500 Scream Welcome to Beatles to Malton
No writer listed
The Globe and Mail
August 17, 1966
The mop-haired Beatles arrived at Malton Airport at 125 this morning, one hour late, in a chartered flight from Philadelphia, where they performed last night. Their departure from Philadelphia was delayed by fog.
About 500 screaming teenagers turned out for a 10-second glimpse of their heroes at the airport. Some arrived as early as 6p.m. and waited to get choice viewing positions, with their faces jammed against a wire fence.
Four customs men boarded the plane as soon as it touched down. Within five minutes, the Beatles, led by Ringo Starr, emerged. The young people screamed, cheered, and sobbed. The Beatles were taken to a deserted hangar, where they entered a car and were gone within two minutes.10 minutes later, a 14-year-old fan, Carol Mary Wood, was still sobbing and shaking from the experience.
Beatle fanciers began to gather at the King Edward Sheraton Hotel downtown, hours before the Liverpoolians were due to arrive. They sat on the hotel steps, mingled with guests in the hotel lobby, and wandered around the corridors. A few stood at the door to the hotel's Oak Room, listening to the music issued forth. Most were teenage girls, wearing the standard bell-bottom pants and shell rig. The young males were mostly a little older, and not a Beatle haircut was to be seen among them.
Three sisters from Ashtabula sat on the trunk of their gold-colored Mustang and gazed wistfully at the facade of the hotel, armed with press passes that they hoped would admit them to the Beatles' press conference today. The girls were driven up from their Ohio home by their mother. "Mom doesn't mind; she's as crazy as the rest of us," said one of the daughters.
The girls and their mother refused to give their names. The trio who drove to Toronto and to other Beatles Tour cities last year were part of a crowd of hundreds of mini-skirted, Carnaby-clothed teenagers who wandered in and around the hotel early this morning. Subdued groups of fans squatted on the sidewalks, listening to portable radios and chanting Beatles songs while waiting for their idols to arrive. Police were out in scores at the front and rear entrances of the hotel. All of them were instructed to be evasive about which door the Beatles would use.
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