Ed Sullivan's Talent Coordinator Recalls The Beatles

"The Night That Changed America: A GRAMMY Salute To The Beatles" air Sunday evening at 8p on CBS TV, exactly 50-years to the day, date and time of their groundbreaking first appearance.

The two hour primetime entertainment special will celebrate the remarkable legacy of the seven-time GRAMMY-winning group and their first appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show."

Vince Calandra, who was talent coordinator for The Ed Sullivan Show, talks about one of the show's historical highlights, the first American television appearance of The Beatles.

Vince Calandra

The Beatles arrived at the studio on Saturday for rehearsal the day before their big American debut on Feb. 9, but George Harrison was laid up at the Plaza Hotel with strep throat.

According to a story at the NY Post, The band’s road manager, Neil Aspinall, was standing in for rehearsal. Before it got started, manager Brian Epstein rushed over to send him back to the hotel to deal with crises. Harrison’s sister, Louise, who’d been taking care of him, couldn’t get past security back into the hotel (“You and about 1,000 other women have come here and told us they’re George Harrison’s sister,” Calandra recalls them saying); plus, the band was in danger of being booted out of the Plaza due the mob scene of teenagers forming outside.

Calandra, in matching dark suit and tie, was the next closest thing to a Beatle nearby. It wasn’t his normal duds, but he had dressed up for theater plans that night. They put a moptop wig on his head, gave him Harrison’s guitar and told him to stand near Paul McCartney.

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