"Ladies and Gentlemen, Los Beetles (Americanos)!"

A Florida club promoter had a big idea: he'd take four young American lads, grow out their hair, dress 'em like John, Paul, George and Ringo, and call 'em the American Beetles to cash in on a thing called Beatlesmania. That worked so well the four lads embarked on a magical mystery tour of South America. And that's how Los Beetles Americanos came to Buenos Aires. Only trouble was: no one told Argentina it wasn't the real Beatles. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
It is my old friend.

Speaker 3 (00:04):
Oh there's a bit hilf, just having a grand time.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
You look like somebody answered this question. Do you know
it's ridiculous?

Speaker 4 (00:13):
Yes, I do.

Speaker 3 (00:14):
I'm so glad you ass Nadine a friend of the show.
She sent us an email. Hey Szaren Elizabeth, producer Dan
Doggie Interns. I'm a rude dude from New Jersey and
your podcast is my all time favorite. I've been listening
since early twenty twenty three and y'all have seen me
through some tough times and some tough commutes.

Speaker 4 (00:34):
So thank you.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Check out this ridiculous Amazon review I found for some sandals.
I hope it makes y'all laugh the way y'all make
me laugh. Love you, so I'm going to.

Speaker 4 (00:43):
Read you this.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Please.

Speaker 4 (00:44):
You know I love you. I love crazy reviews one
of my favorites.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
You text me photos of crazy I do.

Speaker 4 (00:51):
I love obviously.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
I love the ones where it's like the sugar free
gummy bears and everyone poops some stuff. And I love
the ones that Cashi Golan where anything.

Speaker 4 (01:00):
I guess I like the poopy ones like people like gas.

Speaker 3 (01:03):
Yeah, but this one isn't that? So this is called
love it first step. Tragedy by morning is the name
of the review. Amanda A.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Wrote it.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
I had dreams, big ones, dreams of cute summer outfits,
long walks through the plant nursery, and compliments from strangers.
So when I finally splurged on these seventy dollars sandals,
I was ecstatic. The color stunning, like take your breath away, stunning,
better in person than I could have imagined. I slipped

(01:33):
them on and instantly felt like Cinderella if Cinderella had
art support.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Oh.

Speaker 4 (01:39):
I wore them to the.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
Store for an hour and my feet were singing hallelujah.
I thought, this is it. These are the ones, my
forever shoes. I lovingly placed them back in their turquoise box,
ready for all the sunny adventures to come, and then
tragedy strung. I woke up the next morning to carnage,

(02:00):
a single sandal, chewed, maimed, a victim of betrayal by
my own four legged quote best friend. He didn't even
eat both, just one for sport for chaos. Now I'm
left with a single, heartbroken sandal that will never fulfill
its destiny. It just sits there staring at me like, why.

Speaker 4 (02:21):
Wasn't I enough?

Speaker 3 (02:22):
I don't have the funds to buy a replacement pair
and rehoming the dog was frowned upon. So here I
am shoeless, broke, and emotionally attached to a sandal that
will never walk again.

Speaker 4 (02:36):
Here's the picture that's included. I'll have them put that
on Instagram stories.

Speaker 3 (02:41):
I feel that pains so deeply. I've been there. This
was a review, and so the dogs well, and then
here's it.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Do people know not to bring their sandals around this? Dogs?

Speaker 3 (02:56):
Just to tell you, like, you're gonna love this sandal
so much, but dog too.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
It's a delicious sandal, said Elizabeth.

Speaker 3 (03:04):
Can you recommend some cute yet comfy sandals for a
rude dude that with an.

Speaker 4 (03:08):
On the go lifestyle?

Speaker 3 (03:10):
So I'm here to say Birkstall books, although my other
favorites are a varcas, those Spanish ones.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Oh, I'm gonna act like I know what you're talking about.

Speaker 4 (03:23):
So if you're into those, go for go for that.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
But otherwise, does it look like something like a medieval
monk would wear?

Speaker 3 (03:30):
No?

Speaker 4 (03:30):
Okay, cool, they're cute.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
Those are cool. Cute lately, I've been getting into the
tivas that look like sleeping bags. Oh I love Yeah,
you got Elizabeth.

Speaker 4 (03:42):
Full attentions for your fat.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
You're gonna have to hook her up. It's more of
a slipper than a sandal, but they are nice. They're
called ember Is the is the hanger. Okay, I'm gonna
look into it.

Speaker 4 (03:52):
So yeah, now we're on a sandal kick. Thank you,
thank you, rude dude, Dean. So that is ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
That is speaking of when you love something, you know,
like when we love something but not someone, but something right,
even if that's something is composed of some once something okay,
say like a sports team or a band, right, like
that's something, but it's composed of someone.

Speaker 3 (04:18):
Please don't put your life in the hands of a
rock and roll band exactly.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
Or the Eagles, the Philadelphia Eagles. Now we can often
lose our minds. Ye speaking of Eagles, for instance, there
was this explosion of fandom we all know about. I
believe when Elvis first became famous. He turned this whole
teeny bopper thing into like a thing because they've already
been Frank Sinatra with the Bobby socks ers in the forties.
But this was like a brand new thing. When they

(04:43):
went nuts the pants and tearing down fences to get
onto airport TARMACX. It was nuts, right. And then ten
years later comes beatle Maine, even the craziest fandom we've
ever seen.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
Legitimately, when you see those videos of the girls scream
the brains out.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
Going at the Mets Stadium, where there's screaming is allowed,
nobody could hear it, not even the band flawing at.

Speaker 3 (05:06):
Their faces, eating each other's arms, the cannibal sawing on heads.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
Elizabeth, Today, I want to tell you the story of
a ridiculous crime born of the mania, the madness known
as Beatlemania. Okay, this is ridiculous crime.

Speaker 5 (05:44):
A podcast about absurd and out ages, capers, heists, and
cons it's always ninety nine percent murder free and one
hundred percent what one hundred percent what?

Speaker 2 (05:56):
One hundred percent ridiculous?

Speaker 3 (05:58):
What?

Speaker 4 (06:00):
I'm a little late to that one.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
Yes, I want to take you back to the eighteen forties.

Speaker 4 (06:04):
Oh yeah, per little thing, just a young girl.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
As Listomania, Listomania. Now you ever heard of Listomania?

Speaker 4 (06:12):
Great album?

Speaker 2 (06:12):
It was the original insert name mania. Like you know,
there's Watergate, you know, and they turned it into a
portmanteau gate.

Speaker 6 (06:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
So this mania, beatles Mania starts with Listomania, and it
was named after the Hungarian composer, rock star pianist of
the eighteen forties, Franz List. Yeah, now telling you he
was a real daddy. On April twenty fifth, eighteen forty four,
the German writer poet Heinrich Heine coined the phrase Listomania.

(06:40):
In the midst of this hysteria that had descended on
the young and the glitterati of like the Parisian concert crowd.
Now furs were going gaga, not just in Paris, but
in Berlin for this cat Franz List. And people are
like the Germans too now, as my.

