More 1956 Town Square & John Lennon

Today's circa 1956 view of Town Square shows The Wurlitzer Shop and (again) the Maxwell House Coffee Restaurant. Those two little girls REALLY want to go into the Wurlitzer Shop to hear those instruments in person. I hope dad relented, but the body language is saying "negatory."



A view taken from the west side of the square shows a gloomy and overcast day.



The detailed view shows two security officers wearing very un-Main Street attire.



In other pop culture news, today marks what would have been the 74th birthday of musician John Lennon. Back in May 1975, the former Beatle stopped by radio station WFIL in Philadelphia to make an appearance for the Helping Hand Marathon (you can see the blue version of the flyer on the wall behind them). According to my dad who was the General Manager of the station, Lennon was attempting to get some time away from Yoko.



Serving up all kinds of nerdy-liciousness, my dad and two brothers pose with Lennon. I was not allowed to go downtown that night; most likely mom thought I was too young to meet Lennon (she was NOT a Beatles fan!).



The red version of the flyer:



And an alternate version:



Although I wasn't allowed to go to the station that night, I was given a signed 45 as a consolation prize. I guess that will do!

See more Daveland vintage & current Disneyland Town Square photos at my main website.

Screen Gem Saturdays: Shirley Temple and The Beatles

Shirley Temple Black had visited the Beatles in their dressing room backstage at a San Francisco concert on August 19, 1964 at The Cow Palace. Shirley is shown here with her daughter, Lori, in a photo that was taken by Shirley's husband, Charles Black. This concert marked the start of the Beatles North American tour. Initially, George Harrison didn't want anything to do with posing with Shirley, but was coaxed into coming out. Paul was apparently the one that had invited Shirley and her 10 year old daughter backstage in the first place. Besides Shirley, the backstage guests also included Joan Baez and Derek Taylor. According to the website beatlemania.ca:

The Beatles landed at San Francisco International Airport at 6:24 p.m. with 9,000 screaming teenagers in the reception room. The show began at 8:00 p.m with 17,130 people in attendance. Backstage, the Beatles held a press conference, and even had a picture of them taken with child star Shirley Temple. At 9:20 p.m The Beatles took the stage dressed in dark blue suits. Jelly beans were being pelted at them while they were performing. This would become a ritual at every concert due to George Harrison talking about Ringo stealing his "jelly babies" which were softer candies than jelly beans. The show was stopped twice because of the hail of jelly beans. On this night, they performed 10 numbers in thirty minutes before being transported by ambulance (their limousine was besieged by Beatles' fans) to the airport and their next concert in Las Vegas.

When the Beatles requested her permission to use Shirley's image on the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, she was the only celebrity who insisted upon hearing the album before granting permission.



Years later, Lori played the Cow Palace as a bassist with the seminal metal-grunge Seattle band the Melvins supporting Rush in 1994 on their Counterparts tour. The Cow Palace is still in operation.

To see more Shirley Temple photos, visit my Shirley Temple web page.