( CNN ) -- For Rebecca James , the onset of `` Beatlemania '' meant one thing : a lot of waiting . `` I waited eagerly for them to arrive in the U.S. '' she said . `` I waited for them appear on 'Ed Sullivan , ' for each album , for my concert tickets , for the concert , for class to end so I could listen to my Beatles records . They were worth the wait . '' The Indianapolis resident was a freshman at William Woods University in Fulton , Missouri , on February 9 , 1964 , the night The Beatles made their first appearance on `` The Ed Sullivan Show . '' `` A group of us went to a professor 's house to watch , '' she recalled . The band performed on the variety show for three consecutive Sundays , and James dutifully tuned in each time . `` They were cute , funny and talented , '' she gushed . Of course , James did n't just watch The Beatles on TV and listen to their records at home . On September 3 , 1964 , she and a friend joined the throngs of other Beatles fans at a concert in Indianapolis . `` We were in the nosebleed section at the Coliseum and barely heard a note for the screaming , '' James remembered . `` The amplifiers were very small by today 's standards . '' She still has the ticket and photos from that day . Those screaming fans were just the beginning . The Beatles ' arrival in the United States -- 50 years ago next month -- marked the start of John , Paul , George and Ringo 's history-making path of pop culture dominance . More on `` The Sixties : The British Invasion '' ' I had it and I lived it ' For Diane Salsbery , The Beatles ' `` Ed Sullivan '' appearance marked the beginning of an obsession that lives on today . Her home in Phoenix houses a massive collection of memorabilia , including all the original albums , the script of their film `` A Hard Day 's Night , '' ( which she saw eight times upon its initial release ) , collectible Beatles dolls , and a Beatles poster from `` 16 '' magazine . She remembers the early days of `` Beatlemania '' as `` magical for me and millions of other teenage girls . '' `` We all watched the 'Ed Sullivan Show ' on our black and white TV sets and fell in love with their music , youthful energy and appearance . Looking back they were very clean-cut looking , but our parents did n't think so ! '' Salsbery grew up in a small town in West Virginia , where she said it was difficult to listen to the latest music . `` My brother rigged up a wire from his bedroom window across the creek behind our house so we could pick up the BBC on an old shortwave radio , '' she remembered . `` He was also in a band and when they would rehearse down in our basement I would sit on the steps and pretend they were The Beatles rehearsing ! '' And Friday nights meant `` Beatles sleepovers '' for Salsbery and her friends , when they would listen to Beatles albums and daydream for hours . `` Talk about Beatlemania , I had it and lived it . '' The next year , she took the opportunity to see the quartet perform in person . She traveled by bus the long distance from West Virginia to New York to see The Beatles perform what would become a legendary concert in Shea Stadium on August 15 , 1965 . `` It was a very hot , humid evening with thousands in the audience all chanting 'We Love You Beatles , Oh Yes We Do ' while waiting , '' Salsbery said . `` When The Beatles ran out onto the field , the sound in the stadium was incredible , with over 55,000 screaming teenagers , myself included . '' `` It was an amazing feeling seeing them . None of us knew it would be an historic concert ; we were just caught up in the moment seeing The Beatles . '' By that point , The Beatles ' popularity `` across the pond '' had made its way to other countries around the world , showing just how much of a cultural touchstone that February concert would become . Beatlemania spreads worldwide . Living in Ontario , Canada , in 1964 , Rita Stamp was just as crazy about The Beatles as her American counterparts . One of her most treasured memories is opening a pack of bubble gum and finding a photo of the `` Fab Four '' themselves . The surprise caused quite a commotion among her siblings but her mother was n't quite as pleased . Stamp remembers her mother telling her to calm down `` and stop being so crazy over these young boys . '' She did n't approve of their long hair . Despite her mother 's feelings , Stamp , then 14 , quickly plastic-wrapped her photo of the Fab Four and displayed it on her bedroom wall until she left home two years later . `` Since then , it has become a special piece of memorabilia that I hold close to my heart , '' said Stamp . `` It represents a piece of my childhood , and that is priceless . '' Beatlemania did n't just affect women . Kurt Bentzen of Copenhagen , Denmark , became a Beatles fan in 1963 and is still one today ; he attended a Paul McCartney concert as recently as 2009 . At age 12 , and knowing very little English , he stood transfixed one day in the schoolyard while hearing a song . It turned out to be The Beatles ' `` She Loves You . '' Bentzen was hooked . He and a friend found it in a music booth at a record store ; he listened to it 25 times and learned the lyrics by heart . After listening to many of their records , Bentzen said The Beatles taught him how to speak English . `` The lyrics got more sophisticated and so did our vocabulary , '' he said . Bentzen said he `` almost fainted '' when hearing the lyrics , `` Penny Lane , there is a barber showing photographs / Of every head he 's had the pleasure to know . '' `` Pure poetry . '' Bentzen , a management consultant , credits the Fab Four for his success in life . `` Now many years later I have lived in eight different countries and professionally traveled the world . I got the jobs because during interviews my English was superior to other Danes . '' Meanwhile in Venezuela , `` The Beatles changed everything : Social lives and music , '' according to Marina Lares of Caracas . Lares explained that Beatlemania influenced how young people behaved in Venezuela in the early 1960s . `` The boys let their hair grow longer '' and began to form rock bands , she said . Girls started to wear miniskirts , boots and attended parties without chaperones for the first time . `` Adults and adolescents used to dance 'merengues ' and 'boleros ' with the Billo 's Caracas Boys , a famous Venezuelan Latin music orchestra , but since Beatlemania , adolescents wanted to dance to rock more than anything else , '' Lares recalled . `` Parties started to be different , since the music was different , and in a way part of our identity changed . '' Of course , there were also the ever-present Beatles posters in her room . Although they were thousands of miles away , Lares ' teenage memories sound identical to the ones that Salsbery and others described . `` My bedroom was the meeting location to hang out and listen to their fabulous music that marked our lives forever , '' she said . More : The Beatles in color . More : Ringo 's photographs .
' Beatles ' hit Beatles 50 years ago . Its influence touched lives and spread throughout the globe . Beatles is a lifelong collector of Beatlemania memorabilia . Kurt Bentzen of Denmark learned English thanks to The Beatles .