The Illuminated Donkey

Some Notes on Attending a Screening of the Documentary "What's Happening! The Beatles in the U.S.A." at the Museum of Television & Radio with Mr. Mike Wolf.

• One of the most obvious things in watching the movie and the other material about the Beatles' first visit to the U.S. is how you can see things change right before your eyes. When the camera would scan those screaming Ed Sullivan audiences you can pick out the faces of a couple of stunned, silent 16-year-old boys who thought they were taking their girl on a date to the hottest show of the year, then were instead being rudely informed that perhaps getting that Eagle Scout certification and making career plans to join Dad at the union-approved machine-stamping shop just wasn't gonna cut it with Debbie. Probably not a few guys skipped their regular haircuts that week and instead signed up for guitar lessons.
• On a similar note, it was a bit disconcerting to see just how old everybody except for the Beatles and the screaming girls was. I mean, Ed Sullivan, all of the DJ's (including the MCA "Good Guys" and Murray the K, the gaggle of press photographers that covered the visit...not a guy under 40 in the bunch. Probably within three years the average age of the press surrounding that type of event was probably lower by at least a third.
• As for the Beatles themselves, one of the interesting things was seeing just how fully formed their individual and collective personas and images were at that early point. Though even then you could see them beginning to strain a bit. George and Ringo would be cutting up on the train for the press and passengers, fully "on" and working, but every once in a while you can catch a brief pleading look that seems to wonder just how much longer they'd have to do this. Of course, at that moment, they were only two-and-a-half years away from releasing Revolver and giving up on performing live.

All that being said, as a general comment (and I think Mr. Wolf will agree with me on this one), despite what raves you may have read, I wouldn't really recommend "What's Happening" unless you're a total and complete Beatles freak who needs to see every possible minute of Beatles footage available. I saw this described as a "landmark verite documentary," which is another way of saying "near-raw footage." Basically it's about 45 minutes of the Beatles on their first visit to the U.S. -- in the limo from JFK Airport (renamed from Idlewild only six weeks earlier), their hotel rooms, the train down to D.C. -- engaging and occasionally amusing, but Mike and I were hoping for and expecting more information and background about the visit to go along with the footage.