CBS News Covered The Beatles In 11/1963

Tweeting out YouTube and Spotify links wasn't an option for band managers in 1963. So, according to CBS News,  the Beatles' manager Brian Epstein went with a different approach to get America to see and hear his remarkable band -- he lobbied television networks. And, as the word "Beatlemania" began spreading across British newspapers, CBS News' London correspondent Alexander Kendrick decided to take a look.

Kendrick's story from what he called "Beatleland" included the band playing "She Loves You" in the British seaside resort of Bournemouth. Panning the crowd, CBS cameras captured screaming teens in what he described an "epidemic" that has "seized the population, especially female."

The piece debuted on the "CBS Morning News with Mike Wallace" on Nov. 22, 1963. Slated to run again that night on the "CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite," it was preempted by the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Weeks later, on Dec. 10, Cronkite re-aired Kendrick's report. Ed Sullivan called him immediately -- setting in motion the Beatles on CBS again Feb. 9, 1964, with a record audience of 73 million viewers.