ED SULLIVAN THEATER UNVEILING SPECIAL MARQUEE TO MARK 50th ANNIVERSARY OF BEATLE PERFORMANCE

The Ed Sullivan Theater on Feb. 6, 2014, unveils a retro marquee to mark the 50th anniversary of the Beatles performance on the “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) – Fifty years ago Sunday, the Beatles made their first appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” and officially kicked off Beatlemania on this side of the pond.

Feb. 9, 1964 became one of the most memorable moments in TV history.

In front of 700 screeching fans in the audience and 73 million television viewers, the Beatles opened with “All My Loving” at the Ed Sullivan Theater.

To mark the anniversary, the studio, which now houses the “Late Show With David Letterman,” unveiled a special marquee duplicating the one displayed at the Ed Sullivan Theater on the night the Beatles first performed.

The marquee has the exact same wording that was posted for “The Ed Sullivan Show” on Feb. 9, 1964 and will be on display through the weekend.

Meanwhile, a large piece of stage backdrop autographed by the Beatles during that historic performance is headed to auction, where it could draw $800,000 to $1 million.

Face caricatures accompany the signatures that the Fab Four penned between sets during the broadcast.

The current owner of the 4-foot-by-2-foot plastic wall section is Andy Geller, a longtime Beatles collector and television and film voice-over artist.

It is being sold in New York City on April 26 through the Dallas-based auction house Heritage Auctions.

A stagehand is responsible for getting the band members to sign the back of the wall section known as a hardwall traveler, which is rolled back and forth to reveal the next act. It’s believed to be the largest Beatles autograph.

“It was a spur of the moment thing,” 81-year-old Jerry Gort said in a telephone interview from his Calabasas, Calif., home. “They came down from stage right from their dressing rooms, I gave them a marker and asked them to sign the wall.”

The band signed vertically from the bottom up: John Lennon first, then Paul McCartney, who scribbled “Uncle Paul McCartney,” followed by George Harrison. Ringo Starr, shorter than the rest, couldn’t reach the top so “I put my arms around him and lifted him,” said Gort, simultaneously putting his foot on the wall to keep it from opening until Ringo finished signing the piece.

The wall also contains the signature of other acts that followed later in the television season, notably from the Searchers, another British band, which signed “The Searchers Were Here with Kilroy 4/5/64.”

It will be on display in the window of Heritage Auctions’ Park Avenue gallery in time for Beatlefest, an autograph and memorabilia event at the Grand Hyatt New York that runs Friday through Sunday.

As part of the 50th anniversary, a cavalcade of musical greats will honor the band in a CBS prime time special Sunday at 8 p.m., “The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute To The Beatles.”

CBS Vice President of Late-Night Programming Vincent Favale told 1010 WINS’ Juliet Papa that David Letterman recently brought Paul and Ringo back onto the Ed Sullivan Theater stage for an interview.

“They did a walk and talk and they pointed out the different things that they remembered,” Favale said. “An intimate conversation, heart-felt, and it was beautiful,” he said of the interview.