Charles Dickens: The 6th Beatle?*

February 7 being Dickens' 200th birthday is funny because the only other people who can compare to his impact on culture and massive popularity are The Beatles, and it was on Feb 7 that they landed in America, ie the single greatest moment in pop culture of the last century (or more.)  I wonder how Dickens' travels of America would compare had there been footage:

Arriving in Boston on January 22, 1842 Dickens was at once mobbed and generally given the adulation afforded four other young Englishmen who would invade America more than a century later.
Dickens at first reveled in the attention but soon the never-ending demand of his time began to wear on his enthusiasm. He complained in a letter to his friend John Forster "I can do nothing that I want to do, go nowhere where I want to go, and see nothing that I want to see. If I turn into the street, I am followed by a multitude."

The writing of A Hard Day's Night:

The screenplay was written by Alun Owen, who was chosen because The Beatles were familiar with his play No Trams to Lime Street, and he had shown an aptitude for Liverpudlian dialogue. McCartney commented, "Alun hung around with us and was careful to try and put words in our mouths that he might've heard us speak, so I thought he did a very good script." Owen spent several days with the group, who told him their lives were like "a train and a room and a car and a room and a room and a room"; the character of Paul's grandfather refers to this in the dialogue. Owen wrote the script from the viewpoint that The Beatles had become prisoners of their own fame, their schedule of performances and studio work having become punishing.

Eerie, n'est-pas?

* NObody puts George Martin in the corner!

Here's the totally raw footage of that day, including awesome footage of Macca stumbling back from the Peppermint Lounge shitfaced. The perfect snapshot of a group of young guys literally hours away from changing the world. And, as MOJO said, "Amazingly, they are funnier and more charismatic than Dick Lester [Hard Day's Night director] ever made them appear."