If you’re a Beatles fanatic (or at least obsessed with George Harrison), then let me tell you about the small town of Benton, Illinois. Why, you ask? Well, George’s sister Louise left her then home of Inverness, Scotland in 1956 with her miner husband and two small children for Canada, which then led them to downstate Illinois. In September 1963, George visited his big sister, being the first time any member of the group visited American soil, which is commemorated with a plaque. He stayed at her bungalow home at 113 McCann Street, now the Hard Day’s Nite Bed and Breakfast. Supposedly he came up with the riff for “Day Tripper” while sitting on the couch in the living room of this house, but like anything Beatles-related, I’d take that piece of information with a grain of salt. The B&B used to have a mini-Beatles museum, which used to include a George Harrison-signed record of “Please Please Me” (the copy he brought to his sister) but the collection appears to have been sold by the home’s previous owners (not sure if the B&B is still open). In an interview, his sister said “his real first visit to America was when he came to the Midwest…he met these wonderful, warm, friendly, real warm Midwesterners… school teachers, retired miners and all kinds of just wonderful people… and a little band. He had a fantastic time. He thought they were just wonderful people.” After fifty years of living in this part of the United States, 83-year-old Lou has moved to California but the story lives on in Benton.
