by Helen Leicht, Midday Host/Assistant Program Director; Host/Producer of Philly Local, WXPN

# 1 Moment: Seeing The Beatles on Ed Sullivan (February 9, 1964)

New York (AP) “A British band from Liverpool takes The Ed Sullivan Show” stage and sends waves of teenagers into screaming convulsions across America bewildering millions of parents. An estimated 73 million people watched The Beatles and I was one of those young girls — screaming inside!

Understand I have… yes have… loved Paul since I saw him on Ed Sullivan (sorry Kathy O’) I spent my childhood listening to the blue transistor that I kept under my pillow. I needed to hear every time a new Beatles song was played on the radio… over and over and over again! I wrote letters to Paul (that I never sent), joined the fan clubs, went to the movies to see Hard Day’s Night and Help with all my babysitting money, collected 16 Magazine (to carefully read the articles and look at the pictures), tried to straighten my hair just like Jane Asher (Paul’s girlfriend), and of course carried around many pictures of Paul in my wallet! So imagine meeting the person in my wallet, in the magazines and on Ed Sullivan!!!

#2 Helen & Paul: Helen finally meets Paul McCartney, November 1984 at the Plaza Hotel in NYC!

You can see from my face I was totally in control? Not really — my husband Biff took the picture. Paul was promoting his movie Give my Regards to Broad Street and was meeting press to discuss the movie (sneak preview) and the album. I was invited to NY to meet Paul. Was this a dream?. That’s why the photo looks so dreamy. Biff & I were sent to a hotel room that was filled with people, and I was told to sit at the table with the two chairs. I stood by the table and waited for the door to open. Finally in walks Paul & Linda, and Paul said “Hello I understand someone is nervous in here… well, well why are you nervous?” He walks over puts his arm around me and Biff took the picture! He leaned over and started reading my questions and gave answers. He introduced me to Linda — she shook my hand and then she left. It’s amazing the room was filled with press reps, and I just sat and talked to Paul McCartney. Yes — It really was a dream come true.

#3 John Lennon & Yoko Ono on Mike Douglas show (February 1972)

Talk about timing is everything… This was just an amazing time — I worked at KYW TV — Walnut Street — 17th & Walnut — and I worked for Ron Little, the Production Manager. So our department worked with scheduling the crew for all the shows. TV News / “Mike Douglas Show”, etc. Well everyone on the crew (about 50 people) knew Helen Leicht loved The Beatles. One day someone made the mistake of telling me that Yoko Ono was going to be on the “Mike Douglas Show”. They quickly said BUT she will be coming back with John Lennon to do a week of co-hosting with Mike Douglas! What do I do — run to Ron Little and ask for the week off but tell him I’ll be in the building in the studio audience. And that’s just what I did. I must say a huge thanks to the late Dick Creque — he was kind enough to set it up so that I would have the opportunity to have some one on one time with John & Yoko before the show. And a bigger thanks for noticing that during my one on one time I almost fainted when John & Yoko came over to me to talk — so Dick ran over to us — introduced us — John asked me to hold his guitar while he and Yoko gave me their autograph. Another very special once-in-a-lifetime moment in my life.

#4 Winning tickets to see The Concert for Bangladesh

The concert - Madison Square Garden, NYC, August 1, 1971 - won the tickets from a random call in to WOR in NYC for the sold out concert. Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Billy Preston, Ringo Starr, Leon Russell, Ravi Shankar. 1st Benefit Concert that gathered together major artists for a humanitarian cause — showing the power of music.

#5 March 4, 1981 - Bijou Cafe in Philadelphia PA - seeing U2 perform for 10 - 15 people.

The Bijou Cafe was a wonderful venue, and I stood upstairs looking down on the stage watching the band perform. I honestly said, “this must have been what it felt like to see The Beatles at The Cavern Club”! I will always remember that show.