Speaker 4 (06:55):
Man he they they're dangerous when exciting.

Speaker 2 (06:59):
Especially the French, get nervous. Now, my may and Heine
hein He put this in a letter and I quote
when formally I heard of the fainting spells which broke
out in Germany and especially in Berlin. When List showed
himself there, I shrugged my shoulders pityingly and thought, quite
a Sabbatarian. Germany does not wish to lose the opportunity
of getting the little necessary exercise permitted in their case,

(07:23):
thought I, it is a matter of the spectacle for
the spectacle's sake. Thus I explained this listomania and looked
on it as a sign of the politically unfree conditions
existing beyond the Rhine. Now, besides all of his sex
shallow dishes. Everybody, yeah, on either side of the rhine,
my man, Heinrich hein He dipped over to Venice for

(07:45):
opera season. Right, and when you know it, there was
List doing his thing.

Speaker 4 (07:50):
Dude, Venice opera season.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
Oh my god, yeah, right, so Franz List he's playing
at the Italian Opera House. He gives a concert. It
inspires the same hysterical response, just screamingmating paintings swaning out.
He is going nuts, losing their minds, jumping for balconies. Elizabeth,
I'm happy to tell you some some people in the crowd,

(08:13):
they lost their continence. Now back to Heine Heine. This
was truly no germanically sentimental, sentimentalitizing berlinnate audience before which
Liszt played quite alone, or rather accompanied solely by his genius.
And yet how convulsively his mere appearance affected them, how

(08:34):
boisterous was the applause, which rang to meet him. What
a claim. It was a veritable insanity, one unheard of
in the annals of Furor man. He's a fire sentimental sentimentality, sentimentality.

Speaker 4 (08:52):
I think that his peers were like, dude, to d
let it go and then here talking about it? Are
yapping it up?

Speaker 2 (09:01):
When people speak of listomania, they don't often speak of
the music, but rather the reaction to the man, right
like list was apparently a very tall, handsome man. I
told you he was a daddy, and he was brilliant,
talented and moody.

Speaker 3 (09:13):
I was kind of hoping that he looked like a fraud. No, no,
you know, a rough a rough visage. Yeah, I know,
But how great would that be if everyone's like, man,
this music like.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
That would be great. The beauty came and the simbola
and we turned it into like some kind of sexual
energy or something that happens later, like for rick O
K of the Cars. But he got it, like you know,
I'm talking about that. He's not a looker. But people
react like that, well, some people did. I don't know
those of it. It is true, Yeah, there you go,

(09:47):
so at least one, I'm correcting one he was now
list was this perfect combination, as I pointed out, moody, right,
So he was like this proto rock star. He was
like the world's first rock star, just a century early, right,
very byronic. Everyone loved him because he was so moody
and so perfectly like haunted by his owns. Playing is

(10:07):
everything that you'd want. Also, he's a genius, so he's
doing like Jimmy Hendrick. Solo's interesting.

Speaker 4 (10:11):
But on pian I like to imagine that he looks
like Timothy Shalome.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
You for everyone, I can't.

Speaker 4 (10:18):
Imagine what in the past.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
He's your new past guy.

Speaker 4 (10:21):
Yeah, he's my new past guy because he fits it
like any age. It's just like he's like a little Tibeah.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
You can put him almost like way back to Rome.
You're like, oh yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (10:32):
Yeah, that's my he's my He's my default in the blanks.

Speaker 2 (10:35):
Random was ever replace like your cumber bunch, cumber bund, bend, cumberbund,
what benefit.

Speaker 4 (10:47):
Whatever.

Speaker 2 (10:47):
So there's once a contemporaneous report of this fans reaction,
and I quote from it. List once threw away an
old cigar stump in the street under the watchful eyes
of in infatuated lady in waiting, who reverently picked the
offensive weed out of the gutter, had it encased in
a locket and surrounded with the monogram f L in diamonds,

(11:10):
and went about her courtly duties unaware of the sickly
odor it gave. Fourth.

Speaker 4 (11:16):
Hey, that's when you got too much money, right.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
There are other reports of fans who grabbed up his
old coffee grounds and put them into a glass vial
and wore it around their neck like a magical amulet. Yes,
when he would play the piano, he was not to
play it so hard that they had like redesigned pianos,
and he would pound the keys like seriously with such
intensity the.

Speaker 4 (11:34):
Strings like Paul Bunyan level myths.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
Well, they were smaller pianos, but the piano strings would break,
and his fans were them. They would fight over the
broken piano strings because they would turn them into bracelets
like they were like you know, charm bracelets or something.

Speaker 4 (11:47):
It's like a bunch of crusty punks.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
Totally, they're going nuts through this guy. You don't picture
that in eighteen forties, no, you do not. Fast forward
to a century later, and there was a new phenomenon
sending fans into dizzy spells and screaming fits. It was
the twentieth century fans. They weren't scooping up dregs of
coffee and cigarette butts to turn them into jewelry when
the Beatles hit the American shores. But the reaction was
so insane, so intense. We've covered this, Elizabeth. They reach

(12:10):
back to the eighteen forties, and then they dubbed this
new craze beatles Mania, just like Listomania. Alright, so it
starts in nineteen sixty three, but really it breaks wide
in nineteen sixty four. Of course, there were middle aged
men who hated it when the Beatles got famous. Yeah,
you know the British magazine The New Statesman, Yeah, February
sixty four, just before the Beatles launched the brit invasion

(12:33):
into the US. And we go on to appear on
Ed Sullivan and show this one of TV's most famous
episodes of television ever. It's one of the highest ranked
or rated shows in terms of Nielsen ratings. This writer,
right before this moment, Paul Johnson, he sums up the
experience of beatles Mania in Britain, and he wrote of
the predominantly female fans, saying that they were quote the
least fortunate of their generation, the dull, the idol, the failures.

(12:58):
Whoa yeah, his reaction. The reaction was like, there was
a strong reaction. It was basically it was punishing. It
was swift. The article is now known as quote the
most complained about peace in the magazine's long and storied history. Wow. Yeah.
So that same month, in nineteen sixty four, the ninth
of February, seventy three million Americans sat down and they

(13:19):
watched the Ed Sullivan Show to see the Beatles perform
for the first time. That's forty percent of the US
population at the time, right, so two out of five
Americans were watching this. That launches Beatles Mania in the US.
Things only get crazier from there.

Speaker 7 (13:32):
Now.

Speaker 2 (13:32):
My birthday, August of sixty four, the Beatles met one
of their heroes, friend of the show, Bob Dylan.

Speaker 4 (13:38):
Beatles you know who looks like Bob Tillan Timothy.

