Show by The Beatles is a Scream (1966 Memphis)

 

Show By The Beatles is a Scream

By Thomas BeVier

The Commercial Appeal

August 20, 1966

     Emily Strider, hands folded, face emotionless, and sweet 16, yawned as the Remains bounced their music, with the help of seven amplifiers, off the walls and ceilings of the Colosseum. And then it happened: the Beatles pranced on stage in their gray mod suits with red vertical stripes and abbreviated jackets. Emily, who drove to Memphis early yesterday afternoon from her home in Charleston, Mississippi, started to cry. Then she started to scream. Then she started shaking her head wildly and pounding her knees with her fists. It was a commentary on uninhibitedness. Just sort the sort of thing Jerry Leighton had been talking about earlier when he was trying to figure out the difference between a nickel and a quarter.

     Leighton is a disc jockey from England who is traveling with the Beatles on their tour of the United States. His is a "pirate station", one of several that operate on ships off the English coast because commercial stations aren't allowed in England. "The Beatles are a phenomenon", he said, in the studied accent of a true Englishman. "I asked them once how it felt to be a phenomenon. They said it didn't feel anything."

     With help from the Yankee Press, Leighton was able to figure out how to operate the cigarette machine, and just then Brian Epstein, the Beatles' manager, walked by. "Give me two seconds," he was asked. "Two seconds. My life is spent giving people two seconds," he said. 

    His quick comment was that yes, the Memphis performance is very important to us, because of the John Lennon comment that the group is more popular than Christ. The Ku Klux Klan made its opinion known by picketing at the Southern Avenue entrance to the Colosseum grounds. The sheets and hoods lent an incongruous touch to the stream of bell-bottom trousers, paisley shirts, and high-heeled boots worn by the Beatles' faithful who filed by. There were 7,589, mostly girls and almost all teenagers, at the first performance, and another 12,539 at the second. 

    You couldn't hear the Beatles for the screaming. Before they came on stage, there were threats that anybody leaving his seat would be thrown out. It worked, and Early Maxwell, Memphis promoter of the show, was glad. "This was a real test," he said. "I've never had so much security (80 policemen) at an event; not even Bob Hope.

     Security started at 1:45 p.m., when the chartered American Airlines Electra with the Beatles and their entourage touched down on the military side of the airport. Only 10 Beatle Bugs managed to slip by guards. One, Charles Hardy, 19 Of 4931 Montgomery, even infiltrated the press corps and got a hurried, almost legible autograph from Paul McCartney for his persistence. 

    One of those meeting the plane was a harried man of about 45 from Washington.  He was Campbell Bowles, the group's advance man. "No, you can't ride in on the bus with them," he said. "No, we don't allow exclusive interviews. Yes, I am tired." Someone asked him his opinion of the Beatles and their music. "No comment," he said sharply.