Beatles show Puckish Humor at Interview, Take Selves Lightly
by Jack Jarivs
There
wasn't much news but there was a lot of fun as the Beatles held a
"press conference" in the Coliseum before their show last night. And
some people who were prepared scoff- yes, sneer - came away with some
different ideas about the mop-tops who have taken the teen-age world by
storm.
For one things the Beatles - Ringo Starr, George
Harrison, Paul McCartney and John Lennon - don't take themselves
seriously at all.
For Another, they're quick
with answers to questions and each has a puckish sense of humor. About
fan mail, for instance, Ringo was asked why he gets more fan mail from
Seattle girls than the other do. "Because more of them write to me," he
said, dead-pan. So it isn't great humor. But it's clean. It was a relief
to hear them after listening to some of the "sick" comics that have
enjoyed fame of a sort.
Well, maybe there was a
bit of news. All four of them dropped fishing lines out of the windows
of their rooms in the Edgewater Inn but no one caught anything. They
said they've made no long-range plans, but Paul said that he and John
may turn to song writing when the Beatles fad has died out. "With you?"
said John, pretending to be horrified. "Never!"
With
the Post-Intelligencer crew covering the press conference were three
reporters-for-a-night, who had written to the P.I. months ago suggesting
that THEIR view might explain the Beatles to adults. They are Cheryl
Ann Steward, 14, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth E. Stewart, 3048 NW
56th ST; Sharman Weston, 14, daughter of Mr. And Mrs. Robert Weston 3235
NW 56th St,. and Sharon Wallinger, 14, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Fred L.
Wallinger, 942 NW 62nd St. Cheryl and Sharman are co-presidents of a
Seattle Beatles Fan Club formed in January. Sharon is vice president.
Cheryl
got in a couple of questions, one about the "good qualities" of Great
Britain and the United States. George parried it neatly with "It depends
on each individual" But mainly the girls just sort of glowed, happy to
be with in 10 feet of their heroes. Afterward Cheryl said, "They were
wonderful! Just as I pictured them!" Sharon said: "I love them! Ringo
held my hand!" And Sharman said: "Wonderful! I can't believe it!"
Sharman and Sharon also took pictures of the Beatles. (Sara's note: Where are they today?? I want to see them!)
Souvenirs?
Cigarette butts! Each girl got one. Cheryl and Sharman got cigarettes
Ringo had smoked and Sharon got on Paul had smoked. They they went off
to see the show, leaving the adult newsmen sorting out their notes and
wondering just what had been said and who said it.
What
about those shaggy haircuts? "We've gotten used to the long hair," Paul
said. But John admitted that their fame probably would diminish if they
got crew-cuts. How long will they ride the crest of the entertainment
wave? No one knows, least of all the Beatles. But as a group they
haven't made any long-range plans.
Ringo made
his daily denial that he's married and Paul lashed out at magazines
"that have printed some pretty terrible stories about us." John read
some excepts form his book, but hammed it up towards the end and read
the last few sentences through clenched teeth, then laughed along with
everyone else in the room. All in all, it was fun. No news, but fun.
Tacoma Girls Meet Beatles: Wonderful!
by Jacqueline Towne and Michael Hand (special news Tribune correspondents)
It
was wonderful! We were the two luckiest girls in Tacoma to be able to
go with two TNT reporters to the Beatles' performance. We followed a
long-legged Seattle photographer around to the other side of the
coliseum. He went to a side entrance and a policeman let him in. We went
through right after him showing our press cards - which we thought
would be no good - and were accepted.
After we went
through long corridors until we came upon a door blocked with many
policemen. They said there were too many reporters, but after a few
minutes of persuasion they let us pass.
We waited
in a hallway for awhile and then went into the press room. It was small
and at the front was a table with four chairs. We sat in the third row.
The Beatles were late and the longer we waited the calmer we got.
We
thought they would never get there. Then we heard they had just left
from the Edgewater Motel. When they arrived we almost had a cow! We were
surprised that John had light reddish brown hair. They had such tough
accents!Paul looked like he needed a shave - and he did! Their offstage
boots looked cracked and used.
We found out that Ringo
never changes his rings. Two come form his mother and grandfather and
from girls. Such rumors as John's wife expecting another child, Paul's
marriage or engagement of Jane Asher, and any other Beatle engagement
were stated false. By the way, the reason Ringo hates Donald Duck is
because he goes "Quack-quack!"
Our reporters motioned for
us to come over to them. We got up from our seats and went around the
back of the room. One of us dropped the flash attachment to our camera.
It made a racket and then a cameraman got all flustered he thought we
had knocked over his camera. Then he yelled "Everyone out of the back of
the room!" We got around fast. While standing by the reporters, the
same one knocked over a light and it almost landed on the Beatles. We
caught it just in time.
The Beatles started to get up and
we rushed up to them. One of us was lucky enough to talk to Paul and ask
him a question: "How do you pick the one to sing the lead?" "To tell
the truth, I'm not sure," He said. "You're not sure?" "I'm really not,
Luv. I really don't." Then he winked and left. He didn't get very far
before the other one stopped. She asked if he would sign the pictures
her sister had drawn of them. "Sure, Luv," he said and took the pictures
into their dressing room.
We waited for about an
hour or so for our autographs. In the meantime we talked to girls and
policemen. One girl held Ringo's hand. Someone called to him to leave.
He said, "Sorry Luv, I've go tot go." She wouldn't let go. "Luv, I've
got to go!" She still wouldn't let go. "LUV, LET ME GO!!" Some of the
girls went back to the conference room and got their cigarette butts. We
went back and found Ringo's cigarette package. It had some cigarette
butts in ti, too.
We gave the package to a policeman to
give to the Beatles for an autograph. We guess they threw it away. It
never came back. We gave to one of their road managers a "bouncing
boo-hoo" a little ball of fuzz with two eyes to give to John for his
son. The manager was quite thrilled about it and thanked us twice!
When
we returned to our seats everyone for rows in front and in back turned
and listened to our stories. One girl said tell us more - meaning we
weren't at the conference. When one of us showed our friends her book
that was autographed someone grabbed it and started passing it around,
but we got it back, finally.
We were so excited we
couldn't stay in our seats. The ushers kept pushing us back, but we
always came back. It was a tough show, we love you Beatles Yeah! Yeah!
Yeah!
No comments:
Post a Comment