Speaker 2 (13:42):
Wow, good call Elizabeth, he should do something with that.
The Beatles are in New York staying at the Hotel Delmonico,
and Bob Dylan came around their spot at the hotel
he posted up and he and the Beatles get twisted, right,
So the Beatles are still on that like that Hamburg
Energy Hamburg Energy where they were like popping dexies, like
they're going like they're doing their best impression of Johnny Cash.
It's nineteen sixty four, okay, yeah, So they're basically they're

(14:05):
stilling speed pills, right, They're like Hank Williams Senior and
Johnny Cash like going, how many speed pills canna fit
in my body at once? So they offer Bob Dylan
some hemphetamine pills, like we just got these from over,
you know. He's like, oh no, Bob Dylan tells him,
I prefer cheap wine, right, yeah.

Speaker 4 (14:20):
Then he's like looking to crash the motorcycle.

Speaker 2 (14:24):
Then Bob Doyling's like, hey, do you guys have any
bum wine like floating around? And John Lennon is like, no,
I don't think we do, but Paul may have some
plumb wine and his mom's handbag, right, and like John's
like teasing. John's teasing everybody, right, So Bob Dylan's like
defending him. He's like, leave his mom's luggage out of it. No,
I got just the thing.

Speaker 3 (14:42):
Man.

Speaker 2 (14:42):
You guys smoke marijuana, right, So John Lennon's like, no,
is it good? So they Bob Dylan introduces the Beatles
to weed. They roll up a joint, He passes it,
he lights it, passes it to Ringo. Ringo doesn't know
you're supposed to pass the duchy to the left hand side,
so he just takes the whole thing to his head.
He got a like zonked out Ringo. Dylan's like, you

(15:04):
guys are a whole other energy, all right, So he
rolls another one, right, and then he passes out and around.
Now everyone's good and high, and Dylan and the Beatles
they proceed to have this laughing fit sort of time. Right,
They're just cracking each other up. The phone keeps ringings
and Dylan's answering it. There's this Beatles mania here and like,
so he's having fun. At one point, Paul McCartney gets
so high he was convinced he grasped the meaning of life.

(15:28):
He starts dictating his discoveries to a waiting Roady who's
supposed to write this all down like all of his
way anything, all these pearls being like just jumping from
his tongue. The next day, apparently Paul goes to check
the paper to see what the meaning of life was,
and I guess he remembered he discovered it, but didn't
remember what it was, right, So he's like, what did
I write now? Or what did that you know guy
write down? So he reads back the paper. Do you

(15:48):
know what his said? Elizabeth? What are you some kind
of like Paul McCartney, Superstan? Okay, So according to what
the Beatles, Roady mel Evans wrote down, the meaning of life,
according to Paul McCartney states that and I quote, there
are seven levels. That's it. That's it. That's how it's
all he got.

Speaker 4 (16:08):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (16:09):
So I don't know if you was talking about the
seven plains of existence or if they like they were
on the seventh floor of a hotel and he's just
trying to order repizza. There's seventy revels. Bring it up
to the seventh. Either way, This is the height of
Beatles Mania in nineteen sixty four, right, I just want
to paint the scene. And now I want to tell
you about another band, the American Beatles, also playing shows
in nineteen sixty four. So way yeah, so way back

(16:32):
in nineteen sixty one, there's a little band called the Ardell's.
And when we get back, I will tell you about
the Ardell's.

Speaker 4 (16:38):
Ardell's.

Speaker 2 (16:39):
Take a little break and uh, listen to some hats.

(17:01):
Elizabeth Zarin. Now, I promise you a band called the
American Beatles.

Speaker 4 (17:05):
Yes you did.

Speaker 2 (17:06):
Now they spelled that with two e's.

Speaker 3 (17:08):
No A wait a second, No, I thought you were
using it as like, oh, they're the American Beatles.

Speaker 2 (17:13):
That's what they're, the American Beatles, that's what they're called.
And they were originally called the Ardell's.

Speaker 4 (17:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (17:18):
So in nineteen sixty one, there's a little band called
the Ardell's.

Speaker 4 (17:21):
The Ardell's, right, they called.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
Now there's a student at the University of Wisconsin Madison,
a cat who could play some guitar. He could say,
so knew the blues, right, this cat hat he felt. Now,
he taught his friend to play some rhythm guitar and
a bass, and that was good enough that they could
start a band. They called their band Steve Miller and
the Ardell's. When the school year entered in nineteen sixty three,
Steve Miller took his show on the road and relocated

(17:46):
to Chicago. That's three hooked up with another cat named
bos Skaggs who played rhythm guitar. Together, they form a
new band called the Steve Miller Band. The rest is
I want to fly like an eagle, Elizabeth, you know
Steve Miller. Yeah, but you know what, Elizabeth, I just
checked my notes. That's not the correct Ardell's. There's another Ardell's. So,
way back in nineteen fifty nine, a different band called

(18:09):
the Ardelles was started by these four guys down in Florida.
This is the right one. Sorry, okay, yeah, anyway, so
they were named Tom, Bill, Dave, and Vic government names
Tom Condra, Bill, Andy, Dave Hieronymous like Bosh, and finally
Vic Gray like the color Now. The four are young,
like seventeen eighteen years old and they live in West

(18:30):
Palm Beach, just outside of Miami. They play around in
that vibrant bar and club scene in Florida that's going
on in the sixties and the sixties it really was.
There's a ton of live music because you've got all
these like military guys and like basically bubbas who wanted
to like go leave and you enjoy some like swamp music. Yeah,
so they're gigging right, and they're playing me. There's like
ITAs Florida, but there was a ton of clubs in

(18:51):
the South and just Florida was known for this, so
they could gig all the time. And they even cut
some singles right like they were a going concern. Teen
sixty four. Their manager, Bob Yory, he gets this big, bold,
new idea for the band's direction. It's based on this
new craze beatles Mania. Here's how Bob Yory pudding. I
had a nightclub in Miami, Florida, call them Mau Mau Lounge.

(19:13):
So when the Beatles started to be famous, I said,
you know what, they're the English Beatles. I'm gonna make
up a group and call them the American Beatles. Oh, Golizibeth,
he did exactly that. Oh thinking was I got these
four guys, I said, listen, grow your hair. We're gonna
call you the American Beatles. No, so that's with two wee's,
like I said, just like the buck. Now, when the band,

(19:36):
the Ardell's heard their manager's new plan, they were like,
do we have to do the accents?

Speaker 5 (19:41):
Now?

Speaker 2 (19:41):
In reality, they were down to be the American Beatles.
They thought it'd be a fun joke, right, They're like, yeah, cool,
they're seventeen eighteen, what do they care? So, as lead
guitarist Bill Andy explained to the BBC years later, we
wore our hair the same, we dressed the same, we
wore suits. It was pretty good.

