Baby Zak Comes Home

 September 22, 1965

Cheers

 

Sandwich Man

 

After Carnegie Hall

"Owners, bouncers, cops, and patrons meet the Beatles (well, a couple of them anyway) at the Headliner Club in New York as they attempt to have a night out on the town after their Carnegie Hall shows."

"But the Beatles' fun night out is interrupted when, despite all the professional muscle in evidence, this overly-aggressive young lady breaks through.  Ringo seems less than amused!"

 

Friends and Neighbors

 September 1, 1970 

Jools Holland's wedding

 August 30, 2005 

The Donahue Show

Photos by Sheila Mahoney 

 

Ringo signs to Atlantic Records

Every time I see photos from this event, all I can think is "Well -it WAS the 70s!" 
 

Tale of Four Teens on Beatle Hunt (Chicago 1965)

Tale of Four Teens on Beatle Hunt

By Mary Maher

The Chicago Tribune

August 27, 1965

 

Four 16-year-old Louisville girls went home last week with treasured relics, four crumbled, stained paper napkins that touched the lips of the Beatles after their morning meal. At least that's what one woman said. The salesperson charged the girls only $1 a piece and made them promise not to tell anyone of the favor she had done them. Just a shadow of doubt crossed Carol Francisco's mind. “My napkin had icing on it, and I didn't see any sweet rolls on the breakfast tray, but Lib said she thought John might have had a sweet roll.”

 “Every hero becomes a bore, at last”, said Emerson, so it's possible that someday John and Paul, George and Ringo may be reduced to disposing of their napkins, soap scraps, cigarette butts and discarded newspapers, in the manner of most mortals. At the moment, their debris is probably the fastest-moving commodity on the teen market.

 Carol, Lib (Olivia Morris), Alana Nash, and Louise Carsten were among the 60,000 fans who came up with $5.50 tickets last Friday to watch the Beatles writhe thu performances in Comiskey Park. Hundreds more broke curfew laws and police lines, on the chance that they might somehow make more personal contact with the demigods.

The girls from Louisville spent $250—6 months of planning on their project. But for them, as for the others, it was fruitless. A Beatle hunt is one of the most unrewarding junkets a human can participate in. It requires long-range scheming and devious strategy.

Last February, Carol sent for tickets to both Beatles shows. She and her friends began writing for reservations in Chicago hotels, eliminating only those that asked for deposits. They ended up with rooms reserved in 13 hotels and were reprimanded for their tactic only once. Two hotels under one ownership, apparently, compared letters and refused to cooperate.

 The Hilton Hotel’s replies snagged plans, too. Carol's father, the Reverend Clyde T Francisco, is a faculty member of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville. The girls wrote to the hotels on his official stationery, identifying themselves as seminary students, and when the Hilton politely offered them reduced student rates in the dormitory section, the girls decided not to pursue the matter.

 But they needn't have feared resistance from Hotel Management. The hotel where the Beatles stayed was accepting reservations from teenagers without question, only asking that one of the party be 18 years old. Carol's group brought along Sylvia Bohannon, a college senior, as a chaperone.

From Thursday afternoon until Saturday morning, the girls joined several 100 other fans in befriending porters, police guards, waitresses, and bellhops in an effort to get to the fifth-floor suite where the Beatles were ensconced. Nothing availed, but they did get a close look at the idols once, when they arrived at nearly 4 a.m. on Friday.

 “I touched Paul”, said Olivia, “I  asked him if I could touch him, and he nodded.” Carol was close enough to their limousine to toss her gifts through the window. They were large, framed, carefully done sketches of the Beatles' famous faces. “They fell in John's lap. He just glanced through them and left them there. He didn't care. They don't care. And they didn't nod at us or even look at us. They ignored everyone.”

 With 500 others, the girls waited for five hours to glimpse the Beatles. The next day, when they left the hotel for their afternoon concert, The Beatles finally crept out the back door, where only a small group were privileged enough to rush them and witness the terror on their faces.

 They stayed up all Friday night without success. “The whole hotel was like a dormitory”, said Carol. “All the kids were up all night visiting and trying to get to the fifth floor, but the Beatles press agents and the hotel managers were as mean as ever, yelling at us to stay in our rooms.”

 They were disappointed, but not as disappointed as the girl from a town in Indiana who told her mother she was staying at the home of a friend and diffused her bankroll on an $18 single hotel room.

 Carol says she wouldn't do it again. “I don't like them as much as I did, but it was fun just trying to get to them. And we did get closer than a lot of kids, and the shows were great, of course.” Carol admitted you couldn't hear much over the screening, “but what you could hear them, they weren't off key, like they were last year.”

