Teen Out Yell Beatles (Chicago 1965)

 Teens Out Yell Beatles

By Will Lenoard

The Chicago Tribune

August 21, 1965

More than 50,000 teenagers, 90% of them girls, screamed “Beatles” into oblivion yesterday at two performances in White Sox Park; scarcely a note was heard. Everybody was ecstatic, jumping with joy. Some fainted, but there were no injuries. Even the Beatles liked it. “They paid good prices to get in. Who are we to say whether or not they should scream?” Said Beatle John Lennon, 24, when asked at a between-shows press conference whether it bothered him to be shouted down.

  More than 200 persons, some of them reporters, jammed into the White Sox Bard’s room for the press conference.  Almost everybody agreed that the mop-haired Liverpudlians were pretty cute in their replies.

C Haley, Deputy British Council General in Chicago, spoke up from the back of the room. “Do you think you're doing a good job for your country?”  “Yes. Do you?” shouted back Lennon.  Haley laughed and told the four subjects of the Queen (they recently won the Order of the British Empire to the amazement of many and the consternation of some) that he thought they were doing a good job.

 To some of the questions about their likes, dislikes, loves, and habits, the Beatles had a stock answer, “lots of rubbish”. A girl reporter asked what they thought of a comment that” you could be great songwriters if you wanted to?”  “Well,” said Beatle, Paul McCartney, 23 “We write what we feel like at the moment. Like Cole Porter did. People will like us a lot more when we're older. just you watch.”

 Apparently, rowdiness on Thursday night cut short the Beatles' performance in Houston, and they were asked about it. “They sent about 25 cops out to take care of 5000 kids,” McCartney replied. “In every town, they think ‘our kids are different. They have common sense. That just shows you the way some policemen think.” Behavior at Houston was among the worst they encountered. The Beatles agreed. Teenagers climbed on the wings of their airplane. “Chicago”, they said, “Was among the best behaved cities.”  

Between 20,000 to 25,000 screaming teenagers packed both decks at Sox Park for the afternoon performance between the baseline flag poles, leaving only the bleachers vacant. But last night's crowd was larger, so that the announced goal of 62,000 paid was not far off.

 What the Beatles apparently like best was the $150,000 to $160,000 gate, which, compared with only $30,000 they took out of Chicago last September 5, after their appearance at the International Amphitheater.

 A solid line of blue-shirted police sat shoulder to shoulder, their backs to the infield to prevent any teenagers from jumping into Beatle territory and taking second base, where the plywood bandstand had been erected. But nobody tried.

There were 10 microphones for four Beatles. But even at that, they were not heard above the screaming. With the help of two girls, wise and Beatle lore, the titles of some selections were discovered. “You Make me Dizzy. Miss Lizzie, “She's a Woman”. “I Feel Fine,” “Help,”(  Title of this year's Beatle movie) and “A Hard Day's Night”( Title of last year's Beatle movie.) The Screaming went up a few decibels when Beatle McCartney sang his own composition “I'm Down” making this one easily the artistic success of the evening.

 The Beatles arrived quietly at Midway Airport at 3:15am yesterday, with only about 350 teenagers who violated the curfew to do it on hand for the screaming.

 Their headquarters were in $105 a day suite at the O'Hare Sahara Motel on Manheim Road, Shiller Park. The entertainers were scheduled to leave today for Minneapolis.

 There were only a few adults in the crowd at Sox Park yesterday. One gray-haired woman was overheard, telling her seatmate, “They all wear wigs, you know.”

Tale of Four Teens on Beatle Hunt (Chicago 1965)

Tale of Four Teens on Beatle Hunt

By Mary Maher

The Chicago Tribune

August 27, 1965

 

Four 16-year-old Louisville girls went home last week with treasured relics, four crumbled, stained paper napkins that touched the lips of the Beatles after their morning meal. At least that's what one woman said. The salesperson charged the girls only $1 a piece and made them promise not to tell anyone of the favor she had done them. Just a shadow of doubt crossed Carol Francisco's mind. “My napkin had icing on it, and I didn't see any sweet rolls on the breakfast tray, but Lib said she thought John might have had a sweet roll.”

 “Every hero becomes a bore, at last”, said Emerson, so it's possible that someday John and Paul, George and Ringo may be reduced to disposing of their napkins, soap scraps, cigarette butts and discarded newspapers, in the manner of most mortals. At the moment, their debris is probably the fastest-moving commodity on the teen market.

