Beatlefan Review of '16 in '64: The Beatles & The Baby Boomers'

Review by John Firehammer and originally published in Beatlefan magazine. Adapted with permission.

16 in 64: The Beatles & the Baby Boomers by Marti Edwards and Joe Carroccio

Meet the Beatles - that was likely the top aspiration of many a teenage girl in 1964 - and Marti Edwards is one who actually pulled it off.

Her book, co-authored with Joe Carroccio, zeroes in on the moment she met John, Paul, George and Ringo in the flesh. The occasion was a press conference held ahead of the band's Sept. 5 performance at the Chicago International Amphitheater, and Marti was there at the invitation of Beatles press manager Derek Taylor, himself.

Edwards' recounting of the brief meeting, and photographs of the event, are the highlight of this slender book, which also documents all the drama leading up to it.

Edward was a co-founder and the president of the 1,000-member Chicagoland Beatles People Fan Club, which hatched the idea of presenting the Beatles with a commemorative plaque once they hit town.

There's drama as Edwards and friends are invited to the conference by a promoter, but are then told they can't attend. Marti and a friend decide to bring the plaque to the conference anyway, to see if they can get in, and it's only through a chance meeting between her dad and Taylor, in a bar near the concert venue, that they are able to get in.

All of this is fleshed out with details of the times and Edwards' recollections of growing up in the 1960s.

It's a fun, quick read. Edwards spent only a few moments in the Beates' presence, but her account provides a good sense of what it was like to be a fervent fan during the height of Beatlemania.