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‘An explosion of screaming and hysteria’: US fans on how they were introduced to the Beatles

Four Americans on what it felt like to be swept up in Beatlemania, and reflecting on the band’s impact on their lives

As she grew up from a schoolgirl to an adolescent to a young woman, she tagged along as the band’s sound developed, from the boys next door of A Hard Day’s Night to the mop-haired artists of Revolver to the mature and creatively fractious White Album. Michael Shaw, a 76-year-old in Atlanta, Georgia, says he was part of the manic crowd of flailing limbs that greeted the band at Miami airport when they arrived for their second Ed Sullivan appearance, on 16 February 1964. As she grew up, and the Beatles themselves became more political engaged, Bendinelli got involved in the anti-nuclear and anti-war movements, protesting against the US war in Vietnam, and promoting sustainability through Earth Day and local environmental activism.

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