Gary James' Interview With The Author Of
Dear Beatle People: The Beatles'
North American Fan Club 1963-1972
Sara Schmidt
Sara Schmidt is the author of two books on The Beatles. The first is Happiness Is Seeing The Beatles: Beatlemania In St. Louis and her second book is Beatle People: The Beatles' North American Fan Club 1963-1972. She's been a featured speaker at the Fest For Beatle Fans in Chicago, New York City and New Jersey, as well as The Beatles at the Ridge Festival in Arkansas, and The Beatles Symposium at Hope University in Liverpool, England.
Q - Sara, has there ever been a book written about a Beatles' fan club, or are you the first?
A - As far as I know, there was one written in Japanese about the Japanese fan club that came out like six months before mine. Then there's the DVD of the documentary of Freda Kelly, and that's it.
Q - And Freda Kelly was who? Refresh my memory.
A - She was the head of the British Beatles Fan Club.
Q - You're a second generation Beatles fan. Does that mean that maybe your mother was the first?
A - Yeah, my Mom was first.
Q - Did she ever see The Beatles in concert?
A - No. She lived in a little town, a little, country town, so she didn't get to see 'em.
Q - When did you become a Beatles fan? It's not often that kids will become fans of the music their parents liked.
A - Yeah. I became a Beatles fan in the late '80s, when I was like twelve, somewhere around 1988 or 1989. I became a Beatles fan through my friends and my Mom.
Q - How did that happen? Did you hear the music? See the movies? Read a book about 'em?
A - My friends and I were big fans of New Kids On The Block at that time. We were watching a video or something of their concert. We're screaming at the TV and one of my friend's Mom came in and started laughing and said we reminded her of how her and her friends were with The Beatles. And I said, "Oh, really? What was that like?" And then she spent like the whole night showing me her scrapbook and listening to their music, and I got hooked.
Q - And who would've thought that you would have gone on to become so involved with The Beatles' story!
A - Yeah, no kidding. (laughs)
Q - That doesn't happen to too many people.
A - Yeah.
Q - Have Ringo or Paul read your books?
A - Not that I'm aware of. Ringo does have a copy of my first book 'cause I handed it to him and he took it. He flipped through it with me standing next to him, but not this book. (Dear Beatle People).
Q - Actually, you and your mother got to meet Ringo. How did that happen?
A - It's not a very exciting story. We paid a huge sum of money to meet him and get his autographed artwork. And that's pretty much it. We paid the money and the opportunity happened.
Q - Was that right after a concert he did?
A - It was right before a concert, the concert in St. Louis in 2018.
Q - I've read that he stopped giving autographs.
A - He did.
Q - People would put the autograph up for sale on eBay an hour later. So now, when he signs something, it goes to a charity.
A - Right. It goes to his charity.
Q - What did it mean to you to meet Ringo?
A - Well, my Mom loves Ringo. She's a big Ringo fan. He's always been her favorite since she saw him on Ed Sullivan. It was like a huge deal to her. It was kind of surreal to me. Here I've been doing all this research and writing about Ringo and his band, and here he was!
Q - Right in front of you.
A - Yeah. It was unbelievable.
Q - How much time did he spend with you?
A - Probably about five minutes, maybe a little less.
Q - I assume there were more people waiting to meet him?
A - No. It was just us. It was like you bought the artwork and hope that you got the chance to meet him if he decided he wanted to meet people or not. It was kind of at his discretion. He agreed to meet us and that was it.
Q - What kind of artwork was he selling?
A - It was his computer generated art that he signs.
Q - The Official Beatles Fan Club threatened to sue the independent fan clubs. What happened with that threat?
A - In 1968, it's a big part of the book 'cause it's a creepy story, the Official Beatles Fan Club sent Cease And Desist letters to 144 independent Beatles fan clubs that were run by teenage girls. They sent this Cease and Desist letter because, "The Beatles were embarrassed and ashamed of what you're doing." It made them feel guilty. So, a lot of them broke up because of this letter and ended their fan club or joined forces with the Official Fan Club. There was one fan club that refused to do it and she had talked to her dad's friend who was a layer who said that the letter didn't have a legal standing, so she kept her fan club going until she decided to end it.
Q - What exactly were The Beatles embarrassed about with these fan clubs?
A - The story they told was that the independent fan clubs were getting their information through magazines and word of mouth and it wasn't always accurate because it didn't come from the Official Beatles Fan Club. So, they were supposedly embarrassed by the false information that was being spread.
Q - Who sent that letter to those independent fan clubs?
A - Nat Weiss. He was the one that sent the Cease And Desist letters to everyone.
Q - How are you promoting these books of yours?
A - I'm terrible at promoting it, to be honest with you. I could do better if I was better at it. I go to Beatle conventions and try to talk about it. I have my website,
MeetTheBeatlesForReal.com that I promote it on, but I could be doing a better job.
Q - You would think that after sixty-plus years everything that has anything to do with The Beatles has been written.
A - You would think so, but there's still stuff people keep finding to write about.
Q - Including you!
A - Right. That's what I why I wrote it. I assumed a book had already been written about The Beatles' Fan Club, but I just wanted to learn more about it and realized that no one had ever written anything. So, here I am.
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