Beatles A Day in the Life Blog posts of '1964' 'February'

On this day The Beatles were taken to the training camp of boxer Cassius Clay - later known as Muhammad Ali - who was preparing for his 25 February fight against heavyweight champion Sonny Liston.

The day after their second Ed Sullivan Show appearance, The Beatles enjoyed a well-earned day off in Miami, in which they tried water-skiing.

Deauville Hotel, Miami Beach, USA

The Beatle's second live appearance on The Ed Sulllivan Show took place during this evening (8:00-9:00 pm, EST) before a 3,500 audience at the Deauville Hotel in Miami Beach. Surprisingly, the Beatles did not top the bill on this occasion, that honour going to Mitzi Gaynor. Nonetheless, an estimated 70 million people viewed, in 22,445,000 homes - and it certainly wasn't because of Gaynormania. Another guest on the show was Myra Cohen.

A full dress-rehearsal beginning at 2:00 pm (also taped, but not broadcast) preceded the live TV transmission; in both this and the broadcast the Beatles performed "She Loves You", "This Boy", "All My Loving", "I Saw Her Standing There", "From Me To You" and "I Want To Hold Your Hand". This edition of The Ed Sullivan Show was repeated on Sunday, September 20, 1964 (8:00-9:00 pm, EST).

Following several more days of "rest", the Beatles flew home to England from Miami, via a short stopover in New York, arriving at London Airport at 8:10 am (half an hour later than scheduled) on Saturday, February 22nd.

Deauville Hotel, Miami Beach, USA

A full afternoon rehearsal for The Ed Sullivan Show.

A telephone interview with the Beatles was broadcast this day on Dick Clark's long-running, influential ABC-TV series, American Bandstand (12:30-1:00 pm EST). The Beatles never got to appear in person on this show although another phone interview was broacast two months later on Saturday, April 18th, (also 12:30-1:00 pm, EST), and they filmed an interview for screening on New American Bandstand on Saturday, October 10th, 1964 (1:30-2:30 pm, EST), in what was billed as an "all-Beatle program". Recording dates/locations for these cannont be researched.

Deaville Hotel, Collins Ave. Miami Beach, FL USA

Sunday's second live appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show was set to be broadcast direct from the Deauville hotel in Miami Beach, so the Beatles flew from New York to the Florida city on Thursday, February 13th, in the hope of catching a few day's rest in between the (surprisingly numerous) TV rehearsals. The first of these took place this day, in the hotel. As for the much-needed rest, Beatlemania ensured that this was not possible.

The Beatles travelled to Miami from New York on this day, leaving on National Airlines Flight 11 at 1.30pm and arriving at 4pm.

Their arrival was watched by 7,000 fans, which had been alerted to The Beatles' presence by local radio stations WFUN and WQAM.

After disembarking from the aeroplane The Beatles were taken in a three-limousine convoy to the Deauville Hotel in Miami Beach. Motorcycle outriders led and trailed the convoy for the eight-mile journey, as fans lined the streets to watch.

Paul McCartney - Anthology

Miami was like paradise. We had never been anywhere where there were palm trees. We were real tourists; we had our Pentax cameras and took a lot of pictures. I've still got a lot of photos of motorcycle cops with their guns. We'd never seem a policeman with a gun, and those Miami cops did look pretty groovy. We had a great time there.

Carnegie Hall, 7th Ave and West 57th St, New York City, New York, USA

The Beatles returned this day to New York, again traveling by train, and gave two 34 minutes shows at the famed Carnegie Hall, at 7:45 and 11:15 pm, with a capacity audience of 2900 at each. Tickets went on sale at the theatre's box-office on January 27th and were sold by the next day. Such was the demand that seating was allocated on stage with the Beatles, on their left and right flanks and behind them. A plan by Capitol Records to record these two shows was thwarted by the American Federation of Musicians. With greater time to solve the union problems, however, Capitol succeeded in gaining AFM permission to tape the Hollywood Bowl shows on August 23rd, 1964 and August 29-30, 1965.

Washington Coliseum, Third and M St. North East, Washington DC, USA

Early on this day the Beatles travelled by train from New York to Washington DC, and at 8:31 stepped on stage at the 8092 seat Coliseum to give their first concert in North America. For the next half hour, a manic audience was treated to "Roll Over Beethoven", "From Me To You", "I Saw Her Standing There", "This Boy", "All My Loving", "I Wanna Be Your Man", "Please Please Me", "Till There Was You", "She Loves You", "I Want To Hold Your Hand", "Twist And Shout", and "Long Tall Sally".

