TONYA MOSLEY, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. Disney+, which already gave us the three-part Beatles documentary "Get Back" and the restored version of their "Let It Be" film, has another Beatles documentary to present called "Beatles '64." It covers a very short but significant period in the group's history. TV critic David Bianculli has this review.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW")
RALPH PAUL: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Tonight, live from New York, "The Ed Sullivan Show."
DAVID BIANCULLI, BYLINE: Sixty years later, what can a new film say or show about The Beatles' first trip to America that isn't already familiar or that is presented in a significantly different fashion? As it turns out, quite a lot. "Beatles '64," the new documentary presented by Disney+, works really well at exploring and explaining an intense two-week period in musical and cultural history. Director David Tedeschi starts his film with the group's first trip to New York, landing at the newly renamed John F. Kennedy Airport on February 7, and ends with their return to Liverpool 15 days later. In between, they holed up at the Plaza Hotel, reached 73 million viewers on their first appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show," played their first U.S. concert in Washington, D.C., did a second live "Ed Sullivan Show" from Miami and flew back home triumphant, leaving America in the first giant wave of Beatlemania.
"Beatles '64," the film, benefits greatly from behind-the-scenes and fans'-eye-view footage, shot at the time by the Maysles brothers, Albert and David, who also famously shot film of early Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones at Altamont and Little Edie and Big Edie at Grey Gardens. The group's first press conference at JFK has the press trying to make fun of The Beatles or treat them as novelties. But the four lads from Liverpool instantly win them over. When one reporter repeats the accusation that The Beatles are nothing but four Elvis Presleys, Ringo Starr wiggles his pelvis in response, and John Lennon follows, to raucous laughter from the reporters. From the very start, they treat the press not as something to fear but something to play.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "BEATLES '64")
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Hey. hey.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Quiet, please.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Would you please sing something?
RINGO STARR: No. Sorry.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: Next question.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #1: There's some doubt that you can sing.
JOHN LENNON: No, we need money first.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #1: A psychiatrist recently said you're nothing but four Elvis Presleys.
STARR: Oh.
LENNON: He must be blind.
STARR: It's not true. It's not true.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #2: What do you think your music does for these people?
STARR: Well, pleases them, I think. Well, they must do 'cause they're buying it.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #2: Why does it excite them so much?
PAUL MCCARTNEY: We don't know, really.
LENNON: If we knew, we'd form another group and be managers.
(LAUGHTER)
BIANCULLI: Vintage interview and performance clips are collected and presented artfully. George Harrison, in an interview from the '90s, explains why The Beatles hit America and the press the way they did.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "BEATLES '64")
GEORGE HARRISON: The Beatles were very - I mean, they actually were funny. Everybody in Liverpool thinks they're a comedian. I mean, that's a well-known fact. And you - all you have to do is drive up there and go through the Mersey Tunnel, and the guy on the toll booth is a comedian, you know? They all are. We had that kind of bred and born into us, and when you just transposed it into New York or somewhere, it was great. I mean, we were just being hard-faced, really, and they loved it.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #3: And do you think it was being made even stronger by the fact there were four of you bouncing off one another?
HARRISON: Absolutely, yeah. You just dried up, and somebody else was already there with another fab quip.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #3: Yeah.
BIANCULLI: Another wonderful vintage interview from a decade ago has singer Ronnie Spector talking about how she and The Ronettes helped The Beatles escape from the Plaza Hotel, which was surrounded by a mob of adoring teenage fans.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BEATLES '64")
RONNIE SPECTOR: I'll tell you the truth. They had to escape. They were prisoners. So then I got a limousine. We went down the back stairs and went to Harlem. I said, I'm taking you to Harlem. Nobody will notice you up there. And they didn't. They thought they were a bunch of Spanish dorks because of Spanish Harlem. So they didn't pay them any mind. We went into Sherman's Bar B.Q., it was called - 151st and Amsterdam.
