It was an unassuming trip for the lanky British musician to visit his sister’s family in Benton, Illinois, in September 1963.
he went camping. He jammed with local musicians. He drank root beer delivered to him on roller skates. He went to buy records. He bought a guitar. Then he went home.
The next time people in Benton saw George Harrison, it was about four months later when 73 million other people tuned in to watch the U.S. debut of his band, the Beatles, on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” The British Invasion was underway, changing popular music and American culture.
Now, the house where Harrison and his brother Peter lived in Benton, 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of St. Louis, is for sale.
Beatles fans could be forgiven for worrying about the future. In 1995, a wrecking ball was placed on the house at 113 McCann Street. Activists, including Mr. Harrison’s sister, Louise Harrison Caldwell, who moved there in the late 1960s, stepped in to save the town.
This house at 113 McCann Street in Benton, Illinois, taken on Google Maps Street View in August 2024.
Coal mining brought Harrison’s sister’s family to Benton.
Benton, population 6,700, is known for hosting the state’s last public hanging in 1928 and was built on the rich coal deposits of southern Illinois. Louise Caldwell moved to town when her husband, a mining engineer, took a job in the then-thriving industry.
The house they chose is a five-bedroom bungalow built in 1935 with a brick façade across the wide front porch.
In the mid-1990s, a state agency purchased the house from its later owners with plans to level it and turn it into a parking lot. Robert Bartel, a Beatles author, documentarian, and superfan who lives in Springfield, warned the media and Fab Four supporters.
A local investor bought it back from the state and opened Hard Day’s Night Bed and Breakfast, complete with the sofa on which Harrison licked his guitar and a trove of other loaned Beatles memorabilia, including a collection from Bartel.
This B&B closed in 2010. Benton resident Grady Adams has been operating it as a regular B&B apartment ever since, but now she wants to sell it, putting it on the market for $105,000. Benton Economic Development Director Brian Calcaterra has proposed an ordinance to the city to protect homes from being demolished by new owners, but Benton Mayor Lee Messersmith said the City Council has not discussed the issue.
“Of course, if there are no demonstrations, that would be better,” Adams said.
Interest in B&B revival unclear
Whether there is interest or energy in restoring the McCann Street house to its Beatles glory is up for debate.
Jim Kirkpatrick of Krell Springs, author of “Before He Was Fab,” a memoir of Mr. Harrison’s visit that will be made into a movie, has had at least one encouraging conversation with a potential buyer.
Robert Rea, a Benton owner and historian who helped save the Beatles’ home 30 years ago, said that obsession has waned.
“When we did this[in1995]the world went crazy because we thought, ‘George is going to come, he’s going to save the house,'” Rea said. “Honestly, maybe I’m missing it, but the momentum isn’t here.”
Harrison’s last chance to walk the streets anonymously
Harrison’s trip was perhaps the musician’s last chance to enjoy obscurity. He camped in the Shawnee National Forest. He was present when a popular local group performed at the nearby Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall. The band leader took him to a drive-in restaurant on skates and carhops, where he guzzled root beer for the first time.
At a record store on Benton’s downtown square, Harrison purchased a stack of records. These included James Ray’s R&B single “I’ve Got My Mind Set on You,” which reached No. 1 when Harrison covered it in 1987.
He also bought a Rickenbacker 425 guitar, like the one owned by bandmate John Lennon. A month later, Harrison played guitar when the Beatles recorded “I Want to Hold Your Hands.” It was sold at auction in 2014 for $675,000.
One day during Harrison’s visit, Harrison and Caldwell stopped by WFRX Radio, where then-17-year-old Marcia Shafer Laubach had a Saturday afternoon teen show. Harrison gave her a copy of “She Loves You” and told her that it had just topped the British charts.
Laubach became the first Beatle in the United States to interview Harrison on air, playing No. 45, which she still owns. She said it sounded different than what American teenagers were hearing on jukeboxes at the time. However, it did not leave an impression on her audience.
Despite his long hair, often in a crew cut, Harrison, who wore a crisp white shirt, jeans and sandals, Laubach found him to be “very clean cut, personable and polite, and people called him the ‘Quiet Beatle’, which is true.”
“If they had known what was going to happen, they would have reacted differently,” said Laubach, now 79. “It’s still amazing to me that he came here and that I met him. I think he really liked Southern Illinois.”
However, Harrison never returned to Benton and died in 2001 at the age of 58. Caldwell was 91 years old when she passed away in 2023.
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