Beatles were destined for huge success in spite of Kennedy assassination

In his new book, “Changin' Times: 101 Days That Shaped a Generation,”author Al Sussman challenges the long-held belief that America's grief after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy led to the success of the Beatles and the Beatlemania explosion in early 1964 in the United States. In fact, he told Beatles Examiner in an interview Nov. 21 that it really had nothing to do with it.

“What I call the fuse to the dynamite had already been lit before President Kennedy left for Texas, 50 years ago today,” Sussman says. “The scenes of mass hysteria outside the London Palladium on the night of The Beatles’ appearance on 'Sunday Night at the London Palladium,' the Prince of Wales Theater, the night of the Royal Variety Show, and at the airport when The Beatles returned from Sweden (caught) the attention of the London bureaus of the American media.

“So small articles had already appeared in Time and Newsweek, reports had aired on NBC and, on the morning of Nov. 22, CBS, and The Beatles’ first two appearances on 'The Ed Sullivan Show' had already been booked. So the wheels were already in motion.”

Sussman, a former radio analyst for ASCAP and currently executive editor of Beatlefan Magazine, says the Beatles had lots of promotion from Capitol Records to give them the push they needed.

“With Capitol finally getting behind the group, The Beatles were going to break here, anyway. If anything, it might have happened a few weeks earlier without the interruption of the JFK assassination. For instance, if the Alexander Kendrick report had aired on the evening of Nov. 22 on the 'CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite,' Marsha Albert or other teenagers might have seen it then and interest would likely had built from there, especially with a New York Times Magazine piece already scheduled to run the first Sunday in December.

“But, with the Sullivan shows booked for February, it was actually better that 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' suddenly broke in New York the first week of the New Year so that first burst of Beatlemania was peaking a month later. Hence the massive turnout at Kennedy Airport and the huge audiences for the first two Sullivan show appearances But something approximating that would have happened even if JFK had not been assassinated and The Beatles had broken through here a few weeks earlier than they actually did.”

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