Gary James' Interview With The Author Of 16 in '64
Marti Edwards



Marti Edwards did something in 1964 that millions of girls would have loved to have done, but could only dream about. Marti Edwards met The Beatles. That's right, as head of a 1,200 member fan club for The Beatles, she got to meet the group and present them with a plaque that read: "To the great guys who with warm smiles and fun loving ways, have earned this plaque in recognition of outstanding worldwide musical achievements. From your loving fans, The Chicagoland Beatle People Fan Club." Marti Edwards presented that plaque to The Beatles on September 5th, 1964, Fifty-five years later to the day (September 5th, 2019) we talked with Marti Edwards about meeting The Beatles.

Q - Marti, people probably say to you all the time you're so lucky you met The Beatles! I say you worked very hard to make that happen.

A - That is very true. First generation Beatles fans were Baby Boomers and we did everything ourselves. We had to make things happen if we wanted them to happen.

Q - On page 36 of your book it reads: "In 1963, when The Beatles first came to America, I made up my mind that I was going to meet them." Was that a typo on the publisher's part?

A - It probably was. Actually we didn't have it published. We did self-publishing, so I didn't catch that maybe. In Chicago we had a unique situation with the Vee Jay record label. They had put out a few tunes before anybody else did of The Beatles. WLS Radio would play them. So, as early as February of 1963 we were listening to Beatles' music and I was taking classes at the Art Institute even though I was still in high school in the Summer. I heard The Beatles and there was a group at my high school of girls that wanted to start a fan club. So, we had our fan club started as early as the end of September, 1963. We weren't called the Chicagoland Beatle People at that point. It was just our little Beatle fan club in our little area and so we did get our local paper to start running some stories on us.

Q - You heard The Beatles on the radio a year before they came to America?

A - I think they were being played in Chicago before anywhere else. I could be wrong, but this is my take on it, we did get to hear them earlier than other places in the United States because of the Vee Jay label and because of WLS playing them. So, it was a pretty big fan base already in Chicago by the time The Ed Sullivan Show rolled around, which was February, '64.

Q - When you heard The Beatles on the radio, did you know what they looked like?

A - Probably not. We all listened to WLS. That was our major station to listen to. They didn't talk it up much until that Summer. "Here's The Beatles. They're coming from England." Then we started seeing some pictures. But it was the music that we were attracted to at first, or at least I was. I was attracted to the music.

Q - When you saw the pictures of The Beatles, what did you think?

A - (laughs) I thought they were great, they looked wonderful and so did all the girls in my high school. It was sort of love at first sight, seeing The Beatles. We had a fan base in our high school, which was great. So, by the time The Ed Sullivan Show rolled around, I remember sitting on the floor, watching the TV and my Mom saying, "Oh, their hair is so long!" I said, "No. They're just perfect they way they are!" (laughs) I said, "I'm gonna find a way to meet them." And she said, "Oh, yeah. You and how many thousands of girls want to meet them." And I said, "Well, I'm going to. I'm going to figure out a way!" At that point we already had the fans in our high school and I talked to them and told them we were going to have to probably, if we really wanted to meet them, expand this fan club in some way. "We're going to have to let it grow." So, that's when we started getting more and more articles put in our local paper about it.

Q - You had something like 1,200 members?

A - Well, no. It was just over 1,000. I'm saying probably 1,200. We had a little post office box which my Mom had to open for me because I was only fifteen when we opened it in Richton Park, IL , which was right next to our village, Park Forest. Fan club mail was just pouring in, inundating this poor little post office. Let me back up a minute. At first when we were just getting articles written about the fan club in The Park Forest Star newspaper, which was distributed not only in Park Forest, but surrounding areas. So, within probably less than a year we were over five hundred members just in the areas out there. We had to scrimp and save and baby sit and pool our money in order to get stamps and paper for our newsletters that we sent out to the fan club members. We didn't charge to be a fan club member. It was sending in your name and address and becoming a fan.

Q - Would these newsletter be collectable today?

A - I don't have any. I moved from Chicago to Phoenix in 1970 and a lot of things were lost. A lot of that, that I collected in boxes were gone. So, I don't have much in the Beatles memorabilia fan club area. (laughs) I wish I did. I wish I had saved everything.

Q - Prior to meeting The Beatles, had you seen A Hard Day's Night? I didn't see any mention of that in your book.

A - Oh yes, about twenty-five times. (laughs) It opened in the Woods Theatre downtown and all of our fan club from all around decided to go at the same time. So, we had girls galore line up around the streets in Chicago to see A Hard Days's Night. I saw it twenty-five times. You have to remember that was back when they didn't have any way to replay it anywhere.

Q - You didn't mention A Hard Day's Night in the book then?

