I Saw Them Standing There: Adventures of an Original Fan During Beatlemania and Beyond

One of the earliest American fans of the Beatles, Gendler was a New Jersey teenager who not only attended most of their major concerts in the New York area—including their Ed Sullivan Show debut—but also became a public face of the Beatles’ American fan club. Enabled by understanding parents, at 13 she met Brian Epstein, who managed the Beatles at the time, and at 15 she had an eventful meeting with the band after a press conference. In 1967, at 17, she traveled to London with her mother, visited Epstein, went to Abbey Road Studios during the recording of Magical Mystery Tour, befriended George Harrison’s and Paul McCartney’s parents, and met many others in the Beatles’ orbit. The book’s second half focuses on Gendler’s expansive, award-winning career in television, starting a family, her friendship with McCartney’s brother, and her gaining more access to Beatledom. There’s a healthy amount of name-dropping, but it doesn’t take away from the amazing stories. Her brief, anecdotal chapters and their personal tone make this far more touching than most other Beatles histories, and a story like hers will simply not happen again.