Re: Idle Chatter
632Thanks for that find Cali! I was at that concert, my friends and I snuck in, having mastered that technique quite well from going to Tribe games at the time. My friend Mickey and I were among the 3,000 (more actually) that stormed the stage set up on second base. We actually got up to the front row of the stage as they sang. Later that night, we snuck up the steps of the old Sheraton Cleveland and got to see room service deliver some food to Ringo. One of those nights that you never forget.Tribe Fan in SC/Cali wrote:Local history: Akron radio station’s 1966 Beatles ban recalled
Akron’s WAKR not alone in saying band out of line
By Mark J. Price
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published: August 1, 2011 - 12:41 AM
The Beatles
The Beatles (clockwise from top left) Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon and George Harrison were banned from Akron's WAKR-AM radio in August 1966.
Americans had enough hot-button issues to keep them preoccupied in August 1966.
In addition to U.S. troop escalation in Vietnam, the nightly news was filled with stories about urban conflagration, civil-rights protestation, nuclear proliferation, women’s liberation and school segregation.
There was always room for one more confrontation.
Namely, teen adulation.
Beatles fans revered Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. Maybe a little too much.
“WAKR banned the playing of the Beatles records on the station Thursday in light of comments by John Lennon,” Roger G. Berk, vice president and general manager of Akron’s Summit Radio Corp., announced on Aug. 5, 1966. “The ban will continue until such time as it’s in the public interest to play them again.”
As far as the British band was concerned, WAKR’s timing was bloody awful.
That same day, the Beatles released their album Revolver, featuring soon-to-be-classic songs such as Eleanor Rigby, Yellow Submarine, Taxman, Good Day Sunshine and Got to Get You Into My Life.
The Top 40 radio station, whose 1590-AM frequency was advertised as “Top of Your Dial,” ordered disc jockeys Jack Ryan, Wes Hopkins, Randy Davis, Jack Sanders, Ray Robin and Terry Wood to stop spinning Fab Four platters at the Copley Road studio. The boycott was in effect eight days a week.
WAKR was one of 20 U.S. radio stations to pull the plug on the mop-headed musicians after the publication of comments by Lennon that were interpreted as sacrilegious.
In a March 4, 1966, article in the London Evening Standard, Lennon told British interviewer Maureen Cleave:
“Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue with that; I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first — rock ’n’ roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.”
The interview failed to cause a stir in England. It wasn’t until American teen magazine Datebook reprinted an excerpt in July 1966 that all heck broke loose in the United States.
A radio station in Birmingham, Ala., seized on Lennon’s remarks as “absurd and sacrilegious,” and stopped playing Beatles songs. The boycott quickly spread to other stations, which organized public burnings of Beatles records. Ministers accused the Liverpool lads of being “anti-Christ” and warned congregations to steer clear of the unholy band. The Ku Klux Klan nailed Beatles albums to flaming crosses.
Beatles on tour
The controversy erupted as the Beatles prepared for a 14-city tour of North America, including an Aug. 14 stop at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. City officials were willing to give the Beatles another chance after the group’s first visit nearly caused a riot at Public Hall on Sept. 15, 1964. Police halted the concert and whisked the band to safety when hysterical fans stormed the stage.
Cleveland radio station WIXY sponsored the 1966 concert at the stadium: “Rain or shine! Don’t miss this historic show!” Opening acts were the Cyrkle, Bobby Hebb, the Ronettes and the Remains, and tickets cost $3, $4, $5 or $5.50.
Ohio religious leaders, including the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, urged worshippers to boycott the concert. Although Cleveland’s stadium had 80,000 seats, only 15,000 tickets had been sold a week before the concert.
On the airwaves at WAKR, disc jockeys filled the Beatles void with Napoleon XIV, Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, Herman’s Hermits and the Troggs. The station conducted nightly polls about the boycott, asking listeners whether Beatles records should be played. Public reaction was mixed.
Some fans tuned to rival Akron station WHLO, which continued to play Beatles records. That Yellow Submarine song was just too catchy to torpedo.
British journalist Cleave, whose article inadvertently led to the Beatles ban, condemned the American controversy as much ado about nothing. She defended Lennon as a spiritual person whose comments were taken out of context by the teen magazine.
“I do not think for one moment that he intended to be flippant or irreverent,” she said. “He was certainly not comparing the Beatles with Christ. He was simply observing that so weak was the state of Christianity that the Beatles were, to many people, better known. He was deploring rather than approving this. Sections of the American public seem to have been given an impression of his views that is totally absurd.”
The Beatles went into damage-control mode. At a news conference Aug. 11 in Chicago, Lennon apologized: “I wasn’t saying whatever they’re saying I was saying. I’m sorry I said it, really.”
