In an Endless Summer Quarterly exclusive, Alan Boyd, director of the documentary Endless Harmony: The Beach Boys Story, provided ESQ with the news of the premiere of The Beatles First American Concert Closed Circuit Broadcast Featuring The Beach Boys and Lesley Gore. The film also includes the original Roger Christian introduction of The Beach Boys and Gore.
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| DJ Roger Christian introducing The Beach Boys |
The phenomenon known as “Beatlemania” arrived on American shores from Great Britain when the Beatles landed at New York’s Kennedy airport for their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, February 9th, 1964. On February 11th, the group performed their first American concert at the Coliseum in Washington, D.C. This historic event was videotaped for a national closed circuit theatre audience, and packaged with pre-taped live sets by the Beach Boys and Lesley Gore for a 90-minute big screen spectacular.
This historic presentation, straight from the original broadcast master two-inch quad videotapes, has been unseen in its entirety since March 1964. Host Domenic Priore (author of Riot on Sunset Strip: Rock ’n’ Roll’s Last Stand in Hollywood) will be joined by rock ’n’ roll visual archivist Ron Furmanek and Boyd in bringing this unique program back to the big screen again after 47 years, the way it was intended to be.
The performance captured at this event is the longest set that would ever be filmed of the Beatles in concert, and easily transmits far more raw energy and attitude than would be present at later Shea Stadium, Australia, Japan or Germany tapings. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr all seem to be on stun from the attention and thrill of taking America by storm and becoming the entertainment phenomenon of the century. The recently-discovered master video tapes of this performance are a vast improvement over the fuzzy kinescopes that were a favorite of the underground movie house circuit during the ’70s; in those, the encore of “Twist and Shout” was cut off at the middle, and, the closing rave-up “Long Tall Sally” has not been screened anywhere since 1964. The entire performance is presented here in stunning, first-generation picture quality.
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| The Beatles |
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| The Beach Boys and Lesley Gore |
The Beach Boys and Lesley Gore segments were videotaped at the NBC Television Studios in Burbank, California (the same studio that later hosted Elvis Presley’s ’68 Comeback Special, Laugh-In and the Johnny Carson shows). The sound quality on these segments is a perfect reproduction, and showcases The Beach Boys (Brian Wilson, Dennis Wilson, Carl Wilson, Al Jardine and Mike Love) in their performance prime.
This will be the first time the ENTIRE production has been seen in full since the two days it was screened as a nationwide closed-circuit theater event (the same system more commonly used for live sporting events). Nowhere will you be able to see The Beatles in a more riveting, rock-solid performance, with the audio and video quality clear as a bell, blasting through theater speakers on The Egyptian Theater's giant screen. Our test screenings left us bedazzled, feeling as though we had just seen The Beatles in person... it’s that good.
Hosts Domenic Priore, Ron Furmanek and Alan Boyd will be joined by special guests TBA.