A - I don't believe I mentioned going. I don't think I did. As far as the book goes, I had a co-author, Joe (Carroccio) and I were on the P.R. Committee to do a newsletter for The Elks. We both worked on it. He was the editor. I helped him do advertising. So, one day I just casually mentioned meeting The Beatles. He said, "You didn't meet The Beatles!" I said, "Yes, I did! And I have pictures to prove it." I have fifteen, 8 by 10, black and white glossies on the shelf in my closet from the press conference. So, when I showed them to him he said, "Why haven't you done something with these?" I said, "I have no idea what to do with them." He said, "Why don't you write a book and share these with people?" I had no experience writing or writing a book. So, he said, "I do have some connections with publishers and I have written a book. I'll kind of guide you along." He would give me a deadline. "Chapter one, here's your deadline." So, it was kind of rush, rush, rush, I did forget putting in some things like A Hard Day's Night. That would have been an attraction for the book. I said, "I wonder why he's rushing." It turned out, and I didn't know it, he had A.L.S. and he passed away last October (2018).

Q - If there happens to be a second printing, you could put in more information.

A - I probably could put in more information. In fact, some people are talking to me this summer about why didn't I add some things to the book. It's a consideration.

Q - I'm trying to put myself in your shoes when you met The Beatles. To me it would have been overwhelming. You cannot describe how incredibly interesting and fascinating these guys were.

A - I said, "How am I going to make this fan club grow? We don't want it to be just local. We want it to be all over Chicago." We re-named our fan club The Chicagoland Beatle People. We would go downtown to WLS Studios. In those days they were down on Wacker Drive in Chicago. As you walked into their studios there was a glass panel. Behind that glass panel was the DJ on the air. So we would hold up signs about our Beatle fan club and the name of it and our post office box and that's how we grew the fan club. So, we were having free advertising on WLS back in those days about the fan club. (laughs) That's really how it grew. We started getting mail from all over the city because of that.

Q - Your father was very supportive of your efforts. He encouraged you to try to meet The Beatles. That's something that really stood out for me in the book. I'm not sure many fathers would have done that.

A - Well, I think my father was supportive in everything I did. He was just that type of person. I think a lot of the parents were back then. I know the rest of my immediate fan club in Park Forest, all their parents were and they actually helped us get out the newsletter when we had to stamp and staple the newsletters. They would actually from a team and help us do that. So, they were supportive of us. We didn't ask them for very much money because we wanted to try and do it all ourselves. I think it was an achievement that our fan club grew to such a large club with no social media. The only thing I had was our local paper and WLS helping us. (laughs) I don't know if WLS realized how much they were helping us by doing that.

Q - They probably thought Beatle fans would listen to the station, which translated into ratings which in turn would lead to advertising.

A - Right. That's true. They got to know us so well that we'd come in and they'd say, "Here come the Beatle girls." They knew us by name. I did mention in the book about The Lee Philips Show in Chicago having us on after we met The Beatles. So, we were on a TV segment on The Lee Philips Show after that.

Q - When you were onstage with The Beatles at that press conference, was Brian Epstein there or don't you know?

A - I don't know because I never saw him. I don't know whether he was there and just not in front of the press. The only person I saw was Derek Taylor. He was the fella that really helped us get upstairs and get into the ballroom. He told us, "Okay, you girls sit down here at this front table and I'll be calling you up soon." It was then I realized I didn't have anything to say to them. I didn't really know we were going to be able to do this until the very last minute.

Q - And then someone asked you how do you feel and you said, "Numb." John Lennon reached over and pinched you on the arm and said, "Did you feel that?"

A - Yes. (laughs)

Q - That was a rather incredible thing to happen to you.

A - Exactly.

Q - How many girls wouldn't have loved to have that happen?

A - Of course, yeah. It was quick, but to me I was in such a daze as I stepped up on that platform. I was holding the plaque and I said to John and Ringo, 'cause they were the ones that were turned to us, "We'd like to present this plaque to you from The Chicagoland Beatle People and all your Chicago fans, and it's very heavy too." That's what I said to them because it felt like a ton in my arms. So John said to me, "Oh, very heavy eh? I better take that plaque before you drop it." (laughs) But he and Ringo could see how nervous we were. I was at the point of fainting. My hands were shaking. He could see we were very nervous. He and Ringo started telling jokes and saying funny things to us to kind of lighten up the situation.

Q - What kind of things were they saying to you?

A - Oh, my gosh. I can't think. Just saying nice things. The press was calling us up. They wanted us to come up to the front of the platform. They were interviewing us. I remember Ringo saying to Jan, one of our members, "Oh, I like that jacket. Where'd you buy it?" (laughs) Just funny things like that. Making faces. Waving. We were asked to come up and the press started asking us questions. The Beatles were kind of, "What? Why are they being interviewed?" I remember the press asking us, "How do you feel?" And all that sort of thing.

