In August 1972, fresh out of the Marine Corps, I drove my Firebird across the country to New York City and saw John Lennon perform at Madison Square Garden. It should have been the perfect beginning to civilian life. Then my Firebird disappeared.
In 1966, I walked into Busch Stadium with a press pass and an assignment from my uncle, St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer Jack Rice: find out what teenage boys really thought about Beatlemania. What followed was a night of rain, lightning, screaming fans, the Beatles—and a story that took me nearly sixty years to finally tell.
On February 9, 1964, the Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show and exploded into millions of American living rooms. In just a few unforgettable minutes, four young men from Liverpool helped reshape American music, fashion, youth culture, and an entire generation.