Hollywood Bowl Behind The Scenes uncovered.
A recent post on the LA Observed website tells how Don Barrett at LARadio.com has uncovered several file folders with contracts, memos and other documents that show how KRLA deejay Bob Eubanks came to present the Beatles’ first Los Angeles appearance at the Hollywood Bowl in August of 1964.
For instance, the Bowl became wary of the fans’ intensity and tried to cancel the appearance in June. There were 97 off-duty cops hired to work the Bowl area for the city’s first taste of Beatlemania. Here’s a small sample from the article.
In 1963, while backstage at the station’s Hootenanny concert, KRLA general manager John Barrett and his jocks talked about what they could do for the following year. Someone suggested a group out of Liverpool called the Beatles. The following week a representative reached Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles. He quickly declined the invitation claiming the group was struggling to get out of Liverpool.During the next six months the world witnessed the Beatles explosion. Epstein had saved the station’s number and called KRLA to see if the station would like the Beatles for a Southern California concert. Barrett wasn’t there and Eubanks took the call. The hitch was the boys with the mop heads had to play the Hollywood Bowl, a venue they admired after seeing it on an album cover. Hollywood Bowl or nowhere.