 Carol, Lib (Olivia Morris), Alana Nash, and Louise Carsten were among the 60,000 fans who came up with $5.50 tickets last Friday to watch the Beatles writhe thu performances in Comiskey Park. Hundreds more broke curfew laws and police lines, on the chance that they might somehow make more personal contact with the demigods.

The girls from Louisville spent $250—6 months of planning on their project. But for them, as for the others, it was fruitless. A Beatle hunt is one of the most unrewarding junkets a human can participate in. It requires long-range scheming and devious strategy.

Last February, Carol sent for tickets to both Beatles shows. She and her friends began writing for reservations in Chicago hotels, eliminating only those that asked for deposits. They ended up with rooms reserved in 13 hotels and were reprimanded for their tactic only once. Two hotels under one ownership, apparently, compared letters and refused to cooperate.

 The Hilton Hotel’s replies snagged plans, too. Carol's father, the Reverend Clyde T Francisco, is a faculty member of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville. The girls wrote to the hotels on his official stationery, identifying themselves as seminary students, and when the Hilton politely offered them reduced student rates in the dormitory section, the girls decided not to pursue the matter.

 But they needn't have feared resistance from Hotel Management. The hotel where the Beatles stayed was accepting reservations from teenagers without question, only asking that one of the party be 18 years old. Carol's group brought along Sylvia Bohannon, a college senior, as a chaperone.

From Thursday afternoon until Saturday morning, the girls joined several 100 other fans in befriending porters, police guards, waitresses, and bellhops in an effort to get to the fifth-floor suite where the Beatles were ensconced. Nothing availed, but they did get a close look at the idols once, when they arrived at nearly 4 a.m. on Friday.

 “I touched Paul”, said Olivia, “I  asked him if I could touch him, and he nodded.” Carol was close enough to their limousine to toss her gifts through the window. They were large, framed, carefully done sketches of the Beatles' famous faces. “They fell in John's lap. He just glanced through them and left them there. He didn't care. They don't care. And they didn't nod at us or even look at us. They ignored everyone.”

 With 500 others, the girls waited for five hours to glimpse the Beatles. The next day, when they left the hotel for their afternoon concert, The Beatles finally crept out the back door, where only a small group were privileged enough to rush them and witness the terror on their faces.

 They stayed up all Friday night without success. “The whole hotel was like a dormitory”, said Carol. “All the kids were up all night visiting and trying to get to the fifth floor, but the Beatles press agents and the hotel managers were as mean as ever, yelling at us to stay in our rooms.”

 They were disappointed, but not as disappointed as the girl from a town in Indiana who told her mother she was staying at the home of a friend and diffused her bankroll on an $18 single hotel room.

 Carol says she wouldn't do it again. “I don't like them as much as I did, but it was fun just trying to get to them. And we did get closer than a lot of kids, and the shows were great, of course.” Carol admitted you couldn't hear much over the screening, “but what you could hear them, they weren't off key, like they were last year.”

Beatlemania Hits Area Today (Chicago 1965)

 

Beatle Mania Hits Area Today

No writer listed

Berwyn Life

August 20, 1965

 

To Beatle or not to Beatle? That's the question, and most likely the answer will be the former, as area teenagers flock to Sox Park today for the two performances by their idols, The Beatles.

 Among those representing the community at the song scream fest will be Rose Sisco, 6820 Riverside Drive, Vice President of The Beatles Limited Charter Fan Club, with national headquarters in New York, and Pat Schneider, 6440 West 28th Place, a member of that fan club. Both will be sophomores at Morton West.

 What material do you take to a Beatle concert? The girls report they're going armed with cameras, tape recorders, binoculars, pictures and pens and pencils in hopes of getting close enough to get an autograph.

But that's not all. Should they use the quarterback sneak successfully and manage to get near the performers? They are going to present them with a few gifts, the nature of which are being kept secret for fear of others duplicating them.

And that's not all. Miss Sisco is planning to take a chartered bus with other fans and follow the group to their concert in Minneapolis tomorrow. She says that  she’ll go as far as she can travel with them, “but when Pat and I graduate, we would like to go to England and see the land made famous by the Beatles.”

 Miss Schneider wasn't always impressed by her current favorites. “As matter of fact, the first time I heard a record by them, I didn't like it. But from then on, they were just great.”

