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This moment led to one of the enduring music/broadcasting history trivia questions: What was the first song the Beatles performed live on their first “Ed Sullivan Show” appearance? No, it wasn’t “She Loves You” or “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (although they did those later in the show). Hint: while it was one of their most popular early songs, it was never officially released as a single. Okay, it was “All My Loving,” track #6 on side one of their iconic Meet the Beatles! album.

The ratings for the show were unprecedented. More than 73 million viewers – 39% of the country’s population – saw the performance. The broadcast drew a 60 share, which meant that 60% of American TV households were tuned in. Ed Sullivan always had pretty good ratings, but this was more than triple the size of his usual audience.

The Beatles were far from finishing their first American visit. Brian Epstein had managed to squeeze a couple of concert appearances into their tight schedule. One of those took place in Washington, DC two nights later, at the old Washington Coliseum. The old barn had seen some big events in its history, but nothing like this. The folks who owned and managed the building had barely heard of the group, but a concert promoter in the region convinced them to book a show. There was minimal promotion and advertising, but it wasn’t necessary. The tickets sold out in only a few hours.

 

It turned out to be one of the most intense and intimidating concert environments ever seen, and is still regarded as such. The Beatles performed one of their few (maybe their only?) concerts “in the round,” on a small stage at the center of the arena, placed where the boxing ring would normally be situated. The building was packed with 8,092 ticket holders, most of them (as usual) screaming teenagers, with the front rows only a few feet from the stage. Imagine the frenzy in Ed Sullivan’s studio theater, now multiplied by a factor of ten. Fortunately, nothing really serious occurred, and the band handled the situation flawlessly, even making adjustments on the fly to handle audio and microphone issues…although it’s hard to believe they could even hear themselves amidst the screaming. They returned to New York to perform at Carnegie Hall the following day, then flew to Florida to spend a few days before returning to England. They returned for a North American concert tour in late summer. That tour was much better organized and promoted, although Beatlemania had not subsided at all, and the receptions they received were just as frenzied as their earlier appearances.

Typically, in an article like this, you would see links to various sources on the web. It would be superfluous here. There are countless sources of audio, video, photographs, and text of all these events and many others relating to that weekend in 1964. They are easily accessed on YouTube and other online locations. You can use one of the popular search engines or simply type a few key words into the YouTube search bar. All sorts of material will pop up; you’ll never run out of stuff to enjoy. If you are looking for maximum available audio and video quality, there are many downloads and DVD’s available from Amazon and other merchants.

The Beatles’ first weekend in America – particularly that first appearance on the “Ed  Sullivan Show” – is widely regarded as a sort of cultural watershed that ignited Beatlemania here and opened America to other performers of the “British Invasion” era… artists like the Rolling Stones, the Dave Clark Five, Dusty Springfield, and many others. Many sociologists and cultural historians have opined that the Beatles coming to the United States was (at least in a pop culture sense) the beginning of the era that we now  commonly view as “The Sixties.” Indeed, a veteran television host and four young musicians from the UK changed everything that night.

 

EPILOGUE

If their first “Ed Sullivan Show” performance was the “penthouse suite” of their first visit to America, the foundations of that structure were the countless radio stations around the United States that highlighted the band and played their music incessantly. There are endless stories about the big AM Top-40 stations of that era, their star disc jockeys, and their various encounters with the Beatles, both on and off the air.

I was a youngster in Baltimore at that time, and I was already hooked on radio and everything about it. I was a big fan of AM Top-40 powerhouse WCAO. The “Big 60” was the radio station for young Baltimore in that era, and their on-air staff were all celebrities in the community. Noted radio entrepreneur Kerby Confer was a WCAO disc jockey then, using the name “Kerby Scott” on the air.

1964 WCAO Promotional Material: “Kerby Scott photo
(Photo courtesy Kerby Confer)

I recently spoke with Kerby Confer (almost two hours on the phone!) and reminisced about that era and WCAO’s role in it. When the Beatles took the train from New York to their gig in Washington, one of Kerby’s colleagues, veteran WCAO newsman Frank Luber, managed to board the train when it stopped at Pennsylvania Station in Baltimore and recorded an interview with the Beatles. The tape was brought back to the station and aired.

If WCAO was already immersed in Beatlemania, that episode had the station and its staff absolutely swimming in it. Kerby Confer told me that moment influenced his life and his career in ways he didn’t fully appreciate at the time. He said he was just another guy doing pretty well on the air in Baltimore, but that moment led to him becoming Baltimore’s “Fifth Beatle.” Wait, what? Baltimore’s “Fifth Beatle?”How did that come about?

September, 1964: The Beatles and Baltimore media. “Kerby Scott” Confer is at the far right, directly behind Ringo  (Photo courtesy Kerby Confer)

As it turned out, Kerby Scott soon became the host of WCAO’s “Liverpool Hour,” an evening program in conjunction with his regular on-air work at the station. The program featured the music of the Beatles and the many other artists who came out of the UK at that time.

Kerby usually wore his hair short in a buzz cut, but Paul Rodgers – his lifelong friend, WCAO colleague, and business partner later – convinced him to grow his hair out enough to solidify the “Fifth Beatle” persona. Kerby eventually sported a very restrained Beatles-style haircut to complete the image (I don’t think he kept the haircut for very long). He was an obvious choice to emcee one of the Beatles’ shows when they performed at the Baltimore Civic Center in September of 1964, and he later hosted “The Kerby Scott Show” on WBAL-TV; it was a dance party program, Baltimore’s version of Dick Clark’s show “American Bandstand,” and I believe it was eventually syndicated elsewhere. Before long, Kerby Confer moved over to the business side of radio in management and ownership. He was very successful in that endeavor, and still owns and operates many radio stations today.

So, Kerby Scott Confer and Mark Wainwright were just two more young radio guys whose lives and careers were influenced by that first Beatles weekend in the United States. It bears repeating: a veteran television host and four young musicians from England changed everything on the night of February 9,1964.

Mark Wainwright is a long-time radio personality, talk show host, and voiceover performer who has worked on the air at numerous respected radio stations around the United States. He was most recentlythe morning host at WSYR in Syracuse, New York. A Baltimore native, Mark currently resides inSaratoga County, New York. He can be reached at: markwainwright@earthlink.net