Beatles are as Strong as Ever! (1965)

 

 

Beatles Are as Strong as Ever!

By Bob Lamb

The Macon News

August 22, 1965

 

The huge electronic sign read,” Yeah, Yeah, the Beatles are Here Tonight” as multitudes of teens, pre-teens, and older folks stood outside the iron gates of the Atlanta Stadium. Cars whizzed to and fro on the expressway that encircled the stadium as the Atlanta afternoon rush hour carried 1000s past on their daily trip to the suburbs.

 Across the street, money-hocking vendors began setting up their shops of Beatles wares, and part of the extra 150-man police force directed early arrivals into the stadium's vast parking lot.

Some of the multitudes just stood around talking about the concert, which was a mere three and a half hours away. But for the most part, the group just lounged in front of the press gate as reporters and newsmen attempted to squeeze into the stadium. Once inside the stadium, the assembled group marched in mass toward the basement locker room of the Atlanta baseball Braves, where the press conference was to be held. Amid the marching down the ramp, shouts and pleas came from the frantic fans with suggestions on what to ask during the press conference or even requests for autographs.

At the doors of the locker room, credentials were once again checked just to be positive that all who entered the room were authorized personnel. Television lights had been set up, and an assortment of technicians crowded around the equipment, making last-minute adjustments. Atlanta music maker Paul Drew introduced the Beatles press officer Tony Barrow, who spoke of the ground rules for the conference. Then the millionaire four entered.

 After a picture-taking session, the Beatles lounged behind a rather thinly shaped conference table and fielded questions with the agility of an all-star shortstop. Questions came quickly, and so did the answers. The Beatles sprinkled most of the replies with wit and often evasiveness. The group's private and professional life was probed by the questions, which were sometimes ridiculous, such as, “What does Ringo eat for breakfast?” Ringo did not reply.

Ringo was asked what he and his wife, the former Maureen Cox, planned to call their new baby. He replied that no name has yet been decided upon. Paul was questioned about his supposed engagement to an 18-year-old British film starlet, Jane Asher. He said that he had heard it so much that he was getting to believe it. Ringo and George replied together with the name of Macon's own Otis Redding when the group was asked what American artists they liked.  John chimed in, “And don't forget James Brown.” Maconites don't forget brown either. He's another local star. The group said they like Elvis Presley's earlier records, but Ringo concluded, “he's a middle-aged man now.”

 During the press conference section, Ringo just stared back at the press while George looked around and drummed his fingers on the top of the table. Paul whistled a lot, but remained mostly quiet during the session, while John was just the opposite.

 The group was dressed in all sorts of outfits for the occasion, and no one was dressed any way alike. The rundown shows Paul: casual suit and sport shirt, Ringo: striped coat and red and white tee shirt, George:  tan shirt with 007 t-shirt underneath and blue jeans, and John:  sailor's cap with sports jacket and slacks.

 Later, this reporter was given additional time with the Beatles since I was the only reporter out of the lot to attend the group's press conference in Jacksonville, Florida last year. During this time, I asked the question submitted by the winners of a contest over radio station, W NEX.  Unfortunately, the tape recorder which I used for the questions was defective, and the additional time was foiled.

However, questions and answers were 1. What do you like best about being famous? Answer: The group all agreed on” the money”.   2. Where do you get the ideas for your songs?  Answer:  “from John and Paul's heads.”  3.  Ringo, does your nose wiggle when you talk? Answer:  “I never noticed it.”  4. How do your receptions here compare with elsewhere? Answer:  “Much, much better here. The kids are a lot crazier.”

 Winners were Betty Lockhart, first place, Gene Simmons, second place, and tied for third were Valerie Norris and March Hall. The questions ended the private session, and I walked from underneath the stadium with a better impression than they gave me a year ago in Jacksonville. No doubt about it, what they have created in less than two years is going to be around for a long, long time. 

Rowan and Martin's Laugh In

 

Back Seat rider

 

Trouble is Brewing

 

Paul takes it Away

 

Quit being taller than me

 

When You Wish Upon a Star

 

In 1988 Ringo recorded the song "When You Wish Upon a Star" from Disney's Pinocchio for an album called "Stay Awake."  He worked on the song with Herb Alpert playing the trumpet solo and Harry Nilsson whistling on the track.   Lenny Nehaus was the conductor on many songs on the album, including Harry's solo song - Zip a Dee Do Dah and Hal Willner was the album's producer. 

Boat Party