He said he was criticizing “false values” among the young people of England, not boasting that the Beatles were “better or greater than Jesus.”
Lennon mused: “If I had said television is more popular than Jesus, I might have got away with it.”
The big show
Nearly 25,000 fans converged on a drizzly Sunday evening at Cleveland’s stadium, the third stop on the tour. More than 55,000 seats were empty at the cavernous home of the Indians and Browns. That’s probably difficult for people to comprehend today. Shouldn’t the Beatles have sold out? If given a second chance today, Beatles fans would fill any stadium to the rafters.
The stage was constructed at second base. About 150 Cleveland police officers kept an eye on the crowd. Although the audience was well-behaved during the opening acts, fans lost control when the Beatles performed.
Ear-splitting screams greeted the band’s set, which included Rock and Roll Music, She’s a Woman, Yesterday, Day Tripper and I Feel Fine. Somewhere around Day Tripper, about 3,000 frenzied fans rushed the stage. Officers tackled teen girls who tried to touch the musicians. The music halted and the band fled to a trailer behind the stage while announcers pleaded with the crowd to return to its seats or the concert would be canceled.
After a 30-minute lull, the band returned to finish the set.
Cleveland fans didn’t know it, but they would never see the band perform live again. Weary of the constant hysteria, the Beatles gave up touring after the North American concerts.
Three days after the Cleveland show, WAKR lifted its ban on Beatles records. The station accepted Lennon’s explanation that his remarks were not meant to be sacrilegious.
“It is the public which will ultimately determine whether the Beatles, or any other recording group, can keep a place in the world of music,” the Akron station announced on Aug. 17, 1966.
The public undoubtedly agreed. WAKR is now an oldies station, and the Beatles are still on the playlist.
Mark J. Price is a Beacon Journal copy editor. He can be reached at 330-996-3850 or send email to mjprice@thebeaconjournal.com.
UD
Re: Idle Chatter
633Promising New Lead in D.B. Cooper Hijacking Mystery
There is a promising new lead that D.B. Cooper, the hijacker who leaped from a jetliner about 40 years ago, may have died 10 years ago of natural causes.
FBI agents are investigating whether a man who died in the Pacific Northwest is Cooper, the Seattle Times reported. The hijacker parachuted out of the back of a passenger jet in 1971 with $200,000. He was never found.
FBI agent Fred Gutt told the paper that the agency got a tip from a retired law enforcement official that the dead man could possibly be Cooper.
Agents have requested the personal effects of the possible suspect, and the FBI is trying to find fingerprints or DNA them to make comparison with items the hijacker left behind, according to the Seattle Times.
"It's not so much new information," Gutt told the Montreal Gazette. "It retained our attention about one year ago, and we've been working on it since then. It's one of the active leads for that investigation."
Gutt added that the information the agency now has "hasn't produced inconsistent information, so in that regard it's still viable, credible and active."
Three years ago, the FBI found DNA evidence on the clip-on tie Cooper left behind on the plane before he jumped.
Gutt told the Seattle Times paper that the FBI already tested an item from the dead man's belongings for fingerprints and it was inconclusive. But the agency won't stop there, as they are now working with surviving family members to gather other items for further testing, the paper reported.
More than 1,000 leads have been checked since Cooper leaped out of the jetliner on Nov. 24, 1971, over the Pacific Northwest.
Authorities believe Cooper landed in a heavily forested area of the northwestern state of Washington. He was never found, but some of the ransom money was discovered in British Columbia.
"It's still an unsolved case and in that regard we have an interest, but it's not a priority either," Gutt told the Gazette.
There is a promising new lead that D.B. Cooper, the hijacker who leaped from a jetliner about 40 years ago, may have died 10 years ago of natural causes.
FBI agents are investigating whether a man who died in the Pacific Northwest is Cooper, the Seattle Times reported. The hijacker parachuted out of the back of a passenger jet in 1971 with $200,000. He was never found.
FBI agent Fred Gutt told the paper that the agency got a tip from a retired law enforcement official that the dead man could possibly be Cooper.
Agents have requested the personal effects of the possible suspect, and the FBI is trying to find fingerprints or DNA them to make comparison with items the hijacker left behind, according to the Seattle Times.
"It's not so much new information," Gutt told the Montreal Gazette. "It retained our attention about one year ago, and we've been working on it since then. It's one of the active leads for that investigation."
Gutt added that the information the agency now has "hasn't produced inconsistent information, so in that regard it's still viable, credible and active."
Three years ago, the FBI found DNA evidence on the clip-on tie Cooper left behind on the plane before he jumped.
