50 years ago: At age 12, I carried a Magnavox home entertainment center up two flights of stairs for this album (and I could do it again)
"You know, don't you, A.T. (Atwood) is going to kill you and me both if we drop this thing," the late, great Delmar Owens told me as we loaded a $1,100 provincial Magnavox Home Entertainment Center into the back of a van in front of Atwood's Egyptian Music Company store in downtown Du Quoin in March 1964.
As a seventh grader at the J.B. Ward School working Saturdays at Du Quoin's "music store" at the corner of East Main and Mulberry the rewards were worth it. The $10 I usually got for working the whole Saturday unpacking the most beautiful television cabinetry on earth and, on this day, a copy of the "Meet the Beatles" album that had arrived and was hidden for me in the back office the day before.
The store had gotten only three copies since the 33 rpm was released Jan. 20, 1964, only two weeks before the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. It wasn't so much that I liked the Beatles, but that I had THE record. It had sold out all over the United States.
Here was my concern. I was a determined kid that had helped Delmar deliver televisions before. But this was a new model that we were not only delivering to an UPSTAIRS apartment in Sesser, but the outside staircase was narrow and making the turn into the apartment was unforgiving.
Wrapped in a large moving blanket tied down at both ends, we headed up the stairs--Delmar leading and me on the down side of the carry both lifting and pushing at the same time. At every step, he asked, "Are you okay, John? Sure you're okay? Be careful? We're almost there!" We made it, came back to Du Quoin, and by 11 a.m. that morning the Beatles album was in my hands.
Beatles Appearance on
The Ed Sullivan Show
On Feb, 9, 1964 at 7 p.m. our time, CBS' "The Ed Sullivan Show" took to the airwaves to broadcast the Beatles' first U.S. television appearance. An estimated 73.7 million Americans - a record for its time, and still one of the highest ratings ever - watched as John, Paul, George and Ringo performed "All My Loving," "Till There Was You," "She Loves You," "I Saw Her Standing There," and "I Want to Hold Your Hand" to 703 screaming teenage fans (mostly girls) in the studio audience. Although the group realized how important America was to their career, they had no idea just how important the Sullivan show was to domestic audiences. When the full impact of the event hit them just before show time, John Lennon became so nervous he taped the band's song lyrics to the back of his guitar, just in case.
Sullivan read a telegram to the audience just before the band's performance: "Congratulations on your appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show and your visit to America. STOP. We hope your engagement will be successful and your visit pleasant. STOP. Sincerely Elvis and the Colonel."
Details of George Harrison's
Two-Week Stay in Benton
Beatles blogger Sara Schmidt of Alton, Ill. writes a tremendous account of George Harrison's two week visit to Southern Illinois even before the Ed Sullivan Show appearance.
"In case you don't recall, 51 years ago the Beatles actually had some time off from their very busy year of 1963. John Lennon and wife Cynthia went off to Paris for a very belated honeymoon, Paul and Jane along with Ringo and Maureen went off to Greece, and George along with his brother Peter, came to the United States to visit their sister, Louise, in Benton, Ill.
"Louise had been working on getting her little brother's band known in the United States. She was in constant contact with Brian Epstein in England letting him know how things were coming along.
"She went around to radio stations and pushed The Beatles singles to be played on the air. She truly worked on getting The Beatles name and music known in the United States.
"George spent three weeks in Benton with his sister. While he was there he made a friend, Gabe McCathy who had a band called the 4 Vests. George played with the 4 Vests on several occasions. George also went to the drive-in movies, bought a guitar in a music shop, bought American records, ate at a diner that had car hops on roller skates, and spent a lot of time playing his guitar and hanging around with local people.
"This is a small thing, but yet historically in the story of the Beatles, it is an important first step to the Beatles becoming popular in America. And so the State of Illinois decided to place a marker in Benton last year to commemorate the time George spent in their town in 1963.
About 100 people showed up for the ceremony. Several people spoke including Bob Bartel, who saved Louise Harrison's former home from being demolished and Jim Kirkpatrick who wrote the book, Before He Was Fab. George's very own sister, Louise Harrison spoke about her brother's visit and how she ended up living in Benton. Afterwards the 4 Vests sang and a few other musicians performed while Louise Harrison signed autographs and posed for photos. The house where George stayed while he was in Benton is no longer a Bed and Breakfast. It is now an apartment complex. Before I left Benton to go back home, my mom and I spotted a sign on an antique shop window that said to come inside and see where George bought records. It was the very counter that George bought the record of "I got my mind set on you."