They all love it – Winnipeg Free Press

Four-year-old Martin Dahlke waited anxiously for Ed Sullivan to speak the words that would change the world 60 years ago on Sunday, February 9, 1964.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, The Beatles!”

There was the Fab Four, making their famous debut The Ed Sullivan Show: Paul McCartney sings All my love play bass on the left side of the screen; George Harrison is in the center on guitar, occasionally joining McCartney for harmony; On the right is John Lennon, also singing and playing guitar.

Ringo Starr sat behind them in the booth, setting up the shot. They would perform five songs that night.

The young ladies who sang in front of them and became a part of history with the group were amazing spectators. It was joined by millions of television viewers across North America, including Winnipeggers like Dahlke.

“Ed Sullivan It's almost bedtime,” says Dahlke, who has collected six decades of Beatles memorabilia. The Beatles on Broadway The teacher in the kindergarten did not allow me to read the magazine during quiet time.

“I was incredibly excited. My mom said, “Mah,” he was six years older than John Lennon.

“We thought it was funny – all the shouting and of course the captions: it's Paul, it's George and it's 'Sorry girls, he's married' for John.”

How significant was the Liverpool quartet's debut on The Sullivan Show? Dahlke's father, George West, who often used a tape recorder to record his wife, Lorraine West, performing on local television stations, knew how big a moment it would be, and prepared the car for the show.

“He knew history. He was a voracious magazine reader and loved music and wasn't sloppy about it,” he says. “He was aware of the tension and the event that was going to happen this week.”

Winnipeg artist Kathryn Bruce was 16 years old when she visited a friend's house that evening. Like many people in front of the television that night, seeing the Beatles perform for the first time was a moment he will never forget.

“We took pictures of them on TV and we were amazed. I absolutely loved them. “There were four magical creatures,” says Bruce.

History shows that the Beatles divided a generation – children of the early 60s screamed for John, Paul, George and Ringo, while their parents disapproved of the group's music and their hairstyles – this was not the case for Bruce and his mother. .

Bruce's mother invited him to participate in a radio station contest that required listeners to collect 7Up bottle caps, the winners of which earned a chance to see the Beatles at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minn., on August 21, 1965.

Bruce was one of the winners who got to see the Fab Four in person.

“We got on the bus in the morning, they took us to Minneapolis, we went to the show, and then we got back on the bus,” he recalls of the whirlwind trip.

“The concert was great.”

Bruce remembers having good seats and choosing to scream.

“I don't know if it's being Canadian or if it's respect for the musicians. We wanted to hear them play.

“I probably screamed between songs.”

Grant Boden, Bruce's partner, was a 16-year-old student at Kelvin High School and was working shifts in a basement grocery store in downtown Bay City in 1964.

He remembers going to Bay's record department one night after work to see if the Beatles' debut album was still for sale. It did, and he bought it the next morning when the store opened.

Of course, he was in front of the family's black-and-white Admiral TV to watch Ed Sullivan and his “really big shoes,” the host often said.

“It's probably the only family reunion we can watch every weekend The Ed Sullivan Show“, says Boden, “When you first heard them, you knew there was a change from the old rock and roll. They changed the style of music and I definitely felt that – and it was very interesting, because the change is amazing.”

The Beatles were the talk of Calvin's hallways the next day, at least among the cool kids.

“Everyone thought it was amazing, but there were people who had never seen them or weren't interested. I think it was the glee club ones The Pirates of Penzance” says Boden, who soon after the Beatles appeared on the Sullivan Show would become the Electric Jug and Blues Band and perform Beatles covers to join the craze for Beatlemania.

Don McLean sings about “the day the music died.” American Pie — Music was revived a little more than five years later when the Beatles played the 1971 tune, a reference to the plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, that killed Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper on February 3, 1959. All my love Ed Sullivan Theater on Broadway in New York City.

McCartney has performed several times at the theater over the years, including performing Beatles hits Come back In 2009, as part of the theater scene The Late Show with David Letterman.

“It's great to remember being here,” McCartney said in an interview with Letterman, recalling how makeup was done on one floor and wardrobe on the next. “The first time was scary.”

Beatlemania lives on 60 years later, and Rod Kozak, who was seven years old when he saw the Beatles perform on his family's 21-inch Dumont TV in '64, is contributing to the spirit's flourishing.

He is a co-driver Vinyl Warehouse on nostalgia station CJNU 93.7 FM; Tonight at 8pm he and Vic Gajini will open two hours of Beatles music by broadcasting the audio of the band's debut. Ed Sullivan.

Saturday at 8 o'clock The The Vinyl MuseumKozak and Gajini represent the music of the later years of the Beatles.

Winnipeg gets its own landmark in Beatles history on August 18, 1964, when the band's plane landed in the city to refuel. The Fab Four came out and stretched their legs on the tarmac in front of a crowd of fans, including Kozak, who perched atop the old terminal's observation deck.

“In order, that's how it happened The Ed Sullivan Showthen watch a movie Hard day and night and then seeing the Beatles at the airport, so '64 was a big year for me in music,” says Kozak. “It was great.”

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