.jpg)
An online Beatles fan club for and about Beatle fans
Monday, September 7, 2026
Another photo of Ringo and Stephanie
Thank you to the person who left the link to this photograph of Ringo and Stephanie LaMotta in the comments. Much appreciated! I figured I would share it on the site. Lovely photos of them during their European adventure.
Sadly, Stephanie passed away this January. She lived a very happy and full life rescuing dogs and raising awareness about animals.
Sunday, September 6, 2026
Interview with Long John Wade (1965)
Interview with Long John Wade
Beatles Unlimited (Local Beatles Fan newsletter)
February 1965 - Volume 1 No 1
Hey Beatles fans! Here's an interview with the only radio personality to make the entire American tour with the Beatles, Long John Wade of WDRC Hartford, Connecticut.
Q: Which Beatles struck you as being the most quiet?
A: The quietest? George.
Q: Will you please describe the Beatles in your own words?
A: John's loud. Ringo's more or less quiet --usually sits in the background, except when he opens his mouth; it's usually something funny. George is quiet. Period. He doesn't laugh as much as the rest. Paul is the friendliest. He seems to be the most amiable. You know, not necessarily that the others are not friendly. He just outwardly acts like that.
Q: Did you attend all the press conferences?
A: Yes.
Q: Could you tell us offhand which was the most interesting one?
A: Well, there was an interesting one in Canada because in Vancouver, they televised the whole thing live. They had TV cameras all set up there, so that was interesting. The first ones were the most interesting because they asked all the questions. Then they got boring after a while because the same questions were asked over and over. The New York press conferences were exciting because there were more people there, and it was a bigger room and a bigger hotel. And of course, they all had the TV cameras set up there, but still the same questions.
Q: How many others besides yourself were with the official Beatles troupe?
A: Mainly entertainers, which included the Righteous Brothers, the Exciters, and one of the Exciters' mothers, who acted as a chaperone because one of the Exciters is under 18, and Jackie DeShannon. I think the plane averaged 38. This included the hostesses, the representative from the airline, Kappy Ditson, who arranged all our accommodations-- our travel arrangements, limousines, and whatnot. As far as radio or press people, there were five from England, all from newspapers, of course. One of them was a photographer, and then there were two freelance photographers who joined us in Las Vegas. One of them was Ron Joy, who I became very friendly with.
Q: Did you take any pictures yourself? Did you bring a camera?
A: I took some, but I had tape recorders and everything else with me. That was a mistake because I took them to too many places. That was bad because the Beatles don't like to see a microphone around. They're very wary of that sort of thing.
Q: Did having two Johns confuse matters any? That is John Lennon and yourself?
A: Well, there were little funny things like I'd say "Hi, John", and he'd say "Hi, John." I'd say "How are you John?" and he'd say "Fine John." It'd go back and forth like that, and so on.
Q: What did they call you, Long John or John Wade?
A. The Whisperer mainly.
Q: Oh, why was that?
A: Well, because I was always whispering in people's ears, you know, the interviews were going on and the microphones were on, and I didn't want to be heard, so I'd whisper, and somebody -- Ringo, usually--- would go, "Pssssssst, psssssst, pssssst. Here's Whisperer Wade. Psssssst Pssssst!" And then near the end of the trip in Kansas City, when Paul autographed that picture of me he drew, he signed it "John Fixer Wade."
Q: Why was that?
A: Well, for other reasons that I won't explain.
Q: Did you see the Beatles in between the shows backstage?
A: Yeah. Did you hear my tape of Paul doing opera in the shower? That was just fooling around between shows.
Q: How did they dress usually? When they weren't in the public eye that is.
A: Well, not sloppily, but casual. Ringo wore these big 16th-century puffed-sleeve shirts, very billowy and loose. And John would wear a turtleneck, usually black, sometimes a light color, with a sports jacket over it. He bought a red-and-white striped shirt one time. It was pretty loud.
Q: Do they like American styles, or would they rather wear English clothes?
A: Well, they're not too conservative.
Q. How did they compare in height to you? (Long John is well over six feet.)
A: Oh, short, a lot shorter than you'd imagine, except John.
Q. Really?
A: Oh yeah, they're about five foot seven or five foot eight. Really very short. Ringo is shorter than you are.
Q. He is?
A: Stand up........... Well, he's about your height.
Q. I thought John was about five foot 11 or six foot. They seem so tall.
A: That's with their boots on. They're really very short. You'd be surprised.
Q: Have you read John's book In His Own Write?
A: Yeah, parts of it, but you've got to stick with it and really think about it. It's better, of course, if you know, in the past, what he's reflecting upon.
Q. Do they quote from it at all?
A. No.
Cropped Beatle to Keep Fans (1966)
Cropped BEatle to Keep Fans
By Doris Wright
The News
September 7, 1966
Unlike the Biblical hero named Samson, whose strength evaporated when his locks were shorn, it appears that Beatle John Lennon's popularity won't ebb in the least when his hair is snipped to conform to a movie role.
"No matter what John does, I'll still love him," said Donna Carroll, an Edison High sophomore, who was one of seven girls who went to Memphis August 19 to see the famed British quartet. "I'm upset and I'm mad in a way," Donna said of John's hair cutting next week, "but it's his business. This will prove whether John's talented by himself or if he needs the group. I just hope he's not planning on doing anything like this in the future," she added.
