The Beatles embarked on their first US tour in 1964, exactly 70 days after US president John Fitzgerald Kennedy aka JFK was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald, who was later in turn shot dead by night club owner Jack Ruby. Now a new documentary titled Beatles '64 explores the possibility that The Beatles' success was partially influenced by the aftermath of the JFK assassination.
The documentary footage shows The Beatles member Paul McCartney suggesting the same:
"When we came, it was quite shortly after Kennedy had been assassinated. Maybe America needed something like The Beatles to be lifted out of sorrow."
This is not the first time Paul McCartney has made such a suggestion. In 2023, while speaking with American actor Stanley Tucci, he made the same suggestion:
"That was one of the big things for us … we felt it like the whole world had felt it. We had really felt it, but then, it was a few months after that we went to America. We, without meaning to, lifted people."
Similarly, journalist and writer Ken McNab in his book Shake It Up, Baby! documented how the band's short film clip was aired after the assassination of JFK by Walter Cronkite of CBS News while looking for something to give hope to the nation.
The screening of the film led to 15-year-old Marsha Albert asking radio DJ Carroll James at the station WWDC why more such music was not available in the US. This led to James obtaining the single and airing it, with Marsha Albert announcing the single. The airing was a huge success, leading to more stations airing the band's music.
More on the connection between JFK assassination and The Beatles's first tour in the US
While both the band members and the new documentary lean on the suggestion that the JFK assassination helped The Beatles break into the US market, some historians are skeptical on the matter. Dr Tessler from the University of Liverpool, spoke on the matter with BBC on November 29, 2024, stating:
"I really struggle with the idea that The Beatles owe their US success to JFK being shot. Their manager, Brian Epstein, had already been to America and done the deal to get them on the Sullivan show weeks before Kennedy was killed, and there was so much hype when the band finally landed in the US."
Tessler continued:
"America might have wanted a distraction from that feeling of 'what's next' after the assassination, but The Beatles became the story so quickly that the connection to Kennedy was only fleeting at best."
The band was on tour in the country for 14 days and the new documentary endeavors to showcase both the on-stage as well as the more intimate offstage moments of the trip.
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In part, Beatles '64, produced by Margaret Bodde and Martin Scorsese, depends on the 11 hours long footage shot by Albert and David Maysles during the band's visit to the country.
The documentary also features interviews with the surviving band members, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr as well as interviews with fans. Furthermore, the documentary sheds light on the unpleasant and unfavorable reaction to the band by establishment figures as well as people of the older generations at the time and how the band dealt with criticisms from them.
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