These photos were taken by newspaper photographers of fans inside of the movie theater watching "A Hard Day's Night" for the 1st time |
Beatles First Flick a Squealing Success
By Jack Jelsel
That singing quartet of moptops, the Beatles, will be at the Convention Hall in person on September 2. So the premiere of their first flick, "a Hard Day's Night" at area movie theaters yesterday was just a preview of coming attractions.
But what a preview!
Take the 69th Street Theater for instance (If it's still standing).
It drew some 1,600 fans of the British exports, including a 67 year old grandmother. They lined the pavement in two directions form early in the morning until the doors opened at 11:50am. the movie went on at 1:30pm.
During that 100 minutes a lot of money was made. A concession in the lobby sold Beatle buttons, Beatle pins and Beatle portraits in color. The largest color photos (24 x 28) were being snapped up at $1 per shot.
Purchasing such was Mrs. Selma Daniels, 67. She brought her granddaughter, Nancy, 9, to the opening.
Does she dig the longhaired Liverpoolers?
"Yes. They're clean cut kids," said Mrs. Daniels, above the din of another "We want the Beatles" chat by the anxious audience.
"Of course I did feel a little funny standing in line for tickets," the grandmother admitted. "I was afraid someone I knew would see me."
Patrolman Bill Gala was on the scene, just in case the pandemonium got beyond the squealing stage. "No trouble," said Gala, "they're really good kids."
An usher at the theater, Jim, 16, held onto the balcony guard rail as the first wave of wailing kids scrambled for seats.
The masses were 99.44 percent female, though an occasional fan of the opposite sex raised his head. John, 15, was one boy who braved the odds.
John, who sported a semi-Beatle haircut, explained over a bag of popcorn why he was there, "I like the way they sing."
Candy, 16, had another reason. "I guess it's just because I'm at the age when I need somebody to idolize," she giggled. "I think they're cute.;"
Her date squirmed. He wasn't a Beatlemaniac.
I was one of those screaming during the movie! You have to try to remember that for most of us, this was our first real good look at them. Before that, we had only seen them on little TVs or in magazines. So, to see them up close, super-big, actually moving and talking and singing!! It was our first chance to actually see them as real personalities. It's hard to imagine now, and hard to describe it, but WOW! (Most of us couldn't understand the accents too well yet, anyway, so we weren't really missing the dialogue; that came later.
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