Leslie Pritchett, a MacArthur student who was also in the local Beatles fan club, said, "I'm disappointed in a way, but it really doesn't bother me. He won't lose me no matter what he does."
Breaking away from the other Beatles, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, John is going to make a movie on his own, filling a role of a soldier with a short haircut. The movie How I Won the War will be filmed near Hanover, Germany. Producer-director Dick Lester, who directed the last two Beatles movies, will take the first snip of John's locks sometime next week.
"He'll let it grow again," predicted Laura Pitt, a Lehigh student. "But if he doesn't, I'll like him just as well." "This isn't going to make any difference to his career or to me." Commented Carmen Salazar of Lehigh, a self-designated Beatlemaniac.
"Bully for him," said KTSA disc jockey Peter Starr, himself a British subject. "I think this shows he's becoming an individual. If I wanted to get a reaction, I'd go on the air and say, 'Let's scrub his name,' but I won't say that, or I could say, 'Let's throw him out of the Beatles because he no longer has long hair.' I won't do that either. I'm looking forward to seeing the film," he added.
Noting that the Beatles' contract calls for disbanding the group if one of the four goes out on his own, Donna said, "I want John to have fun making the movie, and I want him to have praise and acclaim for doing it, but I want them to stay together."
Concerning the possibility that strands of John's hair might be available to fans, Donna sighed. "Oh, I'd love to get some. I'd treasure it forever, even a tiny little bit of it. I would write a million postcards or letters if that's what it would take to get even a tiny strand, but if it were Paul's hair, I'd send even more letters than that!"
Laura said, "I'd rather have a strand of Ringo's hair, but I don't want any of the Beatles to cut their hair."
Donna added, sighing again. "No matter what John does, I'll still love him." Thinking of the cost such a lock of hair might command, Leslie said, "We'll probably pull our money and buy it, no matter what it costs."
Congratulations to Sean and Charlotte!
A big congratulations are in order for Sean and Charlotte on the birth of their son, Aurelius.
Thursday, September 3, 2026
Police and Fans Play Beatle Football (New York City 1966)
Police and Fans Play Beatle Football
By Kathy Parker
Hartford Courant
September 3, 1966
The excitement of our trip to the Beatles concert at Shea did not begin with the appearance of the Beatles themselves. It started on the highways outside the city, where cars passed us displaying signs, "To the Beatles", "Beatles forever," "We love the Beatles."
Inside the halls of the stadium, I could feel the tension. We took our field-level positions just four rows behind the police barriers. Busloads of police patrolled the field and parking lot. Behind us rose a towering wall of fans. Huge signs suspended from the railings flapped in the breeze. Many took note of John and Cyn's anniversary.
Every few minutes, a helicopter chopped overhead, and tremendous screams went up from the crowd. Last year, the Beatles arrived by helicopter.
Just before showtime, the throng swayed toward one end of the stadium, where a red truck was backing into the lower level; the Beatles were inside. The 7:30 p.m. show began at 8:15 p.m. with the Remains. Other acts included the Cyrkle and the Ronettes. The crowd was impatient. People were standing on their chairs.
All the announcer said was, "And now...." and the crowd went wild. The announcer asked for a few bars of "We Love You, Beatles. Oh, yes, we do." The crowd sang in remarkable unison, 45,000 strong.
One Beatle... two Beatles, three, four. Could I really be seeing them? Everyone climbed to the armrests on their seats. Faces were washed with tears. Girls clutched each other for balance. Some fell backward into the crowd. Lines of police moved in and stood like toy soldiers along the barriers. Field glasses were selling better than hot dogs.
About halfway through the concert, someone got through the ropes. Several policemen ran after the girl. Gradually, more and more people tried the same thing as groups of police rushed first to one place, then another, playing Beatle football, tackling fans.
Suddenly, it was over. The Beatles waved a hurried good night, and ran off the stage into a station wagon. As the car sped across the field, hundreds in the lower level rushed outside. A huge trailer truck was concealing a hole in the fence where the Beatles' car would exit; the truck moved. The Beatles drove through. They changed into the Wells Fargo truck and roared out across the parking lot. Throngs ran down the stadium ramps and out into the night, chasing along the zigzagging trails of the Beatles. Later, the Fab Four switched to a limousine and drove to the airport, where they boarded a plane to the West Coast to enter the lives of 1000s of other American teenagers.
Written by Gail Andrews:
I too went to see the spectacular show at Shea. There was some excitement during the show when fans spotted two of the Lovin' Spoonful in the audience. The Beatles wore beige suits with light blue striped shirts and sang 11 songs. Paul introduced the first song and said the initial "hello," which brought screams from the stadium.
I don't know what it meant, but Paul and John kept referring to the year 1948 as they introduced the songs. Paul seemed to be in an exceptionally happy mood, but John, George, and Ringo were quiet. The security measures were more than needed, as only eight fans tried to reach the Beatles. The performance ended abruptly, and the Beatles were whisked away in a gray station wagon with New York license plate number 97368.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)