Beatles, Eubanks and You 

Programming an event during SBIFF can be an iffy affair, but booking The Beatles would seem to stand a pretty good chance of success. The Fab Four of course aren’t showing up, but the producers of 60 Years of Beatlemania! have come up with the next best thing. Make that “things”, plural. 

The February 9 date at the Marjorie Luke Theatre is the 60th anniversary of the Beatles’ American debut on The Ed Sullivan Show, when nearly 75 million people tuned in across the land. The entire hour-long black and white show will be screened complete with commercials, but not before the event’s presenters, Peter Bie and Dennis Mitchell, kick things off sharing Fab Four facts, personal stories from Beatles fans who have had face-to-face encounters with the group, and rarely seen clips of the band. 

Next up is Bob Eubanks, famous as the former 50-year on-and-off host of TV’s The Newlywed Game and three decades hosting the Rose Parade, who was also a longtime concert promoter. It turns out that Eubanks was solely responsible for bringing the Beatles to Southern California when no other promoter was willing to meet their guarantee. Eubanks, who was also working as a DJ at KRLA at the time, produced and financed Beatles concerts in Los Angeles all three years that the band toured America: the Hollywood Bowl shows in ‘64 and ‘65 and the ‘66 Dodger Stadium concert. 

“You feel the energy of the audience,” recalled Eubanks, explaining why he took out a $2,500 loan against his house to pay for the concert in 1964. “I could tell there was something really different going on here. And even today, 60 years later, you can’t think of another act that has that kind of popularity.”

Eubanks, who tours his own nostalgia show called Backstage with the Beatles, will share fascinating and often funny seldom-heard stories about his experiences with the Beatles, their manager Brian Epstein, and the screaming throngs of fans who fairly drowned out the band at the concerts. “There are so many stories, and I’m learning new things about them all the time.” 

After the Sullivan screening, local favorites Bobby, Fin & Dave – which features two of the members of Santa Barbara’s longtime pop band The Tearaways, who have played Beatleweek in Liverpool for the last 20 years – close out the show with 60 Minutes of Beatlemania songs, delivering acoustic renditions of the classics. Visit https://luketheatre.org/event/60-years-of-beatlemania for your ticket to ride.