Speaker 4 (19:56):
Yeah. Please note we don't know any of their names today,
so very and and.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
Could use some easy cash. They start playing gigs as
the American Beatles, sometimes just the Beatles with two East
America the spelling. Oh yeah, and it works. Crowds come out,
big crowds. Sometimes they even perform a Dick Clark's American
Bandstand as the American Beatles. Oh yeah. Then one day,
while they're playing a gig in Miami as the American Beatles,

(20:23):
this music promoter catches the show. He's impressed, wheels in
his mind starts spinning. He gets his own big idea.
Ever had a capitalize on beatles Mania, only not in America.
This promoter wants to book the band for a South
American tour and he'll just let the people down there
believe whatever they want to believe.

Speaker 3 (20:40):
This is like, can you imagine you're a tourist from
like a small town in rural America and you've saved
this money and you take your family on vacation to
Miami and your teenage daughter sees that the Beatles are
playing this small club.

Speaker 2 (20:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (20:53):
I think all of us have at least like one
story of seeing like a huge act like a small club,
either before they.

Speaker 4 (20:58):
Were big or a secret.

Speaker 2 (21:00):
They're on the Quasar.

Speaker 3 (21:02):
Exactly, and so it's like here this, This girl's like,
oh my god, no, this can you believe me? The
Beatles in a fifty person capacity, and it's.

Speaker 2 (21:12):
Mike Bill, David Viser instead of John, Paul, George and Ringa.
So this is a great documentary from twenty fifteen, all
about this. It's thirty minutes long. It's called When the
Beatles Came to South America. It was made by an
Argentine filmmaker named Fernando Perez. And so, uh, back to
our story. The music promoter Impressario Rudy Duclos. Duclos, he

(21:33):
catches the act of American Beatles. He does a deal
with their manager, Bob Yori. So it's like, yeah, I'm
gonna take you down, American Beatles and a booky in
South America for a tour specifically, we're gonna start in Argentina.
Buerredes Are is gonna be huge. So contracts drawn up, signed,
show posters printed up Beatles to ease, and then the
big announcement hits the South American press. The two East

(21:53):
part isn't made as clear. The press reports it like
the real English Beatles are coming to Buenos Aires. The
kids go wild, they can't believe it. They're like Buenos
Aires the Beatles, right, the mop tops from Livertol are
gonna be in Argentina. So in Peru the newspapers are
equally excited. They're like, the famous Beatles will come in May,
and like that's wrong. The details get worked out, the

(22:15):
tour gets started, it's set up for July. Then when
that fateful month rolls around, the Beatles with two e's
they load up on a jet air liner, just like
Steve Miller would sing about it, and they ring on
down to Buenos Aires.

Speaker 3 (22:26):
Right.

Speaker 2 (22:26):
And in case you were wondering, how could this all
go down in international newspapers and not get back to
the real Beatles, like or their management, Elizabeth, you have
to understand this is nineteen sixty four and the newspapers
were in Spanish. And also the Beatles management largely ignored
South America because the markets weren't big enough, so the
promoters they left the podcasts.

Speaker 4 (22:45):
That's where the big concerts.

Speaker 2 (22:47):
Yeah always yeah, yeah, yeah, Brazil. I mean, come on now,
if you're wondering where the real Beatles were in the
summer of sixty four, like, can they be on the road?
Could someone see that they are clearly not coming to
Buenos Aires. No, because they were on a break, not
like from each other. They were just taking a break
from touring and they've been touring hard for years now.
So they're back in the UK, nobody really knows where,
and they're rehearsing and getting ready to go back into

(23:09):
the studio in August and record their next album, Beatles
for Sale. Okay, so meanwhile, down to South America, the
Beatles with two e's are about her arrive in Buenos
Aires airport right when they do. Since they are believed
to be the real Beatles, the kids act accordingly. They
come out by the thousands to scream and faint and
go crazy at the sight of John Paul, Georgia Ringo.

(23:29):
But it's not the boys from Liverpool. It's Tom Bill,
Dave and vic I guess they looked enough like the
real Beatles that early on the South American crowd's tricked.
They believe it's really their British heroes of rock and roll.

Speaker 4 (23:40):
Question is like, how close.

Speaker 2 (23:42):
They look reasonably close from a distance. The hair's right,
the heights are right, you know. So they're doing the
whole Beatles Mania thing, screaming, breaking down fences, trying to
get onto the tarmac to rush their favorite band. The
impresario Duclos he had truly done his part to gin
up publicity or the arrival of the Beatles with two e's.

(24:02):
Now this said totally shameless lies in every country's press,
he can tell. So there's also an Argentina media mogul
named Alejandro Rome who struck a deal with the Beatles
with two E's to come to his network, Channel nine
and repeat their magical performance they did on The Sullivan
Show in America. And he's not alone. His rivals at
Channel thirteen also want the Beatles with two e's to

(24:24):
come to do their Ed Sullivan magic on their network,
and so do close The promoter's are cool, cool, yeah,
totally books them both on both networks. So for the
same night, same night, the arrival night when they get there.
So both channels show up at the airport looking to
grab the Beatles and take them to their performance. Right, so,
the band arrives at the airport, they hear that they're

(24:45):
supposed to go to two different studios at the same time,
and their agents like, no, no, no, we only have
a contract with one of you. So the two networks,
Channel nine and Channel thirteen, they had different strengths, Elizabeth,
I'll just put it that way. The media mogul Alejandro Rome,
he had the contract which was enforceable, but Channel thirteen
had more like a verbal contract. But more importantly, their
ownership was tight with the authorities, which ultimately gave them

(25:08):
an upper hand because at the time Argentina was under
a military dictatorship. So they flexed out at the airport.
And as their agent tells it myself, as the agent,
I said, no, we never signed a contract with you.
But he was very friendly with the police chief at
the airport and they locked us up in the jail.
So they get locked up in jail at the airport.
Right now, the Americanos don't speak Spanish, so their manager,

(25:30):
Bob Yory is looking around and asking what's happening. What's
going on? What did he say? What does that mean?
Where are they taking us? Instead, they're getting bag taken
off to jail. They haven't even left the airport. Their
agent is cool headed, so he calls the American consulate.
Somebody comes down and he put it. He came down
and said no, he has a contract, and then they
let us out of jail. So problem solved.

Speaker 4 (25:50):
Meanwhile, is there no red flag that they called the
American Yeah?

Speaker 2 (25:54):
Exactly. So meanwhile, South American medium mogul Alejhan Rome well
aware of the facts of life in South America, which
means he's used to working around the authorities. He comes
up with an unorthodox way to get them out of
this airport. He went to the local luchadors, the professional wrestlers,
and he cuts aside too. In Argentina at the time,

(26:16):
there's this popular show called Titanes in el Ring, which
means the Titans in the Ring. It was a professional
wrestling show and one of the stars was named Karajian. Right,
I think he was Armenian because the way they spell
it at his love This guys an Armenian wrestler down
in South America killing it. So the media mogul I
hung a Rome. He calls Karajian and he said, and
I quote, I want all of your heavyweights at my command.

(26:39):
The guys came to see me, and then we went
to Azithia. From there we hired an eight passenger plane.
Then the bodyguards.

