Happy New Year!
I know I’m a few days late with the greeting but since this year isn’t even a week old, it’s better late then never.
As it happens this first week of 2023, while strange in many ways, has gotten off to a good start as far as collecting is concerned. Yesterday I happened upon something really fun that I’ve never seen before and frankly didn’t even know existed.
While I was browsing through a quaint and lovely antique store I stumbled on several issues of an old teen newspaper called “BEAT”. These were all “KYA Editions” of “BEAT” that came from San Francisco. The issues that I saw came from 1966 and 1967 and boy were they cool.
Not only did these groovy old newspapers have articles about some of my favorite pop/rock groups from the ’60s they had a lot of fun ads and notices from the era which really makes reading them like traveling back in time. Truly a blast from the past and as an extra bonus each newspaper was in fantastic shape especially for newspapers from over 55 years ago.
There were cover stories about The Mamas and Papas and Donovan, I believe, but the two that really caught my eye were issues of “BEAT” featuring The Monkees! Needless to say these were instant buys and well worth it too.
What’s so fun about these Monkees issues is that they’re from the early days of The Monkees TV show. It’s fun to see reports on the group in real time as it happened and these articles are much more fun to read than the articles from the teen magazines of the era; similar but a bit less cheesy then what you may have found in magazines like “16”, “Tiger Beat” and “Datebook”.
Now I don’t know much about the “BEAT” newspaper. Was it published exclusively in San Francisco or was it published in several different cities? Was it West coast only? If it was issued in other cities did local radio stations put their ad on the back of each local copy? How long did was it published?
I haven’t found much on this newspaper so far but haven’t done a through search yet either. It was just fun to discover these gems from the past and after reading them I’m tempted to buy some of the other issues I found in the shop.
Whatever the story is this is one fun newspaper to read. Granted it’s pretty tame stuff but the ads and letters to the editor sections are a hoot and really take you back to a place and time that seems to be slipping farther and farther away with each passing year.
I decided to take photos of each complete issue of the two issues I bought. You can see the October 1966 issue above and the February 1967 issue below. I think the photos are good enough to read each story and get a feel for this wonderful time capsule from the mid 1960s.
If anyone reading this knows more about this newspaper or experienced it firsthand at the time please drop me a line. As I was nearly only one at the time of the October 1966 issue I have no idea if the Midwest (where I’m from) would have had access too this newspaper or not but it was so fun to be able to have a couple of issues to get a feel for the mindset of a teenager in the mid-’60s.
Well, that’s all for now. Just a quick glimpse back to start your new year with some fun. I hope you are well and your year has started out okay.
As usual take a gander at the several photos of these two issues of “BEAT” above and below.
Again, Happy New Year and see you soon!
Records, CDs and Music: 