That's The Way It Was . . . Or Was It ?

This morning, on the CBS Sunday Morning program, there was a three-minute report about Walter Chronkite doing a story featuring The Beatles on December 10, 1963, two months before they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. Chronkite said that Sullivan called Walter after the broadcast to find out more about the band. If you click on the link above, however, you can read comments questioning some parts of Chronkite's - "The Most Trusted Man In America" -claim. Today's segment did say that Chronkite brought his teen-aged daughters to see (and meet) The Beatles when the Fabs were on the Sullivan show in February, 1964.

I'm not sure when a video clip will be available online (it was shown at about 9:47 a.m. this morning), but there were some concert performances as well as interview clips that did not seem overly familiar. However, I did find some early footage of The Fabs on U.S. TV here, which appears to be the complete report shown back in 1963.

Enjoy !

P.S. A friend sent me an email stating that Chronkite was a fan of The Grateful Dead !

"You will never meet anyone who is as warm and as much of a gentleman as Walter Cronkite. He loved music, he loved the Grateful Dead. He collected drums, including one from the drummer of the Grateful Dead. He adopted them and they adopted him; he was totally a fan. There were many sides to Walter." — CBS News and Sports president Sean McManus.