 She said the localites saw A Hard Day's Night seven times, owned just about every Beatles record and album made and played them every day. “Many people complain about their long hair, but it's not as long as other singing groups.” they commented.

 Both girls are interested in dramatics. Miss Schneider just recently played Gretel in the Morton summer theater production of Hansel and Gretel.  Rose, who attended Immaculate Heart of Mary last year, is planning on trying out for school plays at Morton.

How long will the Beatles last? The girls feel they will be around for a long while, and even when they fade away, so to speak, the records will still sell.

The Quietest Beatle is a Businessman Now (1976)

 

The Quietest Beatle, George Harrison's a Businessman Now

By Peter Goddard

The Toronto Star

November 20, 1976

    It all started when I met George Harrison in the hallway. My fantasy is one of those deep-rooted, most cherished of Beatles dreams.  A party was being thrown in his honor in one of the hotel ballrooms. So what was he doing here? Was he looking to escape all the record industry hustle?  The old days? That was it!  I thought he was looking for good times past Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

    "Hey, listen, George," I wanted to say, "Why don't you and me head downtown, find a little band someplace and sit in for a couple of hours? I know all the words to "Twist and Shout", and I can hum most of the other stuff. The headlines were already forming in my mind. "Ex-Beatle forms band with mystery, piano player," they would read, "Lennon wants in!" 

    I think he smiled at me. I'm not sure, though. George Harrison disappeared and my fantasy, along with him, into a room full of waiting DJs and record industry executives with two Martini smiles. I promptly forgot all the words to "Twist and Shout". 

    There he was at the reception, a frail-looking figure with a fixed smile. This was business, the so-called Quiet Beatle, the most meditative, religious, and introspective of them all, this being his own best public relations campaign. He knew everyone had come to see a Beatle. So he was delivering the goods.

     He had been ambivalent about money, about the affairs of the world in general. In his first book, written about the Beatles, A Cellar Full of Noise (1964) The Beatles, late manager Brian Epstein explained that Harrison, "though quiet, is curious about money and wants to know how much is coming in."

     In 1966, the year the band stopped touring, the one which saw Harrison's last public appearance before his 1972 concert for Bangladesh [sic], he told a writer bluntly, "I asked to be successful. I never asked to be famous."

     Famous he is, but successful? Like the other ex-Beatles, he is intent on making it on his own, and this means selling records and being available to the executives of his record company. So intent is he that, in fact, he seems quite willing to shed some of his privacy and mystique. Perhaps he has no alternative. When the Beatles went their separate ways in 1970, Harrison was the most immediately successful. Then the problem started in the 1974 concert series with Ravi Shankar. The first major tour by any ex-Beatle saw poorer-than-expected ticket sales. Worse, many of the performances received poor critical notices. 

    The crunches have come quicker and heavier this year. In September, an American federal judge found him guilty of subconsciously plagiarizing the 1962 Johnny Mac tune "He's So Fine" for his own hit, "My Sweet Lord" from the 1970s. In October, he was sued for $10 million by A&M Records in an action that also seeks to dissolve the Dark Horse record label he founded. The suit charges that the guitarist-singer reneged on a 1974 partnership agreement. "I felt really sad when they did that", he said, as he looked at all the gleaming faces around him. "I thought we had a family relationship, but when they said I wanted back all my money, that's crap. I mean, when I was with Capital, I gave up $250,000 just to go to A&M because I thought I'd be treated better. That's why I left A&M to go to Warner Bros. I like the people there."

     His expression never changed. He constantly looked grim. "See, I have to look after my future. I don't like dealing with business at all. I'm an artist, but I have to, I even, I've even been writing songs, "Sue Me Sue You Blues" about lawsuits. "

    He'll be singing his latest lawsuit song called "This Song" tonight when he makes a guest appearance on NBC's Saturday Night show hosted by Paul Simon. The tune is from his newest album, 33 1/3, which is being released next week. The title represents Harrison's age, the speed at which an LP rotates, and, one guesses, the leisurely pace of his career these days. 

    The party, though, was an attempt to fix that aspect of his life. So Harrison stood there obligingly as the assistant-assistant of this and the marketing manager of that were photographed with him. "Tell me, George," asked one executive, "What's harder, being a Beatle or being an ex-Beatle?"  Harrison, his hands thrust into his pockets, pressed his arm tightly along its sides "Being an ex Beatle", he said, evenly.

