My Ticket to Ride: How I Ran Away to Meet the Beatles and Got Rock n Roll Banned in Cleveland
“Since that blow up about the Cleveland Heights girls, we’ve been playing it rather cool, you know, at all times.” – Mick Jagger, Nov. 7, 1964
In 1964, millions of girls daydreamed of running off to England to meet the Beatles. One 16-year-old from Cleveland, Ohio actually did it.
She became an international news story in an age where young women taking agency over their lives was considered a thread — and she was punished for it by the juvenile justice system and adult society.
Jan Mitchell’s new memoir is a fast-paced, true-adventure, trans-Atlantic coming-of-age story that puts the reader right in the middle of the early days of Beatlemania amidst the energy of the British Invasion.
It also looks back with insight to show the life of a teenager at the dawn of the TV age, prior to social media and the internet – when pop culture and social networking were still place based.
Author Janice Mitchell is now a retired federal investigator, a private investigator, and an adjunct professor. She worked high-profile capital, criminal, and civil cases in New York City and international investigations for Rolex, Gucci, Warner Bros., Levi Strauss, and other trademarks. She lives in her hometown of Cleveland – and is still a Beatles fan.
“This bold adventure cracks open a time capsule to 1964. … Janice Mitchell paints a sweet reminder of the power music has to save you, to befriend you and to love you through anything life hands you. Even when her parents abandoned her, music didn’t. When her world grew dark, music lit the way forward. If you love the Beatles and the magic of music, you’ll love this fabulous adventure.”
— Regina Brett, New York Times bestselling author of “God Never Blinks”
“An amazing journey from beginning to end. The Beatlemania is a fascinating part, but Janice’s story is so much more! … a young woman’s struggle to find acceptance and love, when she had none … she takes us along for every life-changing minute.”
— Ann Moses, former editor of “Tiger Beat” magazine and author of “Meow! My Groovy Life with Tiger Beat’s Teen Idols”
“An enjoyable read about an enjoyable time told by first-generation Beatles fan. Janice Mitchell takes you from her heartbreaking childhood to Beatlemania and through an exhilarating adventure in London. Her story is filled with vibrant images of the London scene in 1964. You really feel as if you were along for the ride.”
— Marti Edwards, author of “16 in ’64: The Beatles and the Baby Boomers”
Don’t miss this book! … Pure delight … I was awake for three consecutive nights, desperately trying to discover what happened to the brave and clever teenaged Beatles fans who planned and carried out an unchaperoned trek to London and Liverpool to “meet the Beatles.” You will fall in love with these extremely independent young women—smart and savvy girls who challenged the odds to make their dreams come true. You’ll be cheering them on with the flip of each page.
— Jude Southerland Kessler, author of The John Lennon Series
Exciting journey … Fashion, culture and the Beatles and Janice. This book is a must for those who want to get out of their hometown and go looking for those “four mops of hair” … Even the British police understood that looking for a Beatle was not against the law.
— Leslie Cavendish, author of “The Cutting Edge: The Story of the Beatles’ Hairdresser Who Defined an Era”
Misunderstood youth in the ’60s and the beginnings of a brand new culture are eloquently portrayed through the journey of two love-sick Beatle fans in 1964.
— Jenny Boyd, author of “Jennifer Juniper: A Journey Beyond the Muse”
COMING IN SEPTEMBER … A true-adventure coming-of-age tale set in the exhilarating first wave of Beatlemania. In 1964, 16-year-old Janice escapes a grim foster home in Cleveland by running away to London to meet the Beatles—and unwittingly becomes international news. In this memoir, she looks back at those heady days—and an era when young women exercising some control in their lives threatened adult society.
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