Sure enough, there was a British invasion. Beatle-mania swept the nation in the ’60s and a funny thing happened on my way to elementary school.
Legendary tailor to the stars, my dad Sy Devore, made some of those famous velvet collar lapel outfits back in the days when John, Paul, George and Ringo wore suits and made their United States debut.
They touched down on a Pan Am flight and took the country by storm. There were screaming, squealing, hysterically crying mobs of teenagers everywhere. Think major security, a blizzard of photographers and total chaos.
In the middle it all, there was little Kimi Devore. The skinny, awkward youngster ended up at the legendary pop group’s historic concert at the Hollywood Bowl (complete with perfectly turned out parents, proper box seats, silverware and a valet server).
No jeans or tracksuits back then. Everything was always an occasion. My Marilyn look-alike mom was dressed first class and to the nines with her perfect makeup and blonde beehive hairdo done just so. Those were the days when one always wore white gloves and carried an elegant handbag.
Even back then, I knew The Beatles were a really big deal. Girls went crazy at the Bowl, but that was just the beginning.
A few days later, little Kimi found herself on Ringo’s lap being photographed with the Fab Four and the photo sent around the world, “Little Girl, Big Moment.”
There I was with Ringo and Paul in my Pixiland party dress and check out those black-and-white orthopedic saddle shoes (nice!).
Oh, how I wanted to be a teenager and not a little kid! I wanted to be old enough to date one of the four lads from Liverpool, not just be a pint-sized pip-squeak posing on Ringo’s lap.
Today I realize how very special that moment was. There are loads of 50-year anniversary tributes to The Beatles, including a magnificent CNN production by longtime local Tom Hanks.
Tom wasn’t just amazed by the event. He calls the American debut a turning point. “You heard their music and it was hearing the future,” he says. The executive producer recalls how millions of black-and-white television sets tuned into “The Ed Sullivan Show” for the group’s first stateside appearance.
One of the biggest programs of its time, the host of the “really big shooo” tried to be heard over the gaggle of screaming fans. Ed Sullivan asked everyone in the country to “Welcome these youngsters. Welcome … The Beatles.”
Some in the U.K. camp worried that the band’s music-based name, “Beatles,” might be confused with an invasion of bugs, in other words, “beetles.” It never happened.
After all-time classics like “Please, Please Me,” “Can’t Buy Me Love” and “I Saw Her Standing There,” there were more greats to come from “Rubber Soul” to “Sgt. Pepper’s” to “Let it Be.”
Forty years later, I met my husband who told me, “I Wanna Hold Your Hand.” Not only that, he put a ring on it. Incredibly, after all those decades and precious childhood memories, I learned he, too, was at that very same Beatles concert on that very same night, working his first summer job as an usher.
The Beatles went on to change the world of music and shape the soundtrack of our lives.
What else can you say but … with a love like that you know you should be glad. Yeah, yeah, yeah!