Gutt told the Seattle Times paper that the FBI already tested an item from the dead man's belongings for fingerprints and it was inconclusive. But the agency won't stop there, as they are now working with surviving family members to gather other items for further testing, the paper reported.
More than 1,000 leads have been checked since Cooper leaped out of the jetliner on Nov. 24, 1971, over the Pacific Northwest.
Authorities believe Cooper landed in a heavily forested area of the northwestern state of Washington. He was never found, but some of the ransom money was discovered in British Columbia.
"It's still an unsolved case and in that regard we have an interest, but it's not a priority either," Gutt told the Gazette.
Re: Idle Chatter
634UD- I must have seen you at that show.
" I am not young enough to know everything."
Re: Idle Chatter
635J.R.:
That story caught my eye yesterday too. That robbery happened when I was 1 so I had never heard about it until last year. I was watching an episode of Brad Meltzer's Decoded and they did a show on DB Cooper. Meltzer and his team are convinced Kenneth Christiansen was D.B. Cooper and their evidence was pretty compelling. But the FBI doesn't think it is Christianson.
That story caught my eye yesterday too. That robbery happened when I was 1 so I had never heard about it until last year. I was watching an episode of Brad Meltzer's Decoded and they did a show on DB Cooper. Meltzer and his team are convinced Kenneth Christiansen was D.B. Cooper and their evidence was pretty compelling. But the FBI doesn't think it is Christianson.
Re: Idle Chatter
636I thought that was you!rocky raccoon wrote:UD- I must have seen you at that show.
UD
Re: Idle Chatter
637Rocky,
The poster intrigued me to see if the Longshorman's Hall "at Fisherman's Wharf" still stands. I had never noted it on my many prior trips to the area.
It does. It's what I'd call the "Fisherman's Wharf area," a few blocks back from the actual wharf.
Weren't you on the bus at one time? I'm guessing you were in Oregon in some overlapping years?
If I'm not mistaken in memory, "The Magic Bus" had some play on the evening news along with the body bags and weekly body count in Vietnam.
General Westmoreland was from South Carolina and I had some who knew him tell me the weekly body count was his personal idea to help with war PR back in The States.
The poster intrigued me to see if the Longshorman's Hall "at Fisherman's Wharf" still stands. I had never noted it on my many prior trips to the area.
It does. It's what I'd call the "Fisherman's Wharf area," a few blocks back from the actual wharf.
Weren't you on the bus at one time? I'm guessing you were in Oregon in some overlapping years?
If I'm not mistaken in memory, "The Magic Bus" had some play on the evening news along with the body bags and weekly body count in Vietnam.
General Westmoreland was from South Carolina and I had some who knew him tell me the weekly body count was his personal idea to help with war PR back in The States.
Re: Idle Chatter
638Hillbilly wrote:J.R.:
That story caught my eye yesterday too. That robbery happened when I was 1 so I had never heard about it until last year. I was watching an episode of Brad Meltzer's Decoded and they did a show on DB Cooper. Meltzer and his team are convinced Kenneth Christiansen was D.B. Cooper and their evidence was pretty compelling. But the FBI doesn't think it is Christianson.
HB, if you had been maybe 6 years older I'm sure knowing you now you certainly would remember.
Because it happened sandwiched against Thanksgiving weekend, lots of families were home and caught the news. In 1971 "peaceful" hijackings.....mostly to Cuba.... had been a regular enough occurrence they were even nightly fodder for Johnny Carson's monologues at the beginning of The Tonight Show. Also in 1971 there would have hardly been an open store or gas station in America on Thanksgiving day, and much of the country was still essentially "closed on Sundays" in 1971.
Because DB Cooper hijacked domestically, and included the cash demand and parachutes, it was elevated in the national spotlight and many were around family TV's to watch.
I think a major reason so many remember Doug Flutie's "Hail Mary" was because it was on the Thanksgiving weekend.
And to a not so good memory extent, I know I remember the assassination of President Kennedy events so well even at age 7 is because it happened on the Friday before the nation's short Thanksgiving 1963 week.
Re: Idle Chatter
639TFISC- Yes, I was a passenger on the bus, although only for a few days.
Got inspired to go West from reading 'On The Road' by Jack Kerouac. Made it cool to see Cassidy in person.
Left the bus to see a girl who had moved to BAndon, Oregon. What she offered was much more enticing than Acid.
Got inspired to go West from reading 'On The Road' by Jack Kerouac. Made it cool to see Cassidy in person.
Left the bus to see a girl who had moved to BAndon, Oregon. What she offered was much more enticing than Acid.
" I am not young enough to know everything."
