Cunard Yanks : Liverpool, New York City, Hamburg and the Beatles

It is 1954. Steve and Dave are looking for adventure. Their home town of Liverpool is scarred by war. New York is the future and it will soon be the richest city in the world. They need to see it and feel the excitement. They need to be there. They need to become Cunard Yanks.

Cunard Yanks were British men, mostly young, who worked on Cunard ships from the 1940s to the early 1960s on the transatlantic routes, mainly between Liverpool and New York. American consumer goods, fashions and music which they brought to Liverpool gave the city a special awareness of popular American culture.

New York is their second home at a time when few British people go there. They see Buddy Holly play at the famous Apollo Theatre in Harlem and watch Pee Wee Marquette introduce Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie at Birdland. They visit Jack Dempsey’s Bar and shake the great man’s hand. And catch the A-line to Coney Island before watching Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field.

American clothes and records, and gifts of stockings and perfume, are a hit with the girls back home, while American music inspires groups like the Beatles who play at the Cavern and the Casbah, as well as at the Kaiserkeller in Hamburg, before finally presenting their Merseybeat version of rock ‘n’ roll to the world.