Elvis and the Beatles

On August 27, 1965 Elvis Presley received a visit from the Beatles at Graceland. Because he couldn’t tell them apart and didn’t know their names he addressed each of them individually as “Beatle.”

At age 30, Elvis was the elder statesman of Rock 'n' Roll, the King, the Pope, the Dalai Lama, the Maharishi of Pop. One pictures the youngsters kissing the hem of his garment and only half ironically. Elvis appears nine times in A Book of Ages, John and Paul several times each.

The Spy Who Couldn't Cook

In August 1942, Julia McWilliams began her new job at the O.S.S., the World War II forerunner of the C.I.A. She was 30. She wore a leopard fur coat to work on cold days, and lived in a tiny two-room apartment in the Brighton Hotel in Washington. For a kitchen she made do with a two-burner hot-plate set on top of the refrigerator in her living room. She wasn’t famous for her cooking, but she later would be, after marrying Paul Child and moving to France. Julia Child appears six times in A Book of Ages.