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Beatles' 'Ed Sullivan Show' Appearance on DVD
Aired October 29, 2003 - 15:52 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: OK, all former and current Beatle groupies, fans and pop historians, you have a new ticket to ride the wave of '60s nostalgia through those strawberry fields and wallow in Beatle all over again. A two-disk, unedited restoration of the Fab Four's appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" some 40 years ago is out and you can buy it.
And here to welcome them is renowned Beatles expert, historian and prolific author, Bruce Spizer.
Hi, Bruce.
BRUCE SPIZER, "THE BEATLES ARE COMING": How you doing?
PHILLIPS: This is amazing. Tell us about this stuff. I understand it was forgotten about, buried in these vaults. How did this project come about?
SPIZER: Well, what happened was, over the years, because "The Ed Sullivan Show" was not in syndication, people had not really seen these entire programs. And when people were doing specials on the Beatles, they would typically do the same clip from, "I Want to Hold your Hand," and various other things. And so you really didn't have the big picture.
But fortunately, with the 40th anniversary approaching, the owners decided it was time to go ahead and put these out. So they were able to find the highest quality master tapes in the vaults and to go ahead and restore them digitally, and put together a really fascinating time capsule with 20 performance of the Beatles.
PHILLIPS: So they're unedited. So what are we going to see that we've never seen in the past? I'm assuming old commercials. Will we have candid conversation between Ed Sullivan and some of these guys?
SPIZER: You do have a little bit of interplay between Ed Sullivan and the commercials sometimes work really effectively, because after the Beatles' first three songs, he goes to a commercial break and it's an Anacin commercial showing this man with this pounding headache, which is probably what a lot of the people in the audience and the adults watching were thinking from all the shrieking girls.
PHILLIPS: Ed -- Ed definitely liked these guys, didn't he? SPIZER: Yes, he really did. And he said wonderful things about them, told them that composer Richard Rogers was one of their most rabid fans, and so was he. And the great thing about Ed Sullivan was he was never condescending toward the rock 'n roll acts on his show. He presented them as entertainment.
PHILLIPS: Do you think there's anything that will surprise us once we see this? Anything that might have been said, or any type of exchange among these folks?
SPIZER: Well, I think what was just the fun thing, in seeing the screaming girls, and also seeing how remarkably the cameramen captured the event. I mean, just absolutely brilliant camerawork, you know, that was done.
And bear in mind, the cameramen couldn't hear the director's instructions because of the screaming girls. So they were really doing a remarkable job. And during the second song the Beatles do, they do a close-up of each Beatle. And when they get to John, they have his name and under it, it says, "Sorry girls, he's married."
PHILLIPS: That's great. So we'll get a little bit of the humor within everything, too. It's called "The Ed Sullivan shows featuring the Beatles." It's a two-disk DVD. It's going to be -- well, actually it was released already. And you can get it. Here it is.
And also you've got a book coming out, too, right?
SPIZER: Right. I have a book that will be called "The Beatles are Coming: The Birth of Beatlemania in America," and it will deal with the first U.S. visit. And three of those Ed Sullivan Show appearances occurred during that first U.S. visit. And it also will detail all the wild and crazy events in America leading up to Beatlemania, when the group was virtually unknown.
At the time Ed Sullivan booked the Beatles, nobody really knew who the Beatles were in America. And by the time they were on his show, 73 million people watched. So it's a really fascinating to see how quickly things develop.
PHILLIPS: And now we get to watch again. Bruce Spizer, thanks so much.
SPIZER: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: All right.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 29, 2003 - 15:52 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: OK, all former and current Beatle groupies, fans and pop historians, you have a new ticket to ride the wave of '60s nostalgia through those strawberry fields and wallow in Beatle all over again. A two-disk, unedited restoration of the Fab Four's appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" some 40 years ago is out and you can buy it.
And here to welcome them is renowned Beatles expert, historian and prolific author, Bruce Spizer.
Hi, Bruce.
BRUCE SPIZER, "THE BEATLES ARE COMING": How you doing?
PHILLIPS: This is amazing. Tell us about this stuff. I understand it was forgotten about, buried in these vaults. How did this project come about?
SPIZER: Well, what happened was, over the years, because "The Ed Sullivan Show" was not in syndication, people had not really seen these entire programs. And when people were doing specials on the Beatles, they would typically do the same clip from, "I Want to Hold your Hand," and various other things. And so you really didn't have the big picture.
But fortunately, with the 40th anniversary approaching, the owners decided it was time to go ahead and put these out. So they were able to find the highest quality master tapes in the vaults and to go ahead and restore them digitally, and put together a really fascinating time capsule with 20 performance of the Beatles.
PHILLIPS: So they're unedited. So what are we going to see that we've never seen in the past? I'm assuming old commercials. Will we have candid conversation between Ed Sullivan and some of these guys?
SPIZER: You do have a little bit of interplay between Ed Sullivan and the commercials sometimes work really effectively, because after the Beatles' first three songs, he goes to a commercial break and it's an Anacin commercial showing this man with this pounding headache, which is probably what a lot of the people in the audience and the adults watching were thinking from all the shrieking girls.
PHILLIPS: Ed -- Ed definitely liked these guys, didn't he? SPIZER: Yes, he really did. And he said wonderful things about them, told them that composer Richard Rogers was one of their most rabid fans, and so was he. And the great thing about Ed Sullivan was he was never condescending toward the rock 'n roll acts on his show. He presented them as entertainment.
PHILLIPS: Do you think there's anything that will surprise us once we see this? Anything that might have been said, or any type of exchange among these folks?
SPIZER: Well, I think what was just the fun thing, in seeing the screaming girls, and also seeing how remarkably the cameramen captured the event. I mean, just absolutely brilliant camerawork, you know, that was done.
And bear in mind, the cameramen couldn't hear the director's instructions because of the screaming girls. So they were really doing a remarkable job. And during the second song the Beatles do, they do a close-up of each Beatle. And when they get to John, they have his name and under it, it says, "Sorry girls, he's married."
PHILLIPS: That's great. So we'll get a little bit of the humor within everything, too. It's called "The Ed Sullivan shows featuring the Beatles." It's a two-disk DVD. It's going to be -- well, actually it was released already. And you can get it. Here it is.
And also you've got a book coming out, too, right?
SPIZER: Right. I have a book that will be called "The Beatles are Coming: The Birth of Beatlemania in America," and it will deal with the first U.S. visit. And three of those Ed Sullivan Show appearances occurred during that first U.S. visit. And it also will detail all the wild and crazy events in America leading up to Beatlemania, when the group was virtually unknown.
At the time Ed Sullivan booked the Beatles, nobody really knew who the Beatles were in America. And by the time they were on his show, 73 million people watched. So it's a really fascinating to see how quickly things develop.
PHILLIPS: And now we get to watch again. Bruce Spizer, thanks so much.
SPIZER: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: All right.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