     When still another local executive explained that Harrison seemed so very human now, like he's one of us, the tone of the reception came clear. With the record company president mumbling and niceties like a road Rotary Club speaker with a promotional firm presentation, with all the talk about markets and projections, this could have been a meeting of a medium-sized Midwest sheet metal firm. All that was missing were cash flow charts. Harrison had been the prize exhibit at the reception, this fall's new line of software. 

    Back in his room, he took charge of himself, if nothing else. Still, he was never completely at ease as he sat on the edge of a chair, his small, compact body rigid. "I understand there was a mixed reaction when I did my last tour. One paper in each city said it was good, and one would say it was bad. People complained that I didn't do enough Beatles songs, but every song I did was something I had sung or written. After all, I never did 'Yesterday' or 'Eleanor Rigby'. I don't have to live up to people's concepts. I am what I am. I'm Popeye the Sailor Man."

     For a moment, there was a flash of the Harrison who, when asked about what he called his haircut, replied, 'Arthur.' But it was only a flash. It was business that mattered right then, even when discussing a possible reunion of the Beatles. The tone was almost like talking about a corporate merger. "When the Beatles were together, well, I could do it without having to consult anybody. As for the others, well, if they were free, if Lennon was free, say, I'd have him on my own Dark Horse label." At the reception, there was a persistent rumor that Harrison had, in fact, asked for a meeting with the rest of the Beatles in early January.

     "I know I sound serious about all this. People have always thought I was serious, but life is serious in a way. We're all stuck in our bodies, so you have to be happy with what you are doing here. That's serious, too. We must learn what our highest goals are. Find them through our work. He looked around steadily. This is my occupation."

     The first Beatle to become seriously involved with Indian philosophy, he is the only one to retain his beliefs. Six years ago, he became the financial guarantor for the central London headquarters of the Sri Radha Krishna sect, and it was his interest that prompted him to include a group of Indian musicians led by Ravi Shankar on his 1972 tour [sic]. It was the addition of the Indian music that drew the tour's heaviest criticism, but Harrison said, "There's no conflict between being in the music business and my beliefs. I mean, I once had a problem with materialism versus spiritualism, but I realized it wasn't owning things that was the problem. It was being attached to things. India influenced me a lot. Indian music influenced me rhythmically. But obviously it wasn't my only influence. I'm not a particularly flashy guitar player. I never used to be, but I've heard a lot of people copying my style."

    " I do like learning new things, though, playing with different musicians. Look, for 15 years of my life, I played with only three other people. I never knew other musicians before them, but there were a lot of things I didn't understand then. I had no understanding of the hysteria when I was young. I just felt something was going to happen." He reached for a Gitane just as he was asked how he reconciled his material success with his spiritual needs, the cigarette went unlit. "I was poor once", he said, quickly. "I wasn't born in a mansion with a Mercedes 600 outside. Every cent I've made, I've earned, in fact, most of it has been given away to record companies. You can walk out of here thinking I'm the biggest s--- in the world, and it wouldn't change me at all. I am when I am." He stopped. His eyes seemed to thunder. "You could think I'm great as well. That, too, won't change me."

George Harrison's in town

 

Linda's Kitchen in Chicago

Photos by Jorie Gracen

 June 4, 1995 - Chicago, Illinois 

Teen Diary Rekindles a Magical Debut

 Teen Diary Rekindles a Magical Debut

By Mary Mack Conger

The Chicago Tribune

September 5, 1984

        20 years ago, a 14-year-old Iowa girl traveled to Chicago to see the Beatles perform at the International Amphitheater. For her, it was an impossible dream come true. She wrote about that day and the events proceeding and following it in a diary. 

        I found that diary in my attic recently, and suddenly it was 1964 again, I was that 14-year-old girl.

 April 11:  The Beatles are coming to the USA! It's true! Sue and I are making plans to see them at the Indiana State Fair. Maybe Sue's sister will take us, but we'll get there if we have to crawl. Mom says, When I get older, I will look back on these days and realize how silly I was, but how can I help it now?

April 12: The Beatles have the two top songs in the nation, number one, "Can't Buy Me Love" and number two, "Twist and Shout".

April 14:   This town is a real hick town. I sure wish I lived in England. But here's some good news, Sue and I learned today that we don't have to go clear to Indianapolis to see the Beatles. They're going to be just next door in Chicago!  Hey, maybe we could go to both places. Now we need to work on getting Sue's sister to take us.

