In 1964 Maysles was just another little-known New York City filmmaker, when out of the blue, "I got a call one day from Granada Television saying that The Beatles are arriving in two hours: 'Would you like to make a film of it?'" Maysles recalled. "So I put my hand over the phone, I said to my brother, 'Who are The Beatles, are they any good?' And he said, 'Yeah, they're great, yeah.' So we both got on the phone, made the deal, rushed off to the airport in time to see the plane coming down."
For the next week he filmed every step of that first tour. It became his first documentary, "What's Happening: The Beatles' first U.S. Visit."
Maysles was with them as they arrived at the Plaza Hotel, where another crowd of screaming fans was waiting -- a crowd that included 13-year-old Irene Katz. Cameras were rolling while she and her friends cheered, immortalizing her memory.
"I had my sign, my girlfriend Laura had her sign," Katz recalled. "We were holding them up, because we were convinced we were going to be seen by The Beatles. They were going to look out that window, and pluck us from the streets, and make us their girlfriends!"
Strassmann asked, "What was it about the music originally that hit you?"
"It was just so different than anything I had ever heard," she replied. "They were very positive, very upbeat. I think it was a healing thing. Other people have said that before, I know. But it was just something that people needed. I particularly did. I didn't have a great relationship at home, and this was something that I could really embrace, and it made me just much happier."
Whatever fans were getting from The Beatles, it all starts with the songs. From 1962 through their breakup in 1970, they would write roughly 200 of them.
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