Speaker 6 (26:46):
As soon as they get off the plane, they went
directly through the tunnel. The bodyguards went over and they
covered the guys and they practically hung them on their
own shoulders.

Speaker 2 (26:55):
So now all these professional wrestlers show up at airport.
They grabbed the fake beetles, throw them on and they
go and me t and then the police come along
because now they've been told like, oh, you got to
listen to the American consulates. So they're like okay, you know,
they form a V, like a wedge, like a like
like on a kickoff, like how they formed a V.
So the professional wrestlers get between this V of police

(27:16):
carrying the pretend beatles on their shoulder and they go
to rush them back onto the tarmac. Because remember there's
fans everywhere screaming and going crazy. So they do they
de side. They're gonna fend off the thousands of crazy
fans were now trying to rush on to get to them,
and some of them are some of them getting through
the fences, and that you got kids in media. And
then there's also Channel thirteen. People are still trying to
get the Beatles and pull them away. So the professional

(27:37):
wrestlers tell the fake Beatles their plan, according to manager
Bob Yoriy, goes like this, you guys get inside the V.
So we got inside the V. He says, when we
start running, don't stop, just continue running. And then they
were knocking people over and we had to run to
get out of the airport. So now the fake Beatles,
they're like a football player back across the tarmac. And
there's Alejandro Rome who is here. He remembers it because

(27:59):
he's like he rented the eight person passenger plane.

Speaker 6 (28:02):
Everybody was chasing them, the police, the people from Channel thirteen,
the judge.

Speaker 3 (28:07):
This is legitimately, this is like when you take a
bunch of nipel and you wake like okay side the stream.

Speaker 4 (28:11):
And it was like the Beatles, but not really the Beatles.
And then there were all these and the.

Speaker 2 (28:17):
Judge is really mad.

Speaker 4 (28:18):
There was a judge there and the kids were jumping
on us and like, so this whole.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
Time, Rome he's waiting on the plane watching this. So
when the boys make it to the eight passenger plane,
he tells the pilots take off, so then they take
off right the mediam Ogle stays one step ahead of
everyone because he has a plane landed a small airport
and he says.

Speaker 6 (28:34):
I had the trucks everything set up. We got there,
went to a hotel in the suburbs in San Elmo.
Nobody knew about it, and we locked them up.

Speaker 2 (28:42):
So now the Beatles are locked up in the suburban hotel.

Speaker 4 (28:45):
However, the rivals teenagers.

Speaker 2 (28:48):
From Miami who do not speak Spanish. So the rivals
every Channel thirteen had some subterfuge of their own. They
seized fake ringo so that as the lead guitarist Bill
and remembered it, our drummer was kidnapped by a different
station and they went through a whole thing to get
them back. So they had to like negotiate to get
the drummer back. After this airport scene with the professional wrestlers,

(29:08):
the kidnapped drummer then comes their first appearance on South
American TV. This same day, a show called The Laughter festival,
which seems kind of fitting. The studio audience is packed
with screaming teens losing their minds. They were about to
share the same air with John, Paul, George and Ringo.
Let alone hear them play, right. Meanwhile, backstage, the American
Beatles went through their personal pre show rituals. They're musicians, right,

(29:31):
and they can hear the crowd losing it, And I
just had to wonder, did they think the kids in
South America would go nuts for a tribute band like that,
or did they begin to suspect that these kids have
been told that they were about to hear the real
Beatles perform, or did they know and they didn't care?
They're like, how do we pass ourselves off as the Beatles?

Speaker 4 (29:48):
They had to know, and they thought, let's do it
as close as we can.

Speaker 2 (29:51):
So yeah, that's they go out and the go let's
go pull off this con jobs Florida style. So Elizabeth
the band comes out on stage. The crowd los is it?
They lose ever loving minds and they're wearing the right suits,
the hair, mop top, everything's correct. It's true Beatles Mania now,
just with a Spanish accent. The host introduces them loos
American beatles, and he says American a little quiet, but

(30:13):
he says, oh, some American beatles. Now the band plays
their first song, when the kids in the crowd get
a good look at him, they're like, it's not Paul.
And at some point some young fans realized that they
were lied to, they were coned, they were bamboozled. Song,
they're trust betrayed. Now they lose it the other way.
They start to sob, some are inconsolable, some are pissed.

(30:33):
They're getting mad right, and I have to wonder what
did the band think then, when halfway through their first song,
half the crowd is in tears and the other half
is semi.

Speaker 4 (30:41):
Piss like adrenaline crash.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
Also, there's some debate about if they actually played live
or if it was lip syncing. In the documentary, some
of the people will remember one way, some people remember
it the other way. Bill Oni, the lead guitarist, he says,
they played live. Absolutely. When I watched the footage, it
definitely feels live to me. Like they play so their
voices don't match the record. I mean it's like yeah,
and they don't sound that great. So they play a

(31:04):
few songs, and if you ask the media mogul Alejandro Rome,
he'll just tell you people went crazy. They bought it.
So that sounds accurate. Right from the footage, the kids
are clapping in Unison, they're loving it. Yeah, some of
them are upset, like the ones who were closer to
the power upset. But I can't say now. If you
ask a Roberto Monfort who worked at Channel nine at
the time, he would tell you when they went on

(31:25):
the air, Yes, the people realized they were not the
real Beatles, but the fake Beatles. There were some people
were having fun, but others were waiting for the real
Beatles and they felt defrauded. So back to our media
mogul Alejandro Rome, who clearly aware of this lie at
the time, he's nowhere to be found. He according to
his own account, he told his staff, I want no
part in this lie to the people.

Speaker 6 (31:46):
I'll take a plane and go to punto Doreste.

Speaker 2 (31:49):
So he goes to this beach resource and he basically
just hides out and he waits to find out how
well the defrauding works. Now, as Rome tells it, he
told his stuff, I don't want to know a thing
about what's going on.

Speaker 4 (31:59):
So then I'm going to go to a beach resort.
Just don't tell me anything about this, but.

Speaker 2 (32:07):
He starts to get reports because it's going it actually
goes well. They had a sixty three, Well, we had
sixty three rating points with the Beatles. I think it
was the highest peak in the channel's history. So after
this initial rocky start to their South American tour, the
American Beatles still had a bunch of gigs to play
in all the neighboring countries. So their book to play
soccer stadiums, which is promising because at that distance, fans

(32:29):
won't be able to tell that they're the real Beatles
or not. Plus there's lots of people who knew that
they were the fake Beatles at this point because it
starts coming out in the press, like the journalists are
like this is bs, and the people still came out
to see them. So we got both kinds of fools,
but the willful and the like gullible. Yeah, and to
be fair, like these people just wanted to get as
close to Beatles Mania as they could. Like I don't

(32:50):
judge them, I've been that fool. Like I'm totally I'm
not saying like, how man, they can they believe you're
that trick.

