Vault: The Beatles in Cleveland

CLEVELAND - John, Paul, George, Ringo and….Don?

The treasures to be found in our WEWS archives never cease to amaze me. Evidence of the gold in our mine is this film of the Beatles’ press conference before their September 1964 concert in Cleveland.

The concert took place at Public Hall, but the press conference in our video player took place at the Sheraton-Cleveland Hotel (today known at the Renaissance Hotel). The Beatles really were up-close and personal with our camera coming into the press conference.

Our own Don Webster interviewed John Lennon and George Harrison briefly and then later had a quick second interview with them.

Don had only been at WEWS a few weeks when this interview happened. Don had many jobs here at WEWS; host of the Big 5 Show (which would be renamed and become the popular, nationally-syndicated weekly Upbeat show), weather forecaster, news anchor, lottery show host, Academic Challenge emcee and even a stint in management.

Don worked at WEWS for 35 years before retiring in 1999, and he now lives in South Carolina with his wife Kandi.

The Beatles were on their first U.S. concert tour, which lasted one month. Cleveland was one of their last stops.

WHK radio brought the Beatles to Cleveland as the banner behind them obviously shows. The disc jockeys for WHK stood behind the Beatles during a photo-op and were known as “The WHK Good Guys”.

Thanks to David Spero whose father Herman produced Upbeat and Don Webster for their assistance with this edition of the Video Vault.

Enjoy.