April 15:   Chicago, here we come! Sue's sister said she'd take us. Now I have to start pulling in the babysitting jobs. Got to go now, as always, I've left my homework until 11.

 April 16: WLS is going to have a five-hour Beatles spectacular with a live person-to-person call to all of the Beatles on Saturday. I'm babysitting that night. Can't wait!

 April 17:  Made $3 babysitting last night. That's a start toward my Chicago fund. Sue sent our ticket money in today. I'm tired now.

 April 18: Today, Ron Riley and Art Robbins of WLS had the Beatles on the phone for two hours. They had just finished a session for their new movie called A Hard Day's Night. 

April 19:  I just finished redecorating my room. It looks more Beatle-ized now. 

April 29: No word from Triangle Productions. The tickets are all sold out. We don't know if we will get ours or not. 

May 12:   Sue stayed all night last night, She's washing her hair now. Last night, we called Triangle Productions. They said that tickets and refunds won't be sent out until June 15. That means we'll have to wait until about the 20th to know.

May 24 The Beatles were on The Ed Sullivan Show today, and the Dave Clark Five will be on next week. Forget it. 

June 3:  Ringo was stricken and collapsed at the recording studio today. The doctor said it was tonsillitis. Please, Ringo, don't be sick for your USA tour!

June 7: Today was the day Sue got the reply from Triangle Productions. Were the tickets in the envelope? Yes, they were! Our seats are in the 48th row, the first and second seats. Now, there's three whole months to wait. "Love Me Do" is number one again. 

July 7. Went to see Cleopatra today.  My bird died. It was Ringo's birthday.  

July 26: Sue made our Beatles trip reservations at a little motel in Chicago called the Lake Shore Drive Motel.  It will cost us about $15. My grand total that I have made so far from babysitting and helping grandma to clean her house is $12, so I have to buy film and stuff too.

August 4: The heat is on in Vietnam again.  There's another war threat. Oh, well. 

August 23:  The Beatles were on a repeat of Ed Sullivan today.  School starts in less than a week. But more important is that it's only 11 days until we go to Chicago. I can't believe it!  I wrote two letters to two girls in England today. I hope one of them becomes my pen pal.

September 3:  "And I Love Her" is number one, and "I'll Cry Instead" is number six. One day until blast off!  Karen and I tried to dye our hair today, but it ended up orange. That's right, Orange. I thought I was going to have to go to Chicago like that, but the lady gave us some stuff to fix it. 

September 4: The day is here at last! I worried the whole trip that I had left my ticket at home. I made several trips back to the trunk of the car to be sure that it was there. Sue and I took sack lunches along to eat on the way so that we could save some money. But I hadn't planned on spending so much money on the tollways. Our motel is really a slick place. It has elevators, air conditioning inevery room, television, and a swimming pool.

The first thing we did after unpacking was hit the newspaper stands to catch up on all the Beatle news. Then we walked to the beach.  Lake Shore Drive baffled us. It took forever to cross. Being hicks from the sticks, we didn't know that there was a bridge we could have walked on.

September 5:  The day is gone, and I want it back. I hope I never forget any details of all that happened. This morning, Sue and I were anxious to go and find the amphitheater, so we got in the car and were on our way quickly. Just as we approached the theater, WLS started playing "Twist and  Shout". I knew then that the day was really here. 

The amphitheater is huge! Already, a group of girls was standing in front of the building. When we got there, it was amusing to me. The girls were camped along the side of the building. They were eating sack lunches, and there were lots and lots of newspapers scattered all about. These girls, too, had been reading about the Beatles, I figured. Only noon, and the show didn't start until 830 that night. Sue and I did not want to be left out of anything, so we decided to join them.

 We rushed back to the motel to get dressed. I had planned to spend hours getting ready for this night, but instead, we took 15 minutes. That's a record for us both!  My hair didn't look the best it could, and my nylons had runs in them, but we hurriedly grabbed our cameras, binoculars, and purses and rushed back to the theater. By that time, there were a lot more people there. I had some nice chats with a few policemen, but we sure didn't see eye to eye on my favorite subject-- the Beatles. 

There are a lot of people there whom we met. I thought it was interesting the way various people dressed. Some girls had regular dress-up clothes like Sue and me. Others had cut-offs, Beatles buttons, and ragged gym shoes. There were girls who had on a lot of leather or suede Beatle hats, dark eyes and black socks.

