100 Things About Me #159

Neat, The Beatles

At the height of the initial blast of Beatlemania, a mostly forgotten six-minute musical documentary was paired with an unrelated film, "Flight From Ashiya." For many Americans during the spring of 1964, "The Beatles Come to Town" was the lure to the movie theatre, not the standard issue WWII action feature, starring Yul Brynner and Richard Widmark.

The boys' release, according to The Internet Movie Database, is a "Pathe News Technicolor short showing The Beatles in concert at the ABC Cinema in Manchester, Lancashire on 11/20/63."

I remember sitting in the front row of Atlanta's Emory Theatre, sandwiched between school chums on a happy Friday night in April. It was a much anticipated event to see the mod mop tops upon the big screen and in color!

First, however, and sadly, we had to endure the 100 prop-engine-lagged minutes of "Flight From Ashiya." The delay was interminable for a bunch of unruly 12-year-olds wired on fizzy drinks and Milk Duds.

(There may have been contraband Bazooka gum, also. What happens in my mouth stays in my mouth.*)

We soon found ourselves devising an alternative plot during the war movie to survive the inconvenience of watching it. The adlibbed rewrite was pretty good, too, and provided hysterical ongoing commentary.

In our version, desperate soldiers were flying around Europe, racing the clock and catastrophe, searching for a men's room. There was a lot of nerve-racking suspense -- and explosive giggles.

Anyway, we couldn't have cared less about the picture. We were waiting for The Beatles' to come "here" to sustain us, as we faced the long months 'til August and the arrival of "A Hard Day's Night."

What a time.

A fabmost bit of all right.


_{Can't see "The Beatles Come to Town"? Try refreshing this page or visit YouTube.}


Related: "100 Things About Me #128: The Flab One Meets the Fab Four"
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_{*Excepting bubble inflations, where applicable.}