Beatles on Ed Sullivan, (no cameras showing) NYC

Signed, dated and numbered from edition of 35 on recto.

“Beatlemania was spreading and this was to be their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. The excitement started at breakfast time. My room was just down the hall, and I was having breakfast with the four of them in their suite at the Plaza Hotel. No one was eating much. Everyone was just talking about their performance, which would be broadcast live that evening.

Outside in the street excited, hysterical young fans were waiting for us to leave for the Ed Sullivan Theatre. Police assigned to the hotel were busy wrestling with young girls who were trying to climb up back stairways pretending to be hotel guests. About 1:30 there was a bang on my door. John came in and said they were going to the theatre now and to stay as close as I could or the police would cut me off. There was pandemonium trying to get to the car. In the car as we left the hotel all four put their heads down while I took the photograph of the fans screaming and leaning on the back window of the car. When we got to the CBS studio, it was chaos again. I jumped out first and John kept me next to him because the studio stage door opened and slammed like an elastic band so that no fans could push their way in.

After the rehearsal we just stayed at the studio; it would have been too hectic to go back to the hotel. We sat around drinking Coca Colas until they went on. As everyone knows, they were sensational. The frenzied audience with girls crying and screaming in mass hysteria drowned out their singing. This became the norm for all of their appearances.” – Harry Benson