Gillette woman shares Beatles memorabilia in honor of 60-year anniversary

GILLETTE - For many, the date Feb. 9, 1964, may fade into history.

No wars began. No major elections took place. It was a Sunday - a day for staying at home, tidying up and preparing for the week ahead.

But for those who remember, the date still holds meaning. Some even deem that unsuspecting evening the night that changed music forever.

That night, more than 70 million viewers across the United States tuned in to watch four young Brits perform live on "The Ed Sullivan Show" for the first time. The black and white television show flitted between the doe-eyed Paul McCartney, witty John Lennon, quiet George Harrison and emphatic Ringo Starr before cutting to the audience filled with shrieking teenage girls, gasping for air and jumping ecstatically up and down.

It was a moment for the youth that left an imprint of hope and optimism in an otherwise difficult time.

It was The Beatles.

Since the Beatles' American debut, scores of papers and research have discussed the influence the Fab Four brought to the United States. Many experts refer to the public shooting of President John F. Kennedy as an underlying factor in Americans accepting the overseas band.

"Certainly one of the reasons they were so impactful is that John F. Kennedy had just been assassinated," said Kent Drummond, an English professor at the University of Wyoming who's also studied the cultural sustainability of the Beatles.

"The assassination plunged the youth in America into this funk because he was the pinnacle of so much hope and engagement for the young people," Drummond said. "When (JFK) was killed, that light went out across the whole country and we took a step back."

Marilynn Gillman remembers Kennedy's assassination and the sadness felt across the country. She also remembers at nearly 12 years old, hearing the Beatles' music for the first time.

"The stars aligned and we were all just ready for something different," she said. "It was catchy. They were very singable. It was light."

On Wednesday, Gillman wore a Beatles sweater she's kept since she was 12 years old. She pointed to the variety of Newsweek, Times and Look magazine covers on display at the Campbell County Public Library - covers that froze the youthful crew in time, laughing and seemingly carefree.

Gillman remembers babysitting to scrounge up the money for each new Beatles album, begging her parents to allow her to go to the stadium concert in Bloomington, Minnesota, and once making it there, screaming among others as the British quartet played on stage.

She still has the concert's track list scrawled on a piece of paper she keeps tucked away in a Beatles wallet. The list included tunes like "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" and "A Hard Day's Night," the prominent song on the soundtrack for the band's first film.

Gillman never imagined the group she fell in love with so many years ago would remain such an iconic part of American culture throughout the intervening years. The group dissolved more than 50 years ago, but to this day, it remains the subject of marketing campaigns, documentaries and tours throughout the world.

To celebrate the group and share a piece of its history with others, Gillman pulled out some of the 60 years worth of memorabilia she's acquired since first becoming a fan. The display went up at the Campbell County Public Library last week on Feb. 9, the day the Beatles first introduced themselves to America.

A lasting impact

Drummond said some of the many factors keeping the Beatles alive include the band's look, sound, wit and cheekiness - Lennon especially nurtured a certain playful disrespect to the press, which constantly kept him in the tabloids.

But coming after the likes of Elvis Presley, Drummond said the Beatles offered what parents would deem a safer stage presence.

"The Beatles really tread that line and pushed the envelope in a different way," he said.

The quartet jumped into a music scene filled with crooning love songs, pop music and a swelling folk movement including artists such as Bob Dylan, Kenny Rogers in the New Christy Minstrels and John Denver. Gillman said the group's ability to develop their music with the time was something that kept them up-to-date and culturally influential.

"They were very experimental," she said. "Bringing in different sounds, sometimes even full orchestras."

Drummond said the adaptability and forward thinking that drove the Beatles' work when they stopped touring and began full-scale recording also kept the group relevant.

"They began to think about, 'OK, what are we really about? As young people, what can we do and what can we say in a way that no one else can?'" he said. "The experts always go back to the music. If the music weren't any good, we wouldn't be coming back to it."

Part of the appeal also stems from varying generations of people fixating on different Beatles' members. For many, Beatlemania began with Paul McCartney, the "cute Beatle." When Lennon was shot outside his home in New York in 1980, the generation flocked around the celebrity who had become well known for his campaigns and support for peace, Drummond said.

The younger generation has recently become inspired by George Harrison's music and his lyrics that translate to modern-day concerns.

"The younger kids through college students, they're rediscovering how he really fits with concerns of this generation," Drummond said. "The questions, 'What about the planet? What about how we treat each other?'"

Memories and mementos

The display that's now up at the library includes mementos filled with memories Gillman has collected throughout the last six decades.

Some date back to the 1960s, like the first press vinyls that fill the area beneath the circulation desk. Other items, like the Beatles-themed fabric or beer pints engraved with each musician's face were found or given as gifts more recently.

Gillman remembers asking her dad repeatedly to invest in the Beatles bobblehead set that now sits atop the glass shelves of one of the display cases. The set cost $2 at the time. Tickets to see the Beatles in Minnesota cost between $3.50 and $5.50.

Jelly beans are strewn throughout the cases as a nod to the group members saying at one point that the sweet treat was once their favorite candy. Unfortunately for them, fans then took the opportunity to pelt them with the candy when they performed on stage, Gillman said chuckling.

Friends and family surprised her for her 60th birthday with a Beatles-themed party. At her final concert before she retired as a longtime music teacher in the school district, her Twin Spruce Junior High students also surprised her with a rendition of a Beatles medley.

Memories touring through Liverpool, the musicians' hometown in England, and attending more recent McCartney concerts also bring joy.

"My life has really been touched by The Beatles," she said. "They've left quite the impact."

No one could have foreseen the cultural shift the group would bring overseas to America. As Gillman said, it may have been the stars aligning or maybe simply a country ready for change.

Drummond said his time studying the band's impact essentially comes down to years' worth of compiled stories.

"What I try to do is explain the inexplicable," he said of the Beatles legacy. "It's ultimately impossible, but I work to compile an argument as to how this has happened."

Maybe it's the group's charisma. Maybe it was the music's influence on the generation's youth. Some of it could have been the English accent, attractive faces and business presentation.

All together, it's a revolution that still touches the fans that grew up knowing the cosmopolitan crew and also those who more recently choose to join the ranks of generations discovering the music that still holds meaning for modern audiences.

Those wanting to experience real-life moments of the British Invasion can take a walk down memory lane at Gillman's display, which will remain in the library's lobby through the end of February.