Q - Were there any boys in your fan club?

A - Oh, there were several boys in our fan club in high school that were original fans, yes. Then there were many boys who sent in their applications for our fan club through the mail.

Q - Where is that plaque that you gave The Beatles? Is it in a museum someplace?

A - You know, I really don't know. About a year later in our little village, Park Forest, there was Westwood Junior High School. They had a big stage. And The Byrds were performing at Westwood Junior High School, believe it or not. I went to see The Byrds. We're standing down at the bottom of the stage, looking around, and I looked over to the back and I saw Derek Taylor. Now, I didn't know it at the time, but he had become the manager for The Byrds for a brief period of time. So, I scribbled a note and I said, "I'm Marti. I presented a plaque to The Beatles last year with your help." And I passed the note down. He read it and waved to me. He told me to come over and talk to him. I did remember asking him if he knew where the plaque was and he said to me, "John has a room, both John and Paul have a room with a lot of fan memorabilia and other things included that they put up on the wall. I'm sure it's there." But he never did say definitely if it was or not. So, I really don't know where that plaque went to.

Q - Was it that night that you went to see The Beatles in concert for the first time?

A - It was. It was right after the press conference. I went along with the press. They exited down a different location and down some stairways. The Stockyard was right next to the International Ampitheatre. In fact, they were connected. So, if you exited down a staircase you were right there at the front of the right side of the stage. So we were standing right where John was performing. Right under the stage where John was performing. I never went to my seat. I just stood there with the press.

Q - Could you hear what they were singing?

A - At first I could hear the music 'cause I was standing right next to an amp, but I'm sure that other people in the back probably had a difficult time hearing the music. I was right there so I did hear the music. The screaming got louder and louder and then it was more difficult and we were right up front.

Q - Who was and is your favorite Beatle?

A - I loved all The Beatles. I have to tell you that. I think my favorite was John, for a lot of reasons. When you start a fan club, it's like the girls have to choose a favorite. Then we collect those pictures and put them up on our walls, but really I collected pictures of all of The Beatles. In fact, I still have my magazines from way back then. Those are one thing that survived with a lot of holes in them 'cause I put pictures on the wall. (laughs) John I liked even more so after I met him because I always felt like he had a strong personality and had an interesting way of looking at the world. All of his lyrics were so honest on the songs that he did. But you could tell after we met them that he was funny 'cause he tried to put us at ease. He was caring because he tried to put us at ease. That made me like him even more.

Q - I forgot to ask, at the press conference, what did George and Paul say to you?

A - George was very quiet. I remember reaching over and shaking George's hand, but he didn't say too much to us. He said, "Hello. How are you?" John and Ringo were actually talking to us. Paul didn't say much at all. He was at the far end. He was talking to the press. He was busy doing that. So we didn't get a lot of conversation with Paul. It was so brief. To me it was like an eternity. All this stuff kept going through my head. I'm actually here! I'm actually here! (laughs) I'm meeting The Beatles. I felt like fainting at the same time. So, I was trying to compose myself.

Q - You didn't just meet The Beatles, you went on to meet quite a few of The British Invasion groups. Did you meet The Stones?

A - I did, only because Ed Pazdur was the producer that brought The British Invasion into Chicago. He had the Ed Pazdur Fan Club. If you joined the Ed Pazdur Fan Club they would let you know who was coming ahead of time. You'd get a slight discount on the tickets. Not very much. Of course, they weren't very expensive back then. You were also invited to a Meet And Greet just before the concert, just before the show or earlier that afternoon. Most of those were held at the Arie Crown Theatre. There was a couple that were held downtown at a hotel, the Meet And Greets. So, I was able to meet a lot of the British Invasion groups just briefly. Just to walk up and shake their hand and tell 'em how much we enjoyed them. We'd form a big line and it was mostly girls and we'd just walk down the line and shake their hands and talk to 'em and so I did get to meet quite a few of the British Invasion groups.

Q - What were The Stones like?

A - I put a Beatles sticker in Mick Jagger's hand. (laughs) I had a Beatles sticker that was about the size of the palm of my hand and when I walked up to Mick Jagger I said, "I'm so happy to meet you finally." The sticker was adhering to his hand. (laughs) He stepped back and looked at it and say, "Why you cheeky little devil you." (laughs) But he laughed about it and it was fun.

Q - Do you remember anything about Brian Jones?

A - I don't. I remember shaking his hand. I don't remember much about him. I did get to see Chad And Jeremy and I just saw Jeremy this past August (2019) in Chicago again 'cause he was playing at the Beatlefest. Let's see... The Animals. Herman's Hermits. I can't think of 'em all.

Q - None of them were probably as exciting to meet as The Beatles.

A - The Beatles were top and still are.

Official Website: www.16in64.com

© Gary James. All rights reserved.