USA Yesterday

On February 9th it'll be fifty years since the Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan and changed everything.  As Edna Gunderson at USA Today notes, there'll be a celebration on CBS that night, featuring the two surviving Beatles and many other acts.  As well there should.

Edna goes on to report about their arrival in America a few days before the Sullivan spot:

The Beatles landed at the newly named Kennedy Airport in New York on Feb. 7, 1964. At the airport press conference, they were asked, "How do you find America?"

Starr quipped, "Turn left at Greenland."

A good line to be sure--even famous--but not to be found in the transcript of their Kennedy Airport press conference, but rather in the movie released later that year, A Hard Day's Night (where John says it).



The movie was written by Alun Owen, though he did base it on the Beatles' lives.  By the way, here are some lines from the actual press conference that Gunderson could have used:


Q: In Detroit Michigan, they're handing out car stickers saying, 'Stamp Out The Beatles.'

PAUL:  [...] we're bringing out a Stamp Out Detroit campaign.


FEMALE FAN: Would you please sing something? [....]

JOHN: No, we need money first.
 

Q: Are you going to get a haircut at all while you're here? [....]

GEORGE: I had one yesterday.
 

Q: What do you think your music does for these people? [....] Why does it excite them so much?

JOHN: If we knew, we'd form another group and be managers.


Q: What do you think of Beethoven?

RINGO: Great. Especially his poems.