Imagine that one of the biggest musicians of today, one who proves particularly elusive as an interview subject, deigns to do one of the nightly talk shows on a whim. And then imagine the host decides that they have something better to do and passes the interview off to an underling.
That’s sort of what happened in May 1968 when John Lennon and Paul McCartney appeared on NBC’s The Tonight Show. Instead of fielding questions from Johnny Carson, the duo faced down the inquiries of a former major league baseball catcher.
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Promoting Apple
The Beatles found themselves quite preoccupied with other tasks aside from music in 1968. Their highly publicized journey to India to study meditation was worldwide news. When they returned to England in April, they embarked upon their most ambitious undertaking yet.
Apple was a pie-in-the-sky concept whereby members of the world’s most famous band were supposed to play businessmen and talent scouts when they weren’t making records. Like everything else they did, it was big news. And John Lennon and Paul McCartney came to New York City, the world’s media center, in May 1968 to do their promotional duties.
On May 14, 1968, the duo gave a somewhat testy press conference in front of a cadre of Big Apple reporters to talk about Apple. Their next interview figured to be a somewhat more lighthearted affair. The two Beatles were scheduled to appear on the nation’s premier talk show, The Tonight Show. But they were in for a bit of a surprise when they appeared.
Where’s Johnny?
Johnny Carson periodically took time away from The Tonight Show, either for pure vacation reasons or to perform at far-flung locations. It was the latter reason that had Carson off in Maryland while two of the Fab Four arrived at the studios to tape their appearance. Which is where Joe Garagiola comes into the picture.
To be fair to Garagiola, a former major leaguer who had seamlessly transitioned to broadcasting, he was often used as one of the show’s guest hosts when Johnny was away. But he proved a bit too staid and square to interview two of the hippest stars in the universe.
To make matters even stranger, the actress Tallulah Bankhead was another guest that night, and she occasionally piped in with a non sequitur of a question. Johnny’s longtime sidekick, Ed McMahon, also was on the set, but he mostly stayed quiet while Lennon and McCartney sat through the awkward experience.
A Catcher Pitching Questions
How do we know all this? Well, it’s not because NBC kept the tapes of this historic visit. Standard practice at the time was to wipe the tapes for the sake of space. Luckily, an enterprising fan made a rough home movie of the broadcast, allowing for a transcription of what the two men had to say.
Nonetheless, the quick-witted nature of the two men still managed to shine. For example, consider Lennon’s response to Garagiola’s query about whether McCartney was the band’s spokesman: “Well, if his spokes are working, he is.”
In 1984, Paul McCartney returned as a guest to The Tonight Show for the first time since that infamous evening with his fellow Beatles member. This time around, Johnny Carson was there, and things went a whole lot smoother.
Photo by: NBCU Photo Bank
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