50 years later -- A fan recalls watching the Beatles' American debut

Ed Sullivan, 50 years ago this Sunday -- it was a really big show.

Fifty thousand people requested tickets to see The Beatles that night, but there were only 728 seats in CBS Studio 50 – which is known today as the Ed Sullivan Theater.

Andrea Tebbets was 13 years old that night in 1964, and she scored the hottest ticket in town.

"I remember just the thrill of hearing them start to sing," she said. 

 In the theater, now home to David Letterman, they saw a section of open seats in the balcony.

"And the usher said 'No, you can't sit there. That's for the screamers,'" Tebbets said.

"And my mom to her enduring credit said, 'Oh, that's alright,'" she said.

As the Beatles sang "I Wanna Hold Your Hand," the camera slowly swooped in over the band toward Ringo and then ..."There I am!" Tebbets said.

"I was chewing gum," she said. "I had the little ladybug earrings. I'd just had my ears pierced. And that's it."

She looked happy to be at the show.

"I was," she said. "I was beside myself. I really was." 

As a fan, she'd collected Beatles' magazines and cards. At an exhibition opening this week at the Library of Performing Arts in New York, some of the souvenirs on display in a typical teenager's bedroom were actually hers.

"Oh, a museum piece, me," she said.

That 13-year-old girl grew up to be a tax attorney with the U.S. Justice Department.

"Part of the whole Beatles' phenomenon was people like me," she said. "It was the fans. It was the screamers." 

Those who thought it all was just noise were wrong.  It was the sound of the future.

CBS News is marking the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' first American television appearance with a live media event on Sunday, Feb. 9 at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York. The event will be live streamed on CBSNews.com and CBSNewYork.com/50YearsLater.