The sister of George visited
Texas recently. Louise Harrison manages a Beatles tribute band called
the Liverpool Legends, and they played a sold-out black-tie benefit for
the Museum of the Gulf Coast in Port Arthur. She has a book called "My
Kid Brother's Band," and talked about what it's like being the
sister of a Beatle.
News 88.7's reporter Ed Mayberry interviewing Louise Harrison
Louise Harrison emigrated to the United States in 1963 as the Beatles
were starting to have hits in the UK. But when they were about to make
that all-important debut on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1964, George was
sick.
"He had a really bad strep throat. His temperature was 104, and the doctor had me move into the room with George, and you know I had to give him medication almost every hour. First of all, the doctor had said, 'We need to send him to hospital.' And Brian Epstein almost had a heart attack on the spot. He said, 'No, we can't let anybody know that anybody's sick!'"
"He had a really bad strep throat. His temperature was 104, and the doctor had me move into the room with George, and you know I had to give him medication almost every hour. First of all, the doctor had said, 'We need to send him to hospital.' And Brian Epstein almost had a heart attack on the spot. He said, 'No, we can't let anybody know that anybody's sick!'"
Cover of Louise Harrison's book "My Kid Brother's Band"
Like their mother, Louise threw herself into answering fan mail.
"When George's 21st birthday — which was just a few weeks after they had been here to do 'The Ed Sullivan Show' — there was over a million pieces of mail delivered to my mum and dad's house that day for his birthday, mostly birthday cards. They couldn't get in and out of the house for weeks because the mailmen just came with these great big baskets and dumped them all on the floor in the hallway. And if they wanted to get from the front to the back they had to go round the outside of the house to get into the kitchen."
Being the sister of a Beatle meant Louise could offer suggestions to the band.
"When they did 'Sgt. Pepper's,' it was my suggestion that they would put the words on the album because I was getting so many letters from fans who were saying, 'What did they say in such-and-such a song,' because American fans didn't understand the English accent."
The Beatles are a full-time industry to this day, and Louise still loves meeting fans.
"There's so much affection between the Beatle people, or my Global Family, and the Beatles, I get some residual love. And as my mum always said, 'It's up to us to give back the love.'"
"When George's 21st birthday — which was just a few weeks after they had been here to do 'The Ed Sullivan Show' — there was over a million pieces of mail delivered to my mum and dad's house that day for his birthday, mostly birthday cards. They couldn't get in and out of the house for weeks because the mailmen just came with these great big baskets and dumped them all on the floor in the hallway. And if they wanted to get from the front to the back they had to go round the outside of the house to get into the kitchen."
Being the sister of a Beatle meant Louise could offer suggestions to the band.
"When they did 'Sgt. Pepper's,' it was my suggestion that they would put the words on the album because I was getting so many letters from fans who were saying, 'What did they say in such-and-such a song,' because American fans didn't understand the English accent."
The Beatles are a full-time industry to this day, and Louise still loves meeting fans.
"There's so much affection between the Beatle people, or my Global Family, and the Beatles, I get some residual love. And as my mum always said, 'It's up to us to give back the love.'"
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