Liverpool Four End Noisy Trek With Quiet $1 Million
No writer listed
Oakland Tribune
September 1, 1965
The Beatles left San Francisco for
their native England today, much to the chagrin of 1000s of teenagers and as
many economists across the United States. Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison,
and Ringo Starr collected about $1,700 a minute for climbing on a stage at the
Cow Palace yesterday to plunk guitars, beat the drums, and yell their lyrics
above the screams of fainting fans.
A source close to the group said they earned
at least a million dollars for their eight-city, 16-day tour in the US. “San
Francisco”, the foursome said, “was the wildest of the whole trip.”
More than 1000
fans were anxiously waiting at San Francisco International airport
yesterday for their arrival, but besides a process server and four young fans,
they were disappointed. The latter somehow learned of a secret Beatle landing
site. The Process Server handed them a subpoena alleging breach of a contract
with a San Jose production firm, and the fan club representative presented them
with four sets of gift-wrapped long underwear.
Club member Jane Semel, 13 of 93 Rockaway
Avenue, San Francisco, was in turn given a half-smoked cigarette by Lennon, and
with tears of joy streaming down her cheek, she promised to frame the treasure.
The Beatles later commented that they are still moved by such gifts.
The 12,000 matinee fans were the first
to see their idols in action, although the show was delayed an hour while the
tired Liverpool stars stretched out in a trailer behind the Cow Palace. During
the show, they were pelted by jellybeans, teddy bears, stuffed dolls and other
gifts of love, while a cordon of police tried to hold a human avalanche from
the stage, while alternately carrying fainting teenagers from the huge
auditorium.
The Beatles admitted during a press conference
between shows that they were physically scared their concerts. Asked if they
dread their next concert, The Beatles replied, “No, do you?” They complained
that the microphone wasn't loud enough for them to try and control the fans,
and added they didn't blame the police, because there “was just not enough of
them.”
Things went better at the second performance,
after officers built a barricade in front of the stage. Daly City Police, in
charge of the Beatle patrol, said the performances were less trouble than
anticipated. Two persons, one an adult, were arrested for disturbing the peace.”
Let's put it this way”, one officer said, “they were disturbing the peace more
than the others.”
Despite the screaming reception at both shows there
were 4000 vacant seats for the matinee performance and 3000 empty at the
evening show, The Cow Palace holds 17,000 and tickets went for between $4 and
$7. When asked if they were worried about falling popularity, McCartney
replied, “The great thing about it is that you don't have any worries when
you've got what we have, only little ones like whether the plane is going to
crash.”
McCartney, reflecting on their start three
years ago, said, “Our whole promotion made us look silly, but we've had a
chance to talk to people since then, and they can see we're not thick little
kids.”
The four said they would like to return to San
Francisco again next year, and said present plans call for them to make their
third movie, probably a Western in Spain, sometime next spring. When asked what they would like to be if they
weren't singers, one gave out with a sharp reply, “Rich”.
No comments:
Post a Comment