They went in, and they loved it because nobody recognized them. You know, the Black guys are eating their ribs and the Spanish guys, and nobody paid them any attention. And it was great. They'd love that - that nobody paid them any attention. See how sweet they were? They didn't care about stardom so much. I said, oh, we're going to be on Ed Sullivan. They said, Ronnie, who's Ed Sullivan, you know (laughter)?
BIANCULLI: The film features new interviews as well. One of the film's producers, Martin Scorsese, conducts separate interviews with Paul McCartney and Ringo. McCartney is filmed at his Brooklyn photographic exhibit from earlier this year, where he points out one of his favorite photos that he took during those two wild weeks. The Beatles are relaxing poolside in Miami, and George is being handed a drink by a young woman.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "BEATLES '64")
MCCARTNEY: Liverpool guys, 15 years after World War II, and we're now here in Miami. This is the one that sums up the good life in Florida. He's got his shades on. He's got the sunshine. He's got his drink, and he's got the girl in the yellow bikini delivering it to him.
BIANCULLI: Instead of emphasizing the very familiar Ed Sullivan footage, "Beatles '64" instead presents complete songs from the much rarer Washington, D.C., performance, which was filmed in the round in a boxing ring for a closed-circuit TV presentation. Giles Martin, the son of Beatles producer George Martin, remixed the music, and it sounds great. One of the young people in the audience that day was film director David Lynch, who talks about it in a new interview.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "BEATLES '64")
DAVID LYNCH: I was in high school. I lived in Alexandria, Virginia. I was into rock 'n' roll music, mainly Elvis Presley, who brought rock 'n' roll music to the world - to me, anyway. I ended up going to this concert. I didn't really have any idea that it was the first concert. I don't know. And it was - I didn't have any idea how big this event was, and it was in a gigantic place where they had boxing matches. The Beatles were in the boxing ring. It was so loud, you can't believe.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LONG TALL SALLY")
THE BEATLES: (Singing) I'm going to tell Aunt Mary about Uncle John. He said he had to visit, but he got a lot of fun. Oh, baby. Yeah, now, baby - woo, baby - some fun tonight. I saw Uncle John with Long Tall Sally. He saw Aunt Mary coming, and he ducked back in the alley.
BIANCULLI: Other fresh stories come from such people as Jamie Bernstein, the daughter of Leonard Bernstein, record producer Jack Douglas, who tells a fabulous story about John Lennon, and Motown singer Smokey Robinson, who talks of the importance of the Beatles covering one of his songs. A year or so later, he'd return the favor on national television by singing "Yesterday" with the Miracles.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "BEATLES '64")
SMOKEY ROBINSON: They were the first white group that I had ever heard in my life, the first white artists ever of their magnitude that I ever heard in my life say, yeah, we grew up listening to Black music. We love Motown. We listen to Black music. We know this person, this one. No other white artists had ever said that, not anyone of magnitude, until the Beatles said that.
BIANCULLI: By collecting the footage, gathering the stories and presenting very generous samples of the songs, "Beatles '64" makes it clear why the Beatles made such an impact and why the group and its music continue to not only be remembered but revered.
MOSLEY: David Bianculli is professor of television studies at Rowan University. He's working on a book about the visual artistry of The Beatles. He reviewed "Beatles '64," which is now streaming on Disney+. Tomorrow on FRESH AIR, Donald Trump has rolled out high-level appointments at a dizzying speed. We talk with economist David Wessel about the team he's picked and what to expect from his plans to raise tariffs, cut taxes, deport immigrants, slash spending and abolish thousands of government regulations. I hope you can join us. To keep up with what's on the show and get highlights of our interviews, follow us on Instagram at @NPRFreshAir.
FRESH AIR's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Ann Marie Baldonado, Sam Briger, Lauren Krenzel, Therese Madden, Monique Nazareth, Thea Chaloner, Susan Nyakundi and Anna Bauman. Our digital media producers are Molly Seavy-Nesper and Sabrina Siewert. Roberta Shorrock directs the show. With Terry Gross, I'm Tonya Mosley.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YESTERDAY")
SMOKEY ROBINSON AND THE MIRACLES: (Singing) Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away. Now it looks as though they are here to stay. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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