In 1964, The Beatles appeared in the United States for the first time, playing on “The Ed Sullivan Show” to the delight of more than 73 million viewers.
But it was a year later, in 1965, that they upped the ante, playing a show at Shea Stadium that would mark the first major stadium concert.
The show set records for revenue and number of attendees, netting $304,000 and packing the venue with 55,000 concertgoers.
Radio legend Bruce Morrow, known as Cousin Brucie, was at the center of it all. He helped introduce The Beatles at that stadium show, and he said that 60 years later, it’s still fresh in his mind.
“ The memories are so alive in my body and my chest that I sort of relive the feeling of being there at Shea Stadium,” Morrow said. “It’s something I will never forget, and anybody who’s been there, relive that with me all the time.”
5 questions with Bruce Morrow, or Cousin Brucie
What was it like being there on that day?
“We have an electrical utility in New York called Con Ed. And I swear that day I was thinking about that. There was so much electricity in the air and so much pressure in the air that I said to myself, ‘I bet you, Con Edison, can turn off their turbines, and we’d still supply New York City with electric. There was thousands, tens of thousands of young people there generating spark. And the generating spark was something called love.”
You spent some time in the dugout with The Beatles before they went on stage. What was that like?
“ It was chaotic. Paul and George came right over to me looking kind of scared, because I was scared. So I was hoping that I looked brave because, you know, after all, I’m a New Yorker. I’m Cousin Brucie. I can’t be scared. But let me tell you, I was, because you knew that anything could happen at any moment with this crowd.
“John and Paul came over to me and John said to me, ‘cousin,’ that’s what he used to call me, ‘Cousin, is this going to be safe?’ And then Paul said to me, ‘Brucie, are we going to be all right?’
“I took my fingers and my two hands behind my back, and I crossed my fingers as if saying, ‘I’m going to lie right now, forgive me.’ And I said, ‘Yep, it’s gonna be okay.’ And by the way, I was really very nervous.
“I looked at them. I said, ‘Fellas, these people here, you feel that excessive energy because all they want to do is share space with you. They’re here out of love and they want to be together. I was the most scared and nervous I’ve ever been in my career.”
From “The Ed Sullivan Show” to the Shea Stadium concert, how did The Beatles help radio grow beginning in the 1960s?
“So, ‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand’ is brought up to me with a promotion guy, the record promotion man, accompanied by an armed security guard and had an attaché case handcuffed to his right wrist.
“In that attaché case was the record that could not be released to me until it was 9:00. Well, at 9:00, he gave it to me, opened the handcuff, because this is how crazy it was.
“The audience energy would really save the American music industry because at that time, early [1960s], we were really in not good shape. The music was getting tired. Along came these four mop-tops, and they put this new energy and this new feeling and new love and happiness into this music.”
Tell us about the time you helped Ringo get the St. Christopher medal that he lost at a different show. A girl named Angie McGowan had it, and you facilitated her and Ringo meeting.
“Ringo came up to me, and I looked at him, and I said something like, ‘Ringo, you don’t look so good. Are you all right?’ He says, ‘No, Cousin Brucie. Someone cupped my St. Christopher’s medal that my auntie gave me.
“See, what happened when they came in, things came off those guys: buttons and pants and shirts. They came up all disheveled. Well, anyway, somebody grabbed his St. Christopher’s medal. So, I went on the air and now listen, you got to understand across the street at the Plaza Hotel, there’s 5-6,000 young people. Almost every one of them had little transistor radios in their hands. So, if I talked to them directly, I say, ‘Cousins, are you listening?’ They’d be screaming.
“So I got on the air and I said, ‘Somebody found Ringo Starr’s St. Christopher’s Medal. If you’d call me,’ and I gave a number, my private line, ‘you’re not in trouble.’
“I got off the air and sure enough, a young lady’s mother, Mrs. McGowan, called me and said, ‘Bruce, is she in trouble? This is Mrs. McGowan.’
“I made a deal with Ringo that whoever found it, and we did this on the air, ‘Ringo, would you hug and kiss them if we bring it?’ And he said yes. And you heard the crowd screaming.”
You’re still on the air doing a radio show. Do listeners still want to talk about The Beatles?
“They absolutely wanna talk about The Beatles and the ones that were there write to me, because this is something that they’ll never forget. This is to them, a lifetime happening, very poignant. So the answer is, yeah, I will always talk about that day with the Beatles.”
This interview was edited for clarity.
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Lynn Menegon produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Todd Mundt. Grace Griffin adapted it for the web.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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