ABOUT THIS INTERVIEW: On the evening of February 11th 1964, following their concert at Washington Colisem, the Beatles made a brief appearance at the British Embassy reception in Washington D.C. After a short time of mingling with formally dressed dignitaries, things got out of hand as someone cut off a large lock of Ringo's hair as a souvenier. The wife of the British Embassador reportedly told the upset Beatles as they left the Embassy, "I really am terribly sorry about the scene in the ballroom." Ringo would later remember, "After they had a few drinks they got really silly and one guy decided he'd cut a lock of my hair off. I just started screaming at him and we didn't stay there long. These diplomats just don't know how to behave." In this very brief television interview, filmed at the British Embassy reception before the incident occured, John Lennon describes the excitement of the concert crowd at Washington Coliseum earlier in the evening.



- Jay Spangler, www.beatlesinterviews.org

Q: "Which one are you?" JOHN: "Eric." Q: (gesturing to the TV camera) "Eric, here is the American public..." JOHN: "I'm John." Q: "You're John?" JOHN: "Yeah, it was a joke." Q: "Well John, here is the American public. Forty million American viewers..." JOHN: "It just looks like one man to me. Oh. It's the camera man." Q: "What is your impression of the American public? You've been here for a while, now." JOHN: "They are the wildest." Q: "Why?" JOHN: "I don't know. Tonight was, you know, marvelous. Ridiculous. Almost eight-thousand people all shouting at once, and we were trying to shout louder than them with microphones, and we still couldn't beat 'em." Q: "Was America something like what you thought it would be like?" JOHN: "No, nothing like it. We thought it would be much quieter. We thought we'd, you know, have to grow on everybody, and everybody seems to sort of know us all, you know, as if we've been here for years. It's great." Q: "What is your impression of the new American singing group, 'The Cockroaches'? Have you heard them yet?" JOHN: "I haven't heard them. But it's already been done about eighty times in England. Sorry Cockroaches!" (grins and giggles)





Source: Transcribed by www.beatlesinterviews.org from video copy of interview

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