Speaker 3 (32:55):
There's probably a lot of people who are like, there's
these fake Beatles going around.

Speaker 4 (32:59):
People are losing it to see that totally.

Speaker 2 (33:00):
And then also this one guy made a point I
really liked, is this eloquent sweater wearing like dude in
the documentary he says, and I quote, it's striking because
people went to see something knowing it was not the
real thing. It was like watching a fantasy. You know
when you go to see a magician it's not really
magic or alchemy that you know their tricks, that it's

(33:21):
a manipulation over the spectator's fantasies, right, and yet you
know you're going to be tricked. It wasn't Paul McCartney,
but it was the next best thing at the moment.
So it's like a very South American view of like, exactly,
this is as close as we're gonna get to the Beatles.
We're gonna get as close as we can.

Speaker 3 (33:38):
Well, I mean, you go and these people go to
see cover band because you like the song, I want it,
And then the people in the cover band try really
hard to like hew to the look and the vibe.

Speaker 2 (33:49):
Especially the vibe. Yeah, they can't get the look right.
They want to right and like have the like attitude,
the right hand gestures or whatever. So Elizabeth, there's still
the big question you keep, you keep kind of asking,
and I don't and I do not answer it, which
is how much did they sound like the Beatles? Yes,
three questions, very elemental genius. Now, trouble for the American
Beetles to East was their imitation was not very convincing. Yeah,

(34:12):
if you ask the lead guitarist Bill Andy, the way
he remembers it, quote, mostly everybody really liked her music,
and what we were doing is usually a certain element
of people jealous guys you know, like a.

Speaker 4 (34:25):
Two pack of day habit and played the banjo.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
But yeah, whatever, So manager Bob, you already remembers it
a little differently. He was, like, I remember in some
of the soccer stadiums, you had a few guys throwing
coins right now, not as a tip or a company,
like they could I could reach the stage, you know,
like I can get this metal up there. Now. Back
to the lead guitarist Bill Andi, Yeah, sometimes they threw coins,
maybe rocks. I mean like we do a concert and

(34:50):
then like have to get the hell out of there.

Speaker 4 (34:52):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (34:53):
Despite their constant harassment by angry, conned and defrauded fans,
the American Beatles did make a stop in the record
booth and they while they toured the continent, they recorded
a seven inch record in Argentina on Sadday. There's the
track lohisiste or in English, you did it to me?
And then there's also the track nicas mala, which in
English is don't be unkind. That one was one. It

(35:16):
was an American Beatles original written by the band Wow.
On the B side, they opened up with a grandia
and an English that's big day. And then they also
had another one cominando Canina, which is walking with Me Baby.
So however, their seven inch did not rocket up the
South American charts. It got airplay though it did get
airplay a bunch of airplay, mostly the South American press, though,

(35:37):
just took turns savaging the fake Beatles, like the bands
would come to a town to play for some con
crowd of screaming kids, and the press would like then
review the woeful show and just rip it from like
bo to stern.

Speaker 4 (35:49):
Were they singing in Spanish?

Speaker 3 (35:51):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (35:52):
Keep that mind that question in mind when they were Yeah,
the headlines from these shows, Elizabeth, the Beatles showed that
all the talent they have is in their hair. Another
newspaper wrote that they are awful. One newspaper called them
anti melodic. The Peruvian paper Chronica wrote that the whole
South American tour was quote a farce, far greater than

(36:16):
their disputed male prisons.

Speaker 4 (36:18):
Oh those.

Speaker 2 (36:19):
I don't speak South American machismo, but I think the
newspaper is going them loss. By the way, that's not
a real Spanish word. I just made it, but somehow
you knew exactly what I meant to. Now anyway, that's
how their South American cash grab was going. But now
was it really a good cash grab? Great question, Elizabeth,
Such a good question. Remember how I said the Argentina
and Brazil were under military dictatorships in the mid sixties. Yes,

(36:42):
I think I said Argenta Brazil was too. Well. That
also played into the fate of the American Beatles two weeks.
Juntas were not fans of the real Beatles because of
their liberal anti authority politics. Remember they were like grow
your hair out and the authority of it. In South America.

(37:02):
This youth mania was definitely something to be quashed, no
holding of hands. So the military junta was definitely also
not fan of a cash grab meant to con and
also get that same mania. Go, I feel like you're
doing the same thing, just for less good reasons. So
the military junta step into the picture. They shut down
the fake Beetles, like at least their airplay. So like

(37:24):
the Buenos Airest Radio Freedom and its Administrative Commission, they
banned the American Beetles in their seven inch from being
played on the Argentinian airway. So maybe they would have
gone rocketing up charts. Who's to say without the repression.
Who me Now? The reasons that they cited was that
the band and its imitation shaggy mop top hair was
quote sexually ambiguous, And they're like, well, Elizibe, you have

(37:47):
to understand a junta wants clear gender divides, because otherwise
how do you know who gets rights and who doesn't.
That is true, right exactly. So now the American Beetles
knew that back home in America they would never enjoyed
the sort of sick says that they were having in
South America. In Peru, Argentina, Uruguay and being young men
at the time, really more like boys. They enjoyed it

(38:07):
to its fullest and all the ways you would imagine
being the Beatles. Now they got it. All while of
getting was good, but eventually the getting would not be
so good. After this break, Elizabeth, we'll hear how the
rest of the American Beatles American Invasion of South America
plays out. Elizabeth, We're back. You're ready for more of

(38:45):
the American Beetles in their world tour.

Speaker 4 (38:47):
I really am one of them, blonde.

Speaker 2 (38:49):
No, they look like the Beatles ish you.

Speaker 4 (38:53):
Know, by the CIA.

Speaker 3 (38:55):
That would be amazing because I mean they're going down
there around the day.

Speaker 2 (39:01):
So one moment I forgot to tell you about was
that when the American beatlesman on Argentine TV and played
the Ritchie Valains hit LaBamba. You asked earlier, did they
sing a Spanish They sang one song?

Speaker 4 (39:12):
How good that song is?

Speaker 2 (39:13):
Oh my god, it's a great song. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (39:15):
I like the the cover by those Lobos.

Speaker 2 (39:19):
Yes, that's amazing. Yeah, totally. No, I don't know if
since she asked, yeah, I was just about to. It
was on the tip of my tongue. Now I don't
know if that was the only Spanish song they knew.
But it's phenomenal footage, Like I watched the footage, right,
it's their encore. The kids are chanting, oh trah, oh
tro and they come out and they play LaBamba and
they're like they sing some of the words and then

(39:40):
they hum sang some of the Spanish because I don't
think they know all of the song. It's this perfect
silly moment in world culture. Like it's just awesome. So, okay,
enough about Argentina because next up fascist Spain. Oh yeah.
After they after they conquered the South American pop scene,
they're like, hey, where else can we take this show
a little Spanish? You know the exactly They're like, right,

(40:01):
who else speaks Spanish around here?

