Memorabilia

Item Description

The Beatles made several appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, including three in February 1964 that were among their first appearances in front of an American audience. 

Their first appearance, on February 9, was seen by a then-record 73 million viewers and came to be regarded as a cultural watershed that launched American Beatlemania—as well as the wider British Invasion of American pop music—and inspired many young viewers to become rock musicians.

Background:

Ed Sullivan Show talent booker Jack Babb saw the Beatles twice in concert in the UK in 1963, after being invited by Peter Prichard, a London talent agent who was also friend of Beatles manager Brian Epstein.[3] Babb was initially uninterested in booking the group for the show, as British musical acts at that time experienced little commercial success in the U.S.[3] Then, on October 31, Ed Sullivan was at London's Heathrow Airport and saw a crowd of 1,500 fans await the Beatles' return from a tour of Sweden. Struck by the crowds, Sullivan became interested in booking the Beatles for his show, and Prichard notified Epstein.

Epstein flew to New York on November 5 to promote another one of his acts, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas. Six days later, Epstein and Sullivan met at the Hotel Delmonico and agreed to have the Beatles perform three shows—two live and one taped. The Beatles ended up earning $2,400 ($15,613 in 2020 dollars) for the three shows.

The Beatles began to receive attention in the mainstream American press and radio play in November and December 1963. Due to rapidly growing listener demand, the band's first single on Capitol Records, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" was rush-released in late December, three weeks ahead of schedule. (Capitol had hoped that the single's original release date, on January 16, 1964, would allow the Beatles' Sullivan Show appearances in early February to bolster sales. Instead, the song reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart on January 25, 1964, just before the Beatles were due to arrive in the U.S

Item Special Note

This auction's purpose is to help raise funds for the organization, so in order for AD10 to not incur the costs of shipping we are asking that any shipping is the responsibility of the buyer.