WUFT's Morning Edition host Glenn Richards speaks with retired broadcast journalist and author Bob Kealing about his latest book, G ood Day Sunshine State: How the Beatles Rocked Florida. Published in early March by University Press of Florida along with the Florida Humanities, it explores the musical and cultural impact of the Beatles visits to Florida in 1964. They spent two weeks in Florida in 1964: their second Ed Sullivan Show appearance was broadcast live from the Deauville Beach Resort in Miami Beach in February and when they returned later for their North American concert tour, they visited Key West (just ahead of Hurricane Dora) and Jacksonville where they played an historic concert at the Gator Bowl in September, 1964. All of this Beatles history is interwoven with American history in 1963 and 1964: the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the looming threat of the Vietnam War, desegregation in the conservative South, Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali), Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and more. Bob Kealing takes readers behind the scenes into the Beatles' time in Florida: not just the performances and photo-shoots, but also the profound musical and cultural impact they had on a generation of young people including future Rock and Roll Hall of Famers from North Central Florida. Interviewed for the book, former Eagles guitarist Bernie Leadon described the area in and around Gainesville as a "cauldron of creativity" that included his brother Tom Leadon who was in Tom Petty's pre-Heartbreakers band Mudcrutch, fellow former Eagles guitarist Don Felder, Stephen Stills, the Allman Brothers, Ronnie Van Zant of Lynyrd Skynyrd, and more.
The Matheson History Museum in Gainesville will be hosting a free Author Talk with Bob Kealing on Saturday, March 25th at 4:00 p.m. More information and registration (for in-person or via Zoom) at MathesonMuseum.org/events.
