The Beatles Invasion, 50 Years Ago: Sunday, Feb. 9, 1964
At 8 p.m. on Feb. 9, 1964 an unheard-of 60% of American TVs tuned to CBS to see The Beatles on Ed Sullivan.

By Bob Spitz Feb. 09, 2014

Just before 2:30 on the afternoon of Feb. 9, the Beatles got the signal to take their places for the first of two full dress rehearsals in front of a full, hysterical audience. If they seemed daunted at making their American debut, it didn’t show. They plugged in and waited patiently behind a curtain, exchanging relaxed, easy grins, as Ed Sullivan wandered onstage.

Sullivan was an improbable TV star. Stiff as cardboard and about as endearing, the 62-year-old emcee had, a profile in TIME said, as much charisma as “a cigar-store Indian.” He was painfully awkward in front of the camera, but he had an uncanny instinct for spotting talent and the ability to give it a national showcase. As such, he was a powerful star maker, to say nothing of an American icon. If you tuned in on Sunday nights, as a majority of TV watchers did, you were in for “a really big shew.”

Read more:

http://entertainment.time.com/2014/02/09.../#ixzz2ssmhAz4p

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Quote: Frank Cannon wrote in post #3

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I also don't think that the Beatles were all that.

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