Speaker 4 (40:03):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (40:03):
And so they took their American vasion, the American Beatles
take the show on the road, and they think, let's
go to Europe and play a few gigs for the
kids living under Franco and his Spanish fascism in the
nineteen sixties. Now, if you asked the band or their manager,
Bob Yori, he will tell you as he does in
the documentary, and I quote, we went to South Paulo

(40:25):
Rio de Janeiro, Lima, Peru. But we didn't get any
dates in Europe because naturally, the Beatles are from England Europe,
so we never got anything there, you know, but naturally. However,
the weird thing is Elizabeth. There are numerous reports of
the American Beatles playing a gig in Madrid, like full

(40:45):
on newspaper stories. Really yeah, and here's the poster announcing
the show. Oh my god, wait that one day is
kind of blonde the Beatles. They just took the Beatles'
heads and put the Beatles heads on the poster. But
see how says the American Beatles. Yeah look, well no,
you're right, yeah, no, those are them, but they're all
brown brunettes. Yeah, so you can see like they kind

(41:08):
of favor anyway, they do not the American from like
you squitched your eyes, you were like gaslight. It's really
that you're hungover and you can't see well, I mean
people in the minds. So the American Beatles and Repidante Spectacular,

(41:30):
I mean it says that right there on the poster
they're going to play a show at the Plaza de
Toros Delavas in Madrid. Now on Saturday the nineteenth, a
ten forty five at night. This is all on the poster.
So I don't know what the manager, Bob Yory, how
he could forget playing in Madrid. Well, but he swears
they never win. I found people online who talked about
like I was there, I saw the show.

Speaker 4 (41:52):
Is that a shadow American Beatles? Is there another good question?

Speaker 2 (41:57):
Well, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna We're just
gonna We're just gonna make up our own version of
events true American Beatles fashions, which means, Elizabeth, I want
you to close your eyes. I want you to picture it.
It's Saturday the nineteenth, let's say August nineteen sixty four
in Madrid in Franco's Spain, and you, Elizabeth, are presently

(42:20):
backstage at the Plaza de Toros Delaventas. You're there because
you are a local press photographer sent to cover this
spectacle of modern rhythm. You snap some shots of the
boys backstage getting ready for the show, some nice candid shots.
If they were a real famous band, these would be
iconic shots from their early days. Instead, it's evidence of
musical fraud. Either way, great shots. Elizabeth as a makeup

(42:43):
artist helps the American Beatles get their mop tops right.
You snap another couple candid shots reminiscent of the shots
of the real Beatles backstage. The illusion is so compelling.
Outside of the dressing room, you can hear the frenzied
crowd waiting for the show. The Spanish youth are clapping
and chanting in unison like it's a match. They are
eager for the lost Beatles, the Meericanos. Their manager comes

(43:04):
in and says, done for the show. The band looks up,
they look ready. Through your camera lens, you watches these
four young kids, Tom, Bill, Dave and Vic grab their
instruments and run out on stage. It's wild and your
viewfinder you can swear it's the real Beatles. You don't
seem too well. The boys have god damn good at
pulling off this illusion. Later, you listen from the wings

(43:24):
as you change rolls of film in your camera, and
you gaze out at the youthful crowd as they clap
in times of the poor impression of twist and shouts.
And later still the band skips their cover version of
LaBamba for the kids in Madrid, they stick to Beatles classics.
You snap more shots. Fast forward to after the show,
as Spanish kids pour out of the bullfighting ring, amped

(43:46):
up on the magic of the fake Beatles. You snap
picks of these raw boned, eager Spanish youth all fired
up on the rhythms of rebellion as they start to
vandalize the downtown. This is the powers of this Beatles
inspired youth rebellion. The kids don't even need the real
thing to go crazy, that's how ready they are to
buck the old ways. They can get fired up at

(44:08):
a tribute band. But standing there watching it all through
your camera lens, you see how from Madrid to Metro
Detroit kids are all the same.

Speaker 4 (44:17):
They just wrecked shop.

Speaker 2 (44:18):
Yeah that's the reports. Yeah, that's the report. And then
the press, the Franco press use that for a crackdown. Sure,
they say they post show vandalism. They're like, oh, look,
kids obviously need strong hand, so I know they got
like yeah, like they crush rebellious youth culture well into
the seventies. That's It's if this show even ever happened.
They remember, it's debatable. There's still a question about it.

Speaker 4 (44:40):
What happened that is making them deny.

Speaker 2 (44:42):
Exactly and Franco died in seventies. I mean, like thought, Elizabeth,
thank you so. In an interview with the press in Spain,
apparently the American Beetles said they'd been playing their music
their way for five years and if anything, it was
the English Beatles that were copying them.

Speaker 4 (44:57):
Oh my god, I love it.

Speaker 2 (45:00):
Once again. That's some hoodspookes. That's like John Lennon saying
that the Beatles were bigger than Jesus Christ, like the
way to go, fake Beetles.

Speaker 4 (45:06):
What if they actually were the Beetles?

Speaker 2 (45:08):
There you go, and they were just playing under like
like assumed names.

Speaker 3 (45:11):
They put on like Latex masks that were supplied by
the CIA, and then they would.

Speaker 2 (45:15):
Go disrupt Franco fascism, except for the CIA probably supported
coming together. So I'm December two of South America sixty four.
The American Beetles returned home to the US, and they
didn't immediately fall into obscurity. But the cash grab was done,
or is their manager, Bob you already put it? It
was over. It was finished. You know, like when you
take a wash cloth and you rang out the water

(45:36):
and there's just no more water. You can't do it anymore.
He had wrung out all the value the kid from
these kids.

Speaker 4 (45:42):
And he's got strong hands.

Speaker 2 (45:43):
Oh he does, I'm talking nits. So they left their
impression on the youth of South America because soon there
was this wave of Spanish language and Portuguese language Beetles
tribute bands all over South America. So they have all
these shaggy mop top, long haired kids pretending to be
loose Beetles Americanos, pissing off the autocratic leaders of their
respective nations. So you get like the band like Los

(46:04):
Bujos from are Indiana. They told the press that they
were quote more than the Beatles. Oh yeah, that's the
energy it is. And for many of the South American youth,
while their introduction to the Beatles may have been their
American Beatles, that was good enough for them to go
find the actual, real deal English Beetles. And then they
would watch like a hard day's night.

Speaker 4 (46:23):
And then they all disappointed.

Speaker 2 (46:24):
No, no, they got all. They changed their lives. Bands
reformed culture was translated youth inspired youth Elizabeth. It was
a beautiful time. So in a tiny way, the American
Beetles were part of that youth rebellion of the early
sixties in South American culture. Interestingly, the real Beatles never
played in South America. Really, the promoters couldn't afford the
booking fees of the real Beatles, so the American Beatles

(46:46):
truly were as close as the people were going to
get or couldn't get, which also explains the magic trick.
The kids are willing to let be pulled in front
of them. They knew where they lived and how things work.
They're like, the Beatles ain't come to South America.

