smoe.org mailing lists
ivan@stellysee.de
| From | "Miguel Motta" <motta_m@firn.edu> |
| Subject | Beatles on Close Circuit |
| Date | Wed, 4 May 2005 12:46:35 -0400 |
[Part 1 text/plain iso-8859-1 (2.6 kilobytes)]
(View Text in a separate window)
> And hey, I didn't know they had closed-circuit Beatles concerts! That's a
> great story. I'd love to hear more about it whenever you have the time.
Here's a copy & paste from an old newsclip from back-in-the-days...
14,000 Expected to See Beatles on TV at Hipp
By Toni Mastroianni
Cleveland Press March 3, 1964
An estimated 2,500,000 Beatle fans are expected to pack theaters across the
country Mar. 14 and 15 when their four heroes appear via closed circuit
television.
The telecast here will be carried at the Hippodrome, a theater with a
seating capacity of 3500, a total of 14,000 for the four shows.
The nation-wide estimate was made by Eugene V. Klein, president of National
General Corp. in Los Angeles.
"WE THINK it's a pretty good for our first venture," he told me yesterday by
phone.
"The show will be a mixture of tape and live entertainment. We taped
segments with the Beatles in Washington's Coliseum just before they left for
England. We'll mix them with live performances by the Beach Boys and Lesley
Gore."
THE SHOWS will be at noon and 2:30 Mar. 14 and 15. Manager Jack Silverthorne
of the Hipp said that tickets at $2.50 each will go on sale the end of the
week. Seats will not be reserved.
Klein said that he expects to announce more features in a few days.
There's a bit of irony in the fact that National General Corp. will begin
its efforts with the foot-stomping mopheads that set the nation on its ear
in recent weeks.
National General is a theater chain which made news last November with the
announcement that it would offer long-hair attractions of another type.
AT THAT TIME the company signed an agreement with the Metropolitan Opera
Company for the taping of five full-length operas during a three-year
period. Carnegie Hall too was signed for a series of concert attractions.
Hollywood composer Dmitri Tiomkin was retained to do a series of musical
specials that would originate on the West Coast.
THESE ATTRACTIONS are expected to get underway in the fall. All are promised
in full color making use of a new projector developed by General Electric.
(The Beatles will be in black-and-white.)
"We will cover the entire entertainment spectrum - the Met, Broadway,
boxing, football. We'll be blazing new trails," Klein said with a good deal
of optimism.
Klein ruled out movies for closed - circuit presentation. The company will
enter movie production, has one picture ready to start, but this will be for
conventional release.
National General describes itself as the nation's second largest motion
picture circuit operator. The company has 217 theaters.
For assistance, please contact
the smoe.org administrators.