DALLAS — The Beatles are back in the public eye, in near-crystal clear color, too, with the release the "Get Back" documentary, streaming on Disney Plus.
The film takes a fly-on-the-wall look at the band as they pieced together what would become their final studio album, "Let It Be."
Not even 30 at the time, the Beatles had the look of rock-and-roll veterans in the footage, meticulously writing and rehearsing a new album in a near-empty studio. Their lowkey depiction in the film might make it easy to forget they were the same wide-eyed band that caused Beatlemania just five years earlier, as they toured the United States for the first time.
One of their stops that year? Dallas, where they played a tight 30-minute set at the Memorial Auditorium downtown.
The city got its first look at the Liverpool stars when they landed at Love Field in September 1964, and then held a press conference the next day. And WFAA's Bert Shipp was there.
His interview with the band, and the ensuing press conference he filmed, covered topics from cigarettes to the rabid following the Beatles had in the United States.
Watch the full 13-minute footage from our archives:
When asked of their initial thoughts of Dallas, Paul McCartney, wearing a black cowboy hat, called the city, "Really fine."
"Pretty fine," he said.
John Lennon weighed in: "It's looked like a nice place when we drove to this place here, whatever place this is."
The topic moved to the Beatles' personal lives. Was Ringo Starr looking to settle down with a wife?
"Oh, I don't know," Starr said. "I haven't sorted one out yet. I like them all."
When the question turned to George Harrison, he gave an indication of who he'd like as a partner.
"John's wife," Harrison said, and Lennon slapped him on the shoulder.
"Nobody likes a smart aleck," Lennon said.
Shipp, WFAA's reporter, asked the group if they had any trouble when they arrived in Dallas due to the large crowds there to greet them. Not much, they said, except for Harrison.
"I got punched in me face a few times," Harrison said, "but that's part of life, isn't it?"
The Beatles also appeared at a larger press conference while in Dallas, and the subject stayed mostly on the band's wild popularity in America. One reporter informed Starr that girls in California had eaten the grass he walked on.
"I hope they don't get indigestion," Starr said.
The reporter replied, "What do you think of the American girl?"
Starr said, "A lot."
Another reporter asked if the band had much time to go sightseeing while in America.
"We expect any tour that we do to be secluded and not have much a chance to see the cities or anything," McCartney said.
"Because we're here to work," Lennon chimed in.
"Because we're here to work, as John tells me," McCartney said. "Not to see cities and monuments, as Ringo tells me."