Ladies and Gentlemen … The Beatles!

Fifty years ago, the winter of our discontent quickly became the winter that changed rock and roll in America.

That was the winter that the Beatles took America by storm. In one of the more unique tastes of Beatlemania, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts—located at Lincoln Center—started offering fans a chance to step back in time thanks to a special multi-media exhibit, “Ladies and Gentlemen … The Beatles!” The Beatles exhibit will be on view through May 10.

This is a full-immersion exhibit into Beatlemania. The simple cases in the front lobby of the library with the display of original records, album covers, newspaper and fan magazine clippings are just a hint of what awaits visitors once they step into the gallery on the library’s first floor.

The display cases contain some quirky finds—a press release from Capitol Records that mentions the Beatles’ impending arrival in America; a February 11, 1964 column by Dr. Joyce Brothers in which she explains to worried parents that teenybopper’s adoration of The Beatles is a result of “adolescent rebellion (which) appears to be an unavoidable trauma.”

That’s all just a warm-up for the main act happening inside the library’s main gallery. Take a step inside that gallery and hello, you’ve stepped back in time. As you gaze at life-sized portraits of John, Paul, George, and Ringo, you’ll hear all the Beatle-related sounds of that winter of 1964.

This gallery rocks with the Beatles’ hits from 1964 like “She Loves You” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” Visitors will see (and hear) plenty of images of chattering, screaming, sobbing, singing teenagers.

“We love you Beatles, oh yes we do…”

The exhibit also features news coverage of the Beatles landing in New York City including the now-classic press conferences where the lads from Liverpool proved themselves to be quick with clever one-liners. Robert Santelli, the music historian and critic who is executive director of the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles that put the exhibit together, said the press conference footage is one of his favorite parts of the exhibit.

“I love the press conference when they first get off the plane in America. We see the wit, their humor and their ability to respond to some of the silliest questions that any rock and roll band had to answer,” Santelli said. “They did it with such style and grace and wit. If you don’t think The Beatles were funny guys, all you have to do is watch the clips of the press conference.”

Santelli said the biggest challenge in putting together the exhibit was deciding what could be cut. There just wasn’t enough room for everything, he said.

“We found a number of collectors whose collections were pretty substantial so there was a lot of material for us to choose from—over 600 objects to choose from. And the library had a very large collection of items as well,” Santelli said. “In the years that the exhibit deals with—1964 through 1966, there was so much Beatles merchandise and Beatles related objects so it really was difficult to figure out which items to leave out.”

Clearly, Santelli and his team opted to include as much as possible. In one area of the gallery, for example, the exhibit shows a teenaged Beatles fan’s bedroom (Santelli said he recreated his own bedroom from his childhood growing up in New Jersey) complete with a Beatles record player, a transistor radio blasting Beatles songs, Beatles trading cards and Beatles posters on the walls.

In another section of the gallery, a Beatles “store” shows a staggering display of Beatles merchandise—lunch boxes, wigs, sneakers, books, pins, coin holders, coloring books and dolls. There’s even Beatles gum and Beatles cans of Nestlé’s Quik chocolate milk mix.

The exhibit also includes sections about what else was happening in American pop music when the Beatles hit America and some behind-the-scenes footage about the group’s appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

While the bulk of the exhibit is devoted to the years the Beatles devoted to touring before retreating to the studio for the rest of the band’s existence, the rear of the gallery features three sections that link memories of the Beatles to the present day. In one area, documentary shows current and past rock icons, including Ringo Starr himself, reminiscing about the Beatlemania days.

In another section, a drum kit is set up to allow visitors to play the drums with instructions from Ringo. The final section of the exhibit is a recording booth where visitors can leave their memories about the Beatles and what the group’s songs mean to them now.

“I’m really excited about the oral history booth,” Santelli said. “This exhibit is going on tour after it closes in New York and we’re hoping to collect 25,000 reminisces. I think we probably have around 7,000 so far.

“Eventually we’ll keep all of the oral histories at the Grammy Museum. Fifty years from now, if people are writing a book on The Beatles, they’ll have all of these memories from people who were tremendously affected by The Beatles.”

—Karyn D. Collins