I have to give a big thank you to Ted Hutchens who did ALL of the research on this story! He kindly sent me the information that he found as he was researching it. I would like to point out that Ted has a really neat Beatles display currently available for viewing at the Springfield, Missouri Library. It has some one of a kind items, including the clarinet case that three of the Beatles autographed for a young fan while they were at Reed Pigman's ranch. If you live in the area, it would be well worth your time to go see the exhibit. I hope I can make it out there before it is taken down.
Ted also runs a facebook page called "MO Beatles" which is about the Beatles in Missouri (a topic that I love---since I have written an entire book basically on this topic!)
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On New Years' Eve of 1964, a radio station from KICK radio station in Springfield, Missouri decided the best way to get the Beatles' to perform a concert in their area in 1965 was to send a cake to Liverpool. Now I am not sure what they really expected to happen since the Beatles themselves hadn't lived in Liverpool for at least 3 years by 1965, but maybe they thought the fan club located in Liverpool would eat the cake and spread the message to the Fab 4. Or maybe it was just a publicity stunt for the radio station....
But anyhow....a cake that was 8 foot 3 inches was baked and decorated in what was called a "Kaleidoscope of pastel colors" It appears that the cake had drawings of each of the Beatles in circles and wished the guys a Happy New Year for 1965. It was then put into a gold painted wooden box with Red letters that once again wished the Beatles a Happy New Year and had the names of the DJ's from KICK. It was locked up with 7 padlocks and the keys were mailed to Liverpool separately from the cake.
It then was loaded onto a Campbell 66 truck and was taken to the airport in St. Louis.
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From St. Louis it flew on a T.W.A. flight to New York City, where it was to be put on the Queen Elizabeth and float over to Liverpool. However---the Beatles cake never left the dock in New York. At the time, people were told that a "shipping technicality" stopped it from boarding the liner and that it would be kept in "cold storage" until the ship arrived back in New York on January 20th. However, one person from that time recalls that there was a shipping strike going on during that time period and the Beatles cake "wasted away on the docks there and never made it to Britain."
Ted also runs a facebook page called "MO Beatles" which is about the Beatles in Missouri (a topic that I love---since I have written an entire book basically on this topic!)
On New Years' Eve of 1964, a radio station from KICK radio station in Springfield, Missouri decided the best way to get the Beatles' to perform a concert in their area in 1965 was to send a cake to Liverpool. Now I am not sure what they really expected to happen since the Beatles themselves hadn't lived in Liverpool for at least 3 years by 1965, but maybe they thought the fan club located in Liverpool would eat the cake and spread the message to the Fab 4. Or maybe it was just a publicity stunt for the radio station....
But anyhow....a cake that was 8 foot 3 inches was baked and decorated in what was called a "Kaleidoscope of pastel colors" It appears that the cake had drawings of each of the Beatles in circles and wished the guys a Happy New Year for 1965. It was then put into a gold painted wooden box with Red letters that once again wished the Beatles a Happy New Year and had the names of the DJ's from KICK. It was locked up with 7 padlocks and the keys were mailed to Liverpool separately from the cake.
It then was loaded onto a Campbell 66 truck and was taken to the airport in St. Louis.
