A farewell to New York...
On a warm Tuesday night in August of 1966, 44,600 fans screamed their brains out at Shea Stadium but it wasn't for the 9th place Mets. Forty years later, different story for these1st place Mets but not on the night of August 23rd, 1966. After 6 appearances in New York City, The Beatles were saying goodbye with a 45-minute show that featured 11 songs ("Rock and Roll Music", "She's A Woman", "If I Needed Someone", "Day Tripper", "Baby's In Black", "I Feel Fine", "Yesterday", "I Wanna Be Your Man", "Nowhere Man", "Paperback Writer" and "Long Tall Sally")...
The Fab Four would gross an attendance of over 141,000 during their 7 shows here. Surprisingly they would fall about 11,000 short of a sell out at their 1966 Shea concert, promoted by Sid Bernstein, promoter of all their New York shows. Sid turned 88 on August 12th (A belated Happy Birthday to you Sid). Despite his advancing age, Sid continues to be active in promotion and management. You might be interested to know that all seats for The Beatles final Shea performance were reserved for the princely sum of $4.50, $5.00 and $5.75...
Following their Shea performance, The Beatles were 6 days shy of their final concert in the U.S.A. in San Francisco...
Ten Timeline Memories...
01) [1902] Fannie Merrit Farmer opens her 1st cooking school, Miss Farmer's School Of Cookery in Boston (MA) (You may have heard of Fannie Fah-muh)...
02) [1927] Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are executed in Boston for the murders of 2 men during a 1920 robbery. They would be vindicated in 1977 by Governor Michael S. Dukakis...
03) [1974] John Lennon, with May Pang by his side, reports seeing a UFO in New York City (no word on whether or not the UFO saw John)...
04) [1979] Soviet dancer Alexander Godunov defects while the Bolshoi Ballet tours in New York City...
05) [1982] Seattle pitcher Gaylord Perry is tossed from a game for throwing a "spitter" (1st clue came when a row of fans behind the plate have their white shirts turn brown during the game)...
06) [1993] The LAPD confirms that Michael Jackson was the subject of a criminal investigation (hard to believe isn't it ?)...
07) [2000] An estimated audience of 51 million viewers watch the finale of the 1st "Survivor" reality show on CBS-TV, won by Richard Hatch who pockets $1 million (Hatch is now serving time and complaining about his treatment and I'll bet he doesn't parade around nude like he did on "Survivor". But then again)...
08) [2001] California Congressman Gary Condit tells ABC-TV's Connie Chung that he had no involvement in the disappearance of Chandra Levy (whose body is later found)...
09) [2002] New York publicist Lizzie Grubman pleads guilty in a hit-and-run crash that injures 16 people outside a Hampton's nightclub (I find it very interesting that Lizzie pronounces her last name "Groob-man" while her lawyer father, Alan pronounces it "Grub-man")...
10) [2003] Former priest John Geoghan, the convicted child molester whose protection sparked the sex abuse scandal that shook the Roman Catholic Church nationwide, is murdered by an inmate at a Massachusetts prison...
Wedding Bells: 1962] John Lennon marries Cynthia Powell in Liverpool (they will divorce in November of 1968)...
#1 on this date: 1962] "The Loco-motion" - Little Eva...1972] "Brandy" - Looking Glass...
[To ensure accuracy of dates and content, multiple reference sources are used in the timeline]...
"Happy Birthday...Happy birthday"...
Kobe Bryant (28), Mets Methuselah Julio Franco (48), Rick Springfield (57), Shelly Long (57), Baseball's 1st DH Ron Blomberg (58), Barbara Eden (72), Football Hall of Famer Sonny Jurgensen (72), Satirist Mark Russell (74) and actress Vera Miles (76)...
Happy Trails...
Sorry to report that New Orleans R&B singer Barbara ("I Know") George passed away on August 10th at age 63...
[Timeline Countdown: 13 days until Labor Day, 17 days until the NFL kickoff, 42 days until MLB playoffs and 130 days remaining in 2006]
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