given me an honorary title that I’ll always cherish. The Beatle boys had told me I was the “Fifth
Beatle!”
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