Re: Idle Chatter
640rocky raccoon wrote:TFISC- Yes, I was a passenger on the bus, although only for a few days.
Got inspired to go West from reading 'On The Road' by Jack Kerouac. Made it cool to see Cassidy in person.
Left the bus to see a girl who had moved to BAndon, Oregon. What she offered was much more enticing than Acid.
Understood. I was inspired to move West by a 5'4 inch 115 pound blue eyed blond I met out here who is now my wife.
I think the only thing I ever gave up for her though was doing shots of Goldschläger. In my prior few years, if I got to the base of doing Goldschläger with a girl, it was pretty much "made in the shade" for the night's agenda.
Lead in the pencil, and everything.
My wife thinks drinking alcohol with flakes of gold is stupid.
She does allow me to do shots of Cuervo Gold, however.
Re: Idle Chatter
641Got inspired to go West from reading 'On The Road' by Jack Kerouac.
Often in The City I meet tourists who I tout to stop by The City Lights Bookstore.
I give them some history and my version of historical significance. I usually note clearly they have no idea of what I'm talking about when I mention Ginsberg and the historical significance of "The Beat Generation."
That's when I resort to, "Dark comics like Lenny Bruce and even Woody Allen got their start at The Hungry I, a comedy club just a stone's throw away from City Lights."
Lenny Bruce and/or Woody Allen normally get nods of recognition.
"Of course, The Hungry I is now a strip club, but you still may wish to go."
Often in The City I meet tourists who I tout to stop by The City Lights Bookstore.
I give them some history and my version of historical significance. I usually note clearly they have no idea of what I'm talking about when I mention Ginsberg and the historical significance of "The Beat Generation."
That's when I resort to, "Dark comics like Lenny Bruce and even Woody Allen got their start at The Hungry I, a comedy club just a stone's throw away from City Lights."
Lenny Bruce and/or Woody Allen normally get nods of recognition.
"Of course, The Hungry I is now a strip club, but you still may wish to go."
Re: Idle Chatter
642When I first was out here with my new 5'4 inch 115 pound blonde hair blue eyed wife, I learned there was a Blues Bar just around the corner from "City Lights," and "The Hungry I."
I've written about the place before, but it's claim is being either the first or second oldest still existing bar in San Francisco, depending upon historical interpretation.
It's "The Saloon" on Grant Street, just off Columbus Ave. where North Beach and Chinatown meet. It dates from the 1860's and still has the shanghai trap doors in the floor in the back rooms.
I took my wife there on a Sunday afternoon not long after our marriage after catching some "Blues at Lou's" on Fisherman's Wharf.
The band was great at The Saloon and we struck up a conversation with a late 30's blonde and her somewhat new husband.
The blonde told me she used to work at The Hungry I.
I told my wife this girl should be revered and we should feel honored to be in her presence because of the history and legacy of The Hungry I.
I bought drinks for her, her husband and everyone.
After more conversation and drinks, I asked her what she did when she worked at The Hungry I.
She said she was a dancer there, and made great $$ on tips.
That was my first clue the original business of The Hungry I may have changed since the days of Lenny Bruce.
It had.
I bought her and her husband another drink anyhow, just so they didn't think I was judging them or anything.
Turned out she had met him elsewhere and they were returning to The City to explore her roots, or something.....
I've written about the place before, but it's claim is being either the first or second oldest still existing bar in San Francisco, depending upon historical interpretation.
It's "The Saloon" on Grant Street, just off Columbus Ave. where North Beach and Chinatown meet. It dates from the 1860's and still has the shanghai trap doors in the floor in the back rooms.
I took my wife there on a Sunday afternoon not long after our marriage after catching some "Blues at Lou's" on Fisherman's Wharf.
The band was great at The Saloon and we struck up a conversation with a late 30's blonde and her somewhat new husband.
The blonde told me she used to work at The Hungry I.
I told my wife this girl should be revered and we should feel honored to be in her presence because of the history and legacy of The Hungry I.
I bought drinks for her, her husband and everyone.
After more conversation and drinks, I asked her what she did when she worked at The Hungry I.
She said she was a dancer there, and made great $$ on tips.
That was my first clue the original business of The Hungry I may have changed since the days of Lenny Bruce.
It had.
I bought her and her husband another drink anyhow, just so they didn't think I was judging them or anything.
Turned out she had met him elsewhere and they were returning to The City to explore her roots, or something.....
Re: Idle Chatter
643Buddy Holly gets his star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame on what would have been his 75th birthday. September 7, 2011.
His widow and good friend Phil Everly will be in attendance.
His widow and good friend Phil Everly will be in attendance.