25,000 Teens Cheer
Beatles at Suffolk
By Sara Davidson
George was uptight, scared.
John kept his cool. Paul cooed
and Ringo sat high in limbo.
They played for just 30 minutes at Suffolk Downs Thursday
night. But the germ of Beatlemania raged
like an epidemic for more than 5 hours.
It transformed 25,000 fans into a wailing, shrieking wall of flesh that
expanded and contracted finally exploding in unhappy catharsis.
The girls, who made up 90 percent of the crowd, were crying
and biting their nails as early as 6pm when the racetrack gates were opened.
From 8:30 to 10pm, the collective nerves of the audience
were pulled taut. They screamed, waved
and jumped in the air each time they thought they spied a trace of the Beatles.
When the stars finally trotted onto the makeshift wooden
stage built up from the dirt track, the pot boiled over. At least three times husky men bound the
guardrail and tackled the switched on strummers
Waves of girls threw themselves down the aisles. Young children sitting in the front row had
to be evacuated by policemen.
The Beatles played a round of old tunes, all of which were
nearly inaudible because of the noise and tumult.
They wore forest green pants and jackets trimmed with
emerald satin buttons and lapels.
Chartreuse pinstriped shirts with large, floppy collars made the
singers’ skin look pale.
George, the lead guitarist, seemed edgy, watching the
fence-runners more than he watched the floodlit audience.
John, who sparked a crisis for the group by pronouncing the
Beatles “more popular than Jesus”, smiled and played it casual on stage, eyes
squinting ever so slightly, as if in communion with some spirit of amplified
sound.
Paul (of the cherub face) tilted his chin heavenward and
rolled his eyes. He timed his winks and
waves to keep the girls in a suspended swoon.
Ringo was sitting up high with his drums, wagging his
head. His inimitable holy fool’s grin
brought gasps of “Ringo, Ringo!” from the far reaches of the stands.
When the four struck up with 11th and final
number, a heavy-set young man in a green shirt suddenly leaped onto the stage,
dug his hands into John Lennon’s shoulders, then bounded over to Paul McCartney
to pummel him on the back. John and
Paul kept playing, but George Harrison, seeing the man heading for him, turned
sideways and edged back and forth.
He was near the tip of the stage when two Beatles bodyguards
rushed the attacker and drove him off the stage into the clutches of six Boston
policemen.
This touched off a volley of attacks by young girls, who
sprinted toward the stage from every direction.
The Beatles, not even pausing to bow, rushed into a black limousine and
sped toward their sixth floor quarter at the Somerset hotel, reportedly $60,000
richer for their hard day’s half hour.
Boston was the sixth stop on a 14 city tour for the
group. It si their second concert appearance
in the Hub. The first wa in September
1964, when they filled Boston Garden with a capacity crowd of 13,000.
Thursday’s performance was sold out several weeks in
advance. Tickets were listed at $4.75
and $5.75, but some girls reported paying as much as $10 for choice tickets.
Before the show began, Sharon Herrick, a 17 year old from
Portland, ME, sat weeping in the front row begging neighbors for an
aspirin. She sobbed out a story of
paying $7 for a ticket form an agent who guaranteed good seats. ‘He put us in
section one—miles down there. We
couldn’t see the backs of their heads.
We couldn’t see the drums. So we
moved here in the middle section and we don’t care what happens, we’re not
moving!”
As she shivered in a new spasm of tears, screams hit the air
and a crowd rose as if on chorus. A
black limo pulled up behind the stage.
Joseph Kennedy, 13 year old son of Sen. Robert Kennedy,
leaped onto his chair to look. “What’s
everyone screaming for?” he said.
Kennedy and 34 friends and relatives had driven up from Hyannis Port to
see the Beatles. They occupied two
blocks of seats in front sections.
Joe, who wore a wild print tie, which he said, was “a joke”
declared his favorite Beatle was John Lennon adding, “He looks suave and
debonair, and I like his hair. I don’t
think my parents would let me grow mine very long.”
A leaflet circulating around the track declaring in bold
letters, “Beatles plan retirement.”
Young Kennedy frowned, “I don’t believe it.” A friend sitting next to him, 15-year-old
Chuck McDermott agreed, “It wouldn’t be a sound economic investment to retire
now.”
Two blonde 19 year olds form Somerville consulted their
Ouija boards to verify the rumor. After
shutting their eyes and moving the marker around a little board, Diane Turner
said jubilantly, “They’re not retiring.
But Paul’s getting married to that actress, Jane Asher, on November 23.
“A dying wail erupted from the next row.
“That’s not true. No, no,
no. Don’t believe it. Paul isn’t going to get married,” said Donna
Provanzo, 14, of East Boston.
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