Within nine days during the Beatles' first visit, Americans had bought more than 2 million Beatles records and more than $2.5 million worth of Beatle-related merchandise.
The first products out were for impersonating the group-wigs (The Lowell Toy Company churned out 15,000 a day), jackets, and Beatle boots. There were: blue-and-white Beatles hats, Beatles T-shirts and beach shirts, tight-fitting Beatles pants, pajamas, and three-button tennis shirts,
Beatles cookies and egg cups, Beatles rings, pendants, and bracelets, a pink plastic Beatles guitar with pictures of the group stamped on it, a variety of Beatles dolls, (inflatable figurines, 6-in. tall hard rubber figures, painted "bobble heads"), and a cake decoration in the form of the Beatles.
People snapped up Beatles nightshirts, countless Beatles publications, Beatles ice cream sandwiches (on the same day as the Beatles' arrival, Baskin-Robbins put out a new flavor, "Beatle Nut"), Beatles soft drinks, AND Beatles bubble bath (encased within sturdy figures, that looked just like the group, and about the size of a ruler, more or less.)
Seltaeb (Beatles spelled backwards) was the American subsidiary of Stramsact, the British merchandising company (Remember Nicky Byrne, who made a 90% profit?). Under this branch, there were even plans for a Beatles motor scooter and a Beatles car. (In Aug. 1964, the original Seltaeb-NEMS contract was renegotiated; the Beatles' take was increased from 10 to 46 percent.)
Not all were bitten by the "bug"; some adults disapproved of the new rage.
The first products out were for impersonating the group-wigs (The Lowell Toy Company churned out 15,000 a day), jackets, and Beatle boots. There were: blue-and-white Beatles hats, Beatles T-shirts and beach shirts, tight-fitting Beatles pants, pajamas, and three-button tennis shirts,
Beatles cookies and egg cups, Beatles rings, pendants, and bracelets, a pink plastic Beatles guitar with pictures of the group stamped on it, a variety of Beatles dolls, (inflatable figurines, 6-in. tall hard rubber figures, painted "bobble heads"), and a cake decoration in the form of the Beatles.
People snapped up Beatles nightshirts, countless Beatles publications, Beatles ice cream sandwiches (on the same day as the Beatles' arrival, Baskin-Robbins put out a new flavor, "Beatle Nut"), Beatles soft drinks, AND Beatles bubble bath (encased within sturdy figures, that looked just like the group, and about the size of a ruler, more or less.)
Seltaeb (Beatles spelled backwards) was the American subsidiary of Stramsact, the British merchandising company (Remember Nicky Byrne, who made a 90% profit?). Under this branch, there were even plans for a Beatles motor scooter and a Beatles car. (In Aug. 1964, the original Seltaeb-NEMS contract was renegotiated; the Beatles' take was increased from 10 to 46 percent.)
Not all were bitten by the "bug"; some adults disapproved of the new rage.
- The Herald-Tribune called the Beatles "75% publicity, 20% haircut, and 5% lilting lament."
- Rev. Billy Graham watched the Beatles on Ed Sullivan (breaking a personal ban on Sunday TV viewing) and said that the performance revealed "All the symptoms of the uncertainty of the times and the confusion about us."
- Ray Block, Ed Sullivan's orchestra leader, predicted that they "wouldn't last longer than a year."
- Actor Noel Coward said, "I've met them. Delightful lads. Absolutely no talent."
- TIME-"The boys are the very spirit of good clean fun. They look like shaggy Peter Pans, with their mushroom haircuts and high white collars, and onstage they clown around endlessly."
- The 1964 Yearbook of World Book Encyclopedia-"Rambunctious and irreverent sense of fun." Yearbook of Collier's Encyclopedia-"Little Lord Fauntleroys."
- Newsweek-"A band of evangelists. And the gospel is fun." The Beatles scored other fantastic successes in America and England.
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