The Beatles, JFK and Nov. 22, 1963
The connection between the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the eruption of Beatlemania in the U.S. a little more than two months later when the group showed up on “The Ed Sullivan Show” has long been established.
The joy in the group’s new sound and look, played out on the faces of Sullivan’s audience full of screaming teenagers, gave a grieving nation a much-needed reason to smile once again. What’s less well-remembered is that the Sullivan show was not the group’s first TV exposure in the U.S. In fact, before that historic night, even before talk-show host Jack Paarshowed a performance clip of the Fab Four on his show a month before they arrived in the States to play live for Sullivan, Mike Wallace and CBS News were the first to tell a national audience about the phenomenon of Beatlemania then sweeping England.
Source: Los Angeles Times
Photo Credit: Geddy Images
