Busted Because of The Beatles

It was February 9, 1964 and it felt like below zero on Marion Ave in the Bronx. Our crowd hanging out each night on the corner grew to 20 to 30 guys and gals. The buzz among us was that this British group called The Beatles were jamming up the radio waves with a new sound that captured the music scene.

On this sub zero night The Beatles were to appear for the first time on national television on The Ed Sullivan show. Well...... this is when my better judgement did not kick in, since I decided to invite the crowd of 25 plus friends to watch the show from my apartment that was just a few steps away.

Oh! By the way....Did I mention that I invited the crowd without getting permission from my Mom who was out shopping with my Aunt?

Now back to the historical event with 25 teens circled around a 15 inch black and white t.v. screen watching the "The Fab Four"perform three songs -- “All My Loving,” “Till There Was You” and “She Loves You” and seeing girls in the studio audience screaming and crying (which became a normal event whenever The Beatles performed) and became known as Beatlemania.

As the performance came to an end, who but my Mom and Aunt appeared in the living room shocked to see the mass of humanity that quickly headed out the door saying their hellos and goodbyes. I hoped that I would join them, but that was not going to happen.

As shocked and angry as my Mom was, I was surprised how well she handled the situation. I think deep down she understood what a historic event we all had just witnessed. I was grounded for the next several weeks, but looking back it was worth it!

Many years later, my wife Joyce and I had the amazing experience early in the morning of walking across town in Manhattan with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. We never said anything to them because we didn't want to bother them, but we all ended up flashing the peace sign as we crossed and went our separate ways.

Decades later, our daughter Nicole went to study abroad in London, England in 1997. She later told us that one day she cut class early to leave so that she could see one of The Beatles, Paul McCartney who was going to be at Virgin Megastore in Piccadilly Circus signing his new album, "Flaming Pie" and performing on the rooftop.