Speaker 3 (46:57):
They wouldn't, they wouldn't adjust their fees to make it something.

Speaker 2 (47:02):
Elizabeth, you're such a dreamer. But these South American kids
they take whatever Beatles they could get, and they got
the Beatles they could. So at the end of the documentary,
this interesting question comes up. Did the real Beatles ever
meet the fake Beatles?

Speaker 4 (47:13):
Well, that's a very good question answer for asking.

Speaker 2 (47:16):
Yes, yes, or at least that's what they told Dick
Clark when they were on American Bandstand.

Speaker 4 (47:21):
When the American Beatles were Yes, okay.

Speaker 2 (47:23):
One of the good questions one of the bandmates, he
told him, yeah, we met him in Miami. So the
story goes at a nightclub owned by their manager Bobby Ory.
He what Bobby Ory tell it? I had them play
at my club in Miami. The American Beatles are coming here,
blah blah blah poster in the meantime, who arrives in Florida?
But John, Paul, George and Ringo. So now, when the

(47:46):
American Beatles were on Dick clark Show, he asked about
this unlikely cosmic karmic collision of real and fake Beatles.
Dick Clark asked the band, and you know, did you
guys go out to see the real Beatles and they
let you come backstage? And one band mate, I think
it was Dave, He's like, no, they came to see us.
We were playing at a club in Miami and they
came in. So hearing that happened, Dick Clark's like, he

(48:07):
was incredulous. As you look right now, He asked, so,
what was their reaction to seeing you? And again I
think it was Dave, he says, they were friendly. I mean,
Ringo and Paul got up to dance to our music
and that made us feel rather.

Speaker 4 (48:20):
You know, it came to us those totally Beatles impersonators.

Speaker 2 (48:29):
That's brilliant. So Dick Clark pulls the mic back from
them after you say that, and he's like, so the
Beatles were dancing to the Beatles music, right, and even
if it's a lie, it's fun to picture.

Speaker 3 (48:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:41):
So, after all the Beatles mania died down and their
washcloth of cash grab was giving up no more water,
the band moved a on. They changed their name to
the Razor's Edge, and then they cut a single. As
the Rager says, it was released on POW That's with
an exclamation point Records, and this was nineteen sixty six.
That single went nowhere. They did have a small hit though,

(49:02):
with their later single Let's Call It a Day Girl
A Date that wasn't enough to get The Razor's Edge
back to the lofty heights of success if they tasted
in South America. The band eventually broke up. They called
it a dig Girl, and they went their separate ways.
But they'd done their damage in their short time, so

(49:24):
much so that in September of sixty four, when A
Hard Day's Night actually came out the movie about the
Beatles early fame, the Beatles publicity Machine had to add
the clarification these are the authentic ones. So there you
go the story of the American Beatles their American invasion
of South America in the days.

Speaker 3 (49:42):
I'm disappointed you didn't do a deep dive into the
wear they now like, I want like Facebook profiles.

Speaker 2 (49:47):
Oh yeah, A couple of them passed away recently. The
rest are still no.

Speaker 1 (49:52):
No.

Speaker 2 (49:52):
I just I just happened to know that from reading
the stories.

Speaker 4 (49:54):
Were you behind that.

Speaker 2 (49:55):
I do not have to answer those questions, Elizabeth. I
am not under investigation act the press.

Speaker 4 (50:00):
You're like this black widow storytellery exactly. I don't want
them to argue the facts.

Speaker 2 (50:05):
So I'm a Jesa Fletcher of storytelling. Don't let him
tell your story. So what's the ridiculous takeaway.

Speaker 3 (50:12):
The man.

Speaker 4 (50:14):
You know, any of these manias.

Speaker 3 (50:17):
It's funny how people are willing to kind of like
let themselves go completely into it and then also look past.

Speaker 4 (50:24):
Everyone likes the story.

Speaker 2 (50:26):
We love magicians, and we're willing to tolerate mine.

Speaker 4 (50:29):
And there's but I'm still this is like lying to
Dick Clark about like.

Speaker 2 (50:39):
It's okay, ringos like boping door mean, like if we play.

Speaker 4 (50:42):
It cool, they'll come up. That's what about you?

Speaker 2 (50:48):
What's your ridiculous take on my ridiculous takeaway is can
you imagine being an eighteen year old being treated like
the Beatles in South America?

Speaker 4 (50:55):
Oh man, yeah, right, that's wild.

Speaker 2 (50:58):
Okay, there you go, there it is. You're in the mover.
Talk back, Dave, just wash it all down. Let's do this.

Speaker 4 (51:06):
Oh God, I love get.

Speaker 7 (51:15):
Hey, Saron and Elizabeth. I was just listening to your
episode on Jeffrey Manchester The roof Man, and since I
live in Charlotte, I had to go and find where
he was holed up. And because Circuit City and Toys
our Rest don't exist anymore, I can report that the

(51:36):
things that are there are a carpet warehouse and a
modern church.

Speaker 4 (51:40):
I love the show.

Speaker 5 (51:42):
Thanks, thank you for.

Speaker 6 (51:47):
It.

Speaker 2 (51:47):
That's great. Well. As always, you can find us online
Ridiculous Crime on the social media Instagram, Blue Sky and
I think Bangle.

Speaker 4 (51:55):
Loocal Yeah, and all telegrams.

Speaker 2 (51:57):
We have Thelou the Ridiculous Crime Pop on YouTube or
check that out. You can listen to it. It's a
safe for.

Speaker 4 (52:03):
Work and all that as a secure signal chat.

Speaker 2 (52:06):
And we have our website Ridiculous Crime dot com. You
can go there for merch and also just to like
enjoy the beauty our award winning website. We just won
an award for the best planet in the Solar System,
so we're very excited about that, and uh, thank you.
We also love your talk next, so please go download
that iHeart app and listen, and you know, thank us
something you want to say, download it, record it and

(52:28):
then maybe you'll hear your voice here and the talk back. Yeah,
we love that. And or you can email us if
you like your old school and to add Ridiculous Crime
at gmail dot com. Please start the email dear produce
a d thank you for listening. We will catch you
next crime. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Lizabeth Dutton and
Zaren Burnett, produced an edited by the man who taught

(52:50):
George Harrison to be Chill, Dave Cousten, and starring Analy's
Rucker as Judith. Research is by Paul McCartney's piano Tuna
Marissa Brown. Our theme song is by the California Beatles
of Anaheim, Thomas Lee and Travis dev The host wardrobe
provided by Botany five hundred guest tarn makeup by Sparkle
Shad Mister Underda. Executive producers are Yoko Ono, Truther, Ben Bolin,

(53:15):
and Bob Dylan's weed Guy Noel Brown.

Speaker 4 (53:26):
QUI Say It One More Time, geekus Crime.

Speaker 1 (53:31):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts
from my heart Radio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.