Beatles belt buckle

 So how many of you are like me and are a little jealous of this girl who has a Beatles belt buckle?  

Beatles window shopping

 

NEMS and the business of Selling Beatles Merchandise in the U.S. : A book review

Have you ever wished you could magically go back in time to 1964 and see all of the Beatles merchandise on the shelves?   Well -- until that time machine gets finished, the next best thing has arrived.   The new book NEMS and the Business of Selling Beatles Merchandise in the U.S. 1964-1966 by Terry Crain. 

This is a beautiful hardcover book.   It is full of colored photographs of vintage memorabilia.   The book begins with the history of NEMS and Seltaeb, which is very interesting.   The rest of the book goes through all of the official merchandise of the Beatles in alphabetical order.    All of the items that you remember from your own childhood (if you are a first generation fan) or all the items you have seen for sale on eBay or at Beatles conventions are listed:  Beatles dolls, buttons, posters, guitars, jewelry, lunchbox, record player, wig, etc etc etc.     You also get to learn about some of the obscure Beatles items made, such as the Beatles hummer and the Beatles Twig.

Most of us will never be able to afford all of these Beatles goodies, so having the photographs and story behind each item is a great treasure.   It is fun to read the information about some of the items you have in your own collection.   Terry obviously spent a lot of time on this book, and the information is so fascinating.    A fun aspect of the book is the memories of the first generation fans about having the specific Beatles treasure as a young fan.    The story by Jude Southerland Kessler was really amazing!   You gotta read it.   

Just a word of warning -- don't expect to see the prices of things in this book.  It is not a collector's guide but a history of the official Beatles memorabilia.    Those collector's guides get outdated so quickly that they aren't even necessary. 

So far, NEMS is the best Beatles book published in 2019 that I have read.    Every fan will enjoy this one.  You don't want to pass it up!

The link below is the affiliate link to Amazon where you can purchase this book..   I get a small percentage of anything purchased through this link.  Money made from the Amazon Afflication is used to pay the annual fee to keep this site online.  Thank you for your support.  Sara

https://amzn.to/436kAnG

Flip your wig

Beatles Binder

Not sure why everyone is crowding around a nifty Beatles binder, but sure wish I had one.

Got my Beatles beach towel

Ready for the beach!

This girls WINS for best Beatles shirt

Loving the Beatles scrapbook!

Got my Beatles towel--ready for the pool!

My dream room

How the Beatles went viral in '64 - an ebook review

Tonight's Wednesday Review is on a short e-book called "How the Beatles went viral in '64" by Steven Greenburg.

Today, things go "viral" so quickly.  Someone posts a funny video clip onto youtube or facebook and overnight everyone is talking about it and the person in the clip is flown out to be a guest on the Ellen show.  But things didn't move so quickly in 1963---or did they?


From the time the Beatles appeared as an unknown British group briefly on the news with Walter Cronkite to the huge welcome they received at the airport in New York City just 2 months later is pretty amazing. This book points out that we have one person to thank for this spread of Beatlemania throughout the United States: Marsha Albert, the 15-year-old girl who called her local Top 40 radio station in Washington D.C. and asked the disc jockey, Carrol James, why the station didn't play music like what she heard on the news.  From there James set out to find out who the Beatles were and tracked down a copy of "I wanna hold your hand."  The rest is history. I guess until I read this book, I always gave James the credit because he was the one that spread the song around to DJ's around the country; however they are really right---a 15 year old girl really was the one that made the first move.

The book also talks about a very controversial subject these days among Beatles fans.  Did the Beatles become popular in part because of the depression the country had slipped into after John F. Kennedy's death?   Were the Beatles there at the right time to cheer up the citizens of the USA?   Many people that I highly admire say that it is just a myth and the death of JFK had nothing to do with the Beatles' popularity. However, I think this is a topic that is more complex than just a simple "yes" or "no."  For some individual teenagers during that time, the Beatles DID help them get out of the sadness and "dark cloud" brought on after JFK's death.

I also thought it was interesting reading about Jack Paar being the first to show a full  Beatles performance on American television.  However, he showed it because he was sort of making fun of the Beatles--long hair and screaming fans.  But it brought him huge ratings and made the Beatles even more popular.

This book was well researched and well written.  It is a great book for a Beatles "newbie" who wants to learn more about the beginnings of Beatlemania in the United States and how the news of the Beatles spread across the country in the days before the internet or cell phones.   However, there wasn't anything new in this book.   If you want to read the complete story, then I would recommend Bruce Spizer's book The Beatles Are Coming.    But this book was good and made for a nice, quick read.


