I Saw Them Standing There

Adventures of an Original Fan during Beatlemania and Beyond

Debbie Gendler

• Publisher: Backbeat
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN: 9781493079759
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music Biographies

After February 9, 1964, everyone wanted to be Debbie Gendler. On that date, she was just one of a relative handful of lucky fans who were in the live audience for The Beatles' historic performance on The Ed Sullivan Show—an iconic television event viewed in the living rooms of 73 million Americans. Everyone has a story to share about where they were when they watched the appearance, but very few were there in person—and even fewer would actually go on not just to meet the Beatles, but end up building an entire career around the band. But Debbie did.

This is the story of a New Jersey teenager who managed to accomplish what millions only dreamed about. Prior to the Beatles arrival in America, Gendler met with the group's manager Brian Epstein regarding the establishment of a U.S. Fan Club. Atthe start of the Beatles' historic 1965 summer tour, she was the only teen to welcome them to America, and after their press conference at The Warwick Hotel she finally meets them in person.

Continuing her journey, Debbie recounts her unique and sometimes wacky experiences having witnessed first-hand some of the most historic events in pop culture. She shares concert antics from Forest Hills Tennis Stadium, Shea Stadium and Suffolk Downs and describes the mayhem outside the Plaza Hotel and later that year at the Delmonico Hotel chanting for the Beatles. Organizing fans to sleep on Broadway to purchase tickets for A Hard Day's Night, representing the Official Beatles Fan Club on television, and promoting the Ringo for President novelty record are just some of the requests she fulfilled as one of the band's leading ambassadors in the US.This coming-of-age tale details the adolescent journey of a devoted Beatles fan in all her youthful innocence against the backdrop of the turbulent 1960s, and a shifting cultural landscape.

Table of contents

• Acknowledgments
• Foreword
• Introduction
• My Heart Went Boom
• Secret Obsession
• Heart and Soles
• Thank You, Mr. Hofer, Esq.
• The Center of Attention
• The Ticket
• The Countdown
• I Saw Them Standing There
• Beatlemania Is Here
• P.O. Box 505, Radio City Station
• Murray the K, aka the Fifth Beatle
• Beatles versus Rolling Stones
• A Hard Day’s Night and Day
• Ringo for President
• Seeing Double: The Beatles at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium
• Vigil on Park Avenue
• Fans Help Others to Sometimes Help Themselves: Part 1—The Dance
• Fans Help Others to Sometimes Help Themselves: Part 2—The Donation
• Meet the Parents: Teddy and Mera
• Nothing Is Real
• Sid Bernstein Here
• Glasgow? I’m a Liver Bird
• Memorabilia Madness
• Brian’s “Favourite” Gal: Cilla Black
• A Touch of Class: Wendy Hanson
• I Saw Them Standing There (Again)
• The Really Big Show: Shea Stadium
• Hate Mail
• Crisis Management
• Two Empty Seats
• Playing Brian Epstein
• Cookies for Brian
• London Bound
• Fab Day at Fabulous 208
• Make Mine “Mod”
• With a Lot of Luck
• Clubbing Swinging London Style
• Back to Where It All Began
• Mind the Gap
• The Earth Shook under My Feet
• A World without Beatles
• He’s Not Dead, Says Rose
• You Can’t Get Back: London 1971
• Siblings: McCartney, Baird, Harrison
• Amazed How Much They Don’t Know about You
• KISS It All Away
• Pure Class: Walter Shenson
• They’re from Maplewood, I’m from Oakland
• Aftermath: 12.8.1980
• A Good Time Guaranteed for All at Only $15.95
• Celebrating the Macs
• Second Time Around
• Teaching and Testifying
• Give My Regards to Beverly Hills
• Beans on Toast
• Mike Mac on Display
• Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair
• Relatively Speaking
• Imagine . . . Cynthia and Yoko Together
• Thanksgiving Day at the Forum, and We’re a Side Dish
• A Song Heard Round the World: Yoko Ono
• Try a Little Tenderness: Linda McCartney
• INDICAtions of the Future
• Things We Didn’t Say: Jane Asher
• A KRAY Z Thought
• Adrian Henri: Poet, Painter, Teacher, and Sinatra Fan?
• The Sixties at Fahey-Klein Gallery
• UK Interviews: Beatlemania and Noel’s Addicts
• Mother Nature for the Environment
• Meetup at MIDEM
• Party of the Decade
• I Could Have Lived There, Too!
• You Can’t Do That
• House of Blues/House on Fire
• Turning Fifty
• Mr. and Mrs. Harrison’s Son
• Fifty Years After: Part 1—The Interview
• Fifty Years After: Part 2—The Legacy
• LBJ Hosts the Beatles
• Eight Days a Week Plus Two Years
• Sundays at 8; Mondays at 10
• About the Author