“Forgotten Hollywood”- How The Beatles Changed the 1960s
Manny P. here…
The sudden loss of a president to an assassin’s bullet consigned a dark cloud over our nation. We remained that way for over two months. What we didn’t figure is how four Liverpool lads would geo-politically affect almost every American household by catering to Baby Boomers as the generation came of age one Sunday evening. The Beatles altered our collective psyche.
Last night marked the 50th anniversary of John, Paul, George, and Ringo’s performance on the Ed Sullivan Show, their first appearance in America. On February 9th, 1964, at least 73 million viewers watched. The Nielsen ratings service says 45% of all television sets in use at the time were tuned to the broadcast. Teens from coast-to-coast and the equally fledging medium of the small screen were coming of age. The two became willing allies. They combined to make the moment so historic, it can’t be replicated in our hyper-media era.
Grammy Awards producer Ken Ehrlich, produced Sunday’s special The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to The Beatles on CBS. According to the program, fan interest had been expertly stoked thanks to the Fab Four’s recent hits, including I Want to Hold Your Hand, and a pristine promotional campaign. Ed Sullivan also understood the value of marketing to a television audience. The Sunday evening mainstay had introduced Elvis Presley almost a decade before, and it caused a major schism among generations of parents and children. But, Sullivan’s instincts were right… Rock ‘n Roll was here to stay.
Beatlemania accomplished more than a simple rating’s bonanza. It sparked a musical revolution; created a dramatic altering of the pop culture landscape; and it even set a tumultuous tone for our political agenda that lasted over ten years. Hollywood, nightly news programs, college campuses, Dixiecrats, and even the White House had to adjust to this unique metamorphosis. The band’s influence on the passage of a Civil Rights Act, protests over the Vietnam War, and Woodstock were sober examples of what transpired during the turbulent 1960s.
In the final analysis, the origins of the British Invasion cleansing the New World from a tragic funk that began with the untimely passing of John F. Kennedy on November 22nd, 1963, and subsequent funeral (sadly, our first major live televised event). The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show certified the transition.
Until next time> “never forget”
This entry was posted on Monday, February 10th, 2014 at 12:01 am and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
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