With Brian Epstein's consent, the performance was shot by CBS and shown by National General Corporation, together with unrelated footage of the Beach Boys and Lesley Gore - in cinemas across the USA as a closed-circuit telecast on Saturday and Sunday, March 14th and 15th, two matinee screenings each day.

The film starts with the Beatles having made their entrance but Ringo attempting to re-position his drum kit. George switched his microphone at the end of the first verse of the opening number because it wasn't working, only to find a faulty replacement. After the third song, all the Beatles turned 180 degress, Mal Evans revolving Ringo's kit - in order to face the audience which had been behind them; this exercise was repeated at the end of the sixth number while, at the end of the ninth, they all turned again, 45 degrees this time, to face the side audience.

On February 10th 1964, after breaking American television ratings records with their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show the night before, the Beatles again met with the American press.

In the following interviews, part of a day-long press conference consisting of one-on-one meetings with the press, both CBS News and the Associated Press asked the Beatles about a negative review of their Sullivan performance by a professional music critic. Once again, the Beatles showed they could charm not only the American public, but also the American press with their humor. These brief interviews were filmed by CBS-TV and the Associated Press in the Terrace Room of the Plaza Hotel in New York City.

As a bit of historical trivia, the Beatles are asked in passing about their opinions of the Keeler/Profumo affair. This was a recent sex scandal, involving a British model and a British government minister, which would disgrace the then-current conservative government in Britain.

Studio 50, New York City, USA

In the morning there was another Studio 50 rehearsal for The Ed Sullivan Show. George was unwell and did not participate, in his stead, the cameras rehearsed their positioning with a stand-in, the Beatle's assistant Neil Aspinall.

During the afternoon, before their celebrated live Sullivan debut that evening, the Beatles - with George - taped the appearance, ostensibly their third, that would be screened after their departure from America, on Sunday, February 23rd (8:00-9:00 pm EST). For this, before a different audience from that which would attend the evening performance, they played three numbers: first "Twist And Shout" and "Please Please Me" and then, in a different setting for inclusion later in the program, "I Want To Hold Your Hand". Before any of this happened, though, Sullivan claimed the spotlight and delivered one of his haughty pronouncements that summed up a US reaction to this first Beatle visit: "All of us on the show are so darned sorry, and sincerely sorry, that this is the third and thus our last current show with the Beatles, because these youngsters from Liverpool, England, and their conduct over here, not only as fine professional singers but as a group of fine youngsters, will leave an imprint of everyone over here who's met them".....

Along with the Beatles, this edition featured Cab Calloway and Gordon and Sheila MacRae, and the program was repeated on Sunday, August 23, 1964.

The first and most famous of the Beatle's two live Sullivan transmissions was performed in front of a Studio 50 audience of 728, and an estimated 73 million people in 23,240,000 homes across the United States, tuning in from 8:00 to 9:00 pm, EST. It was easily the highest US TV audience figure amassed to that time.

The Beatles performed five songs, three at the beginning of the show, "All My Loving", "Till There Was You" and "She Loves You", and two in the second half in a different setting. "I Saw Her Standing There" and "I Want To Hold Your Hand". It was a daunting yet remarkably confident performance, marred only slightly by an awkward sound balance. During "Till There Was You", each of the Beatles came in for individual camera attention, at which point his christian name appeared on screen. When it came to John, an additional caption read, "Sorry Girls, He's Married".

As it transpired, this edition of the "Ed Sullivan Show" had a pronounced British slant, for apart from the Beatles it also featured singer/banjoist Tessie O'Shea and the New York cast of Lionel Bart's London musical, Oliver, starring Georgia Brown and -as the artful Dodger - Davy Jones, the future member of the Monkees. (Another guest act was the American impressionist Frank Gorshin, later to appear as The Riddler in the Batman TV Series.)

This celebrated edition of The Ed Sullivan Show was repeated on Sunday, July 12, 1964 (8:00 to 9:00 pm, EST) while highlights from the Beatles' sequences went into The Ed Sullivan Show: The Swinging Soulful Sixties, a retrospective of musical moments from Sullivan's shows throughout the decade, broadcast by CBS on Sunday, December 21, 1969.