It was only $2.99 on Amazon for the Kindle, so the price was right.    

 The link below is the affiliate link to Amazon, where you can purchase this book.  I get a small percentage of anything purchased through this link.  Money made from the Amazon Afflication is used to pay the annual fee to keep this site online.  Thank you for your support.  Sara

https://amzn.to/435L0pl

Selling his wares

I thought this was interesting---it is a man selling unofficial Beatles stuff on the sidewalk before the Beatles concert.   I know security was super tight in Japan---I wonder how this guy got away with it?

How much for the Beatles in the window?

It's just a one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight nine!!!!!

 

I have always loved the whole story of the Beatles performing in Kansas City in 1964.  If I had been around in 1964, and was able to go to a Beatles concert, I most likely would have gone to the Kansas City show.    I thought about that when I traveled the three hours west to see Paul McCartney in Kansas City this past July.

I love how Charles O. Finley was determined to get the Beatles to play in his town.  He thought that the fans deserved it and he was willing to pay whatever it cost to make the Beatles show happen.   And he did it!!!

In hindsight, the Beatles might as well have made the money and played Kansas City because they would not have had the opportunity to sight-see in New Orleans as they had originally planned. 

There is much controversy over if the Beatles played the song "Kansas City/Hey hey Hey" when they were there.   That song would have have been released on any Beatles album, but it was a staple in the Hamburg sets and the Beatles had performed it in the Cavern and on the BBC.   It was a song that they knew well.    If they did perform Kansas City, then they would have cut out "Twist and Shout" from the setlist.    It is funny that after all of these years, people still cannot agree on this. 


There are two books about the Beatles in Kansas City.   The first one  was published quite awhile ago and it is called Beatles '64 Going' to Kansas city by Jospeh Tunzin.    It is mostly a CD that has the press conference on it, but there is also a booklet that has photos and information.    The other book is called Kansas City Meets the Beatles by Gard Murtha.   This book was published in 2013.    It has a lot of information taken from newspaper articles and first hand accounts including the story behind this piece of a curtain that one fan took after the show.

A Beatles party in the Garden

I have written and posted a LOT about the party Alan Livingston hosted at his home to raise money for the Hemophilia Foundation in 1964.   There are many stories of fans who were able to meet the Beatles during this fundraiser and then there was Peggy Lipton who did more than just meet a Beatle at this event!

Just in case you missed it---here is one of the stories.
http://www.meetthebeatlesforreal.com/2011/01/bel-air-meeting.html


I have been saving up tons of photos from this event...so I hope you enjoy all of these!

Invitation to the party.  From Jeff Augsburger collection 

Memo from Alan Livingston about the party.   From Jeff Augsburger collection 

Photo by Candi Purrell 

Photo by Candi Purrell 

Fans who were not invited just waited outside Alan Livingston's house hoping to see the Beatles 

Ringo looks like he has had enough of shaking hands and meeting people.....

I got my ticket

I thought I would take this opportunity to share with you an item from my Beatles collection.   I bought this off ebay earlier this year and it is a ticket stub from a showing of the movie, "A Hard Day's Night."    I love the fact that it is ripped a little  bit, because it shows that it was actually used by a real fan and someone ripped the small part off the ticket before she went in to see the film.    I also loved the tickets back then!  They sure do not make neat tickets like that today!

 

But what I really love about the ticket stub is that the fan wrote on the back of it who she went to see the movie with.   Little things like this make Beatles memorabilia so awesome to me. 

For sale in Sydney

Pillow People

Sorry girls.....

So I am back from the Fest for Beatle fans and I am exhausted!   But before I crash, I wanted to share a few things.


One of the guest speakers at the Fest was a man named Vince Calandra.   He worked on the Ed Sullivan Show and was there for all 3 of the Beatles performances as well as Shea Stadium.   He had some of the most amazing stories and I could have listened to him for days. 

One of the things he talked about was how one of the producers decided to put each Beatle's name on the screen and put "sorry girls he's married" underneath John Lennon.   This was not cleared with Brian Epstein and Brian was furious when he saw it!  Brian had worked really hard to keep Cynthia a secret in America.   None on the staff of the Sullivan show were told who she was or even her first name!   And Brian worked hard to make sure that Cyn was in very little of the filming or photographs.  And yet here it is literally broadcasted on national television that Lennon had a wife!  And yet that fact did not take away anything from the Beatles popularity.  

At the Fest, in the room where things were being sold, were the original cards that showed the names.  How cool is that?