 Sue and I stayed and talked to various girls in line. We noticed that they were carrying Beatles pennants, and we wanted one. Later, a man came along selling them, so we bought one to match our outfits. I got red. Sue got green.

At about four, Sue and I went across the street to eat. We ordered Beatles burgers and played Beatles records on the jukebox. When we got back, we discovered we had lost our place in line, so we had to go to the end. There was a whole crew of adults trying to maintain some order outside the theater. Blockades were set up all around. Only people with tickets were allowed on that side of the street. Every once in a while, the crowd would start screaming. Someone would think she saw a Beatle, and then everyone would start to get hysterical. 

Once, when everyone was screaming, I moved out of line to see what all the excitement was about. Unfortunately, I stepped over the line we had been warned about. Therefore, it was back to the end of the line for me again. At about five, two rescue trucks came. This amused me because there were still three and a half hours until the performance. They were already anticipating emergencies.

 Finally, about an hour later, the doors were opened.  Sue and I had our first look at the amphitheater. It was certainly nothing fancy, but it was gigantic. We bought a really cool Beatles book in the lobby and then went to our seats. We kept walking closer and closer to the front, and couldn't believe how close our seats were to the stage. The time before the show passed quickly. We talked to strangers and even got a few addresses for pen pals. We took pictures of Ringo drums. Those pictures will always be among my most prized possessions, I'm sure. 

September 7: Well, it's over, and I could just cry. This is something I will never forget for the rest of my life. Sue and I wrote the Beatles' signatures on our arms, and we're telling everyone that The Beatles wrote them. Everyone believes us. I don't know when we'll tell them the truth. 

October 19: The world is a horrible mess. On October 15,  Khrushchev resigned. I don't know whether he resigned or whether he was kicked out, but I think it was the latter. Red China has a nuclear bomb now, so that's another worry. Oh, well, why worry? I mean, if we're going to get blown up, I don't guess there's anything I could do about it. 

October 22: Go west! Beat Central!

 October 25:   I cleaned up my room today and went through my Chicago souvenirs. I just can't believe I have seen the Beatles. I just can't believe it. The Ed Sullivan Show is tonight. The Rolling Stones are on.

November 4:   Jerry and the Pacemakers were on  Shindig tonight. Jerry monkeyed at the end.

 December 30: Well, there are only 26 hours left in 1964. I will put this diary away in a secret hiding place. This has truly been the year of the Beatles. Things will change. We will all grow up and old, even the Beatles. What will our futures hold?

Shopping in Chicago

 

When Paul and Linda were in Chicago for "Broadstreet" publicity, the left their hotel and went on a shopping trip with young James.  One fan looked in the shopping bags that Paul was carrying and noticed that James had gotten a GI Joe.   Go Joe! 

Harrison and Co. Come Together at the End

 

George performing during the evening show in Chicago on November 30, 1974

Harrison and Co. Come Together at the End But It's Just Too Late

By Lynn Van Matre

The Chicago Tribune

December 2, 1974 

    This has been a year, folks for rock reincarnations.  As 1974 opened, Bob Dylan came back from the recording dead. This summer saw Crosley Stills, Nash, and Young reunited, and Eric Clapton creeped back. And as the year drew to a close, singer-songwriter-guitarist George Harrison, set out on the road, the first of the Beatles to do so, and the first of the once Fab Four to perform in Chicago since the middle 1960s and so on. Blah, blah, blah

   And blah, it was pretty much how expectations regarding George's two Saturday shows at the Chicago Stadium had been running for anyone who'd been keeping track of his tour progress along the way. Harrison was hoarse, the reviews had run; reportedly, keyboard man Billy Preston had more than once stolen the show, and Harrison was unhappy about it. 

    But Saturday night at the stadium, Harrison seemed happy enough to have Preston at his side, show-stealing and all. And he should have been, for it was only during the last half hour of the show after Preston had rocked things up and danced up a mild storm that Harrison himself finally took off, and the whole thing came together in a finale that saved the evening and almost made up for what had gone before. And that took some doing.

     After Harrison and a heavyweight backup group that included Preston on keyboards and a dynamite horn section headed by Tom (LA Express), Scott finished "My Sweet Lord."  In fact, there wasn't an unlighted match in the place. A predictable enough response, of course, given Harrison's credentials. In fact, for a lot of people, just seeing some ex-Beetle in the rