Mitzi McCall died about three weeks ago. Probably you’ve never heard of her but in the 1960s, she and her husband Charlie Brill had a sketch comedy act, performing in small clubs around the country. They were very excited in February 1964 when they got their big break; a slot on the Ed Sullivan Show. Except that that had the bad luck to be booked the same night as a musical group from England, namely the Beatles. The audience was full of Beatles fans who could not care less about their act. They told the story on This American Life a few years ago; the transcript is here. They describe how this guy came into their dressing room, where they were desperately trying to re-write their act, and hung out. At one point he sketched them on napkins. They didn’t know who he was at the time but he was John Lennon.
I’ve listened to that story - it’s great. It’s also desperately weird that Brill thought his career-making show would be Ed Sullivan, when it turned out he can sell autographs to this day on any given weekend because of his role in one episode of a soon-cancelled TV show
