While most of my rock and roll friends were hanging out at the nocturnal punk rock Meccas of CBGB and Max’s in 1977/78, suburbanites were braving the harsh city streets and wallowing in nostalgia on Broadway. For a couple of years Beatlemania was a hit on Times Square for an audience that preferred the warm and fuzzy past to the bleak reality of New York at a moment when the city was frayed at the edges and the center was barely holding.

The four musicians who comprised the cast of Beatlemania came from nowhere, basked in the glory of reflected stardom for a few years, and ended up being marginal footnotes in the history of rock and roll. But, it must have been a blast while it lasted.

I wonder how the dead ringer for Paul, Mitch Weissman, dealt with his life after Beatlemania. The rest of the faux Beatles, none of whom looked like the originals, probably adjusted to lives of relative anonymity. But Mitch, what about Mitch? There’s a website that has some photos of Mitch today here. He seems to have morphed into the Paul of our nightmares.

Update 8/9: Mick Stadium, the fellow who uploaded these videos to Youtube, reveals the source of the Beatlemania clips:

A friend recently gave me stack of VHS tapes found @ a Flea Market, all labeled as “Beatlemania” related. Turns out they belonged to Mitch Weissman (Paul in the Original Cast) who had taped all of their ‘70s TV appearances as they aired. I’ve uploaded the best of the lot for your enjoyment. P.S. Weissman lives in LA and is getting his tapes back (which he says were auctioned in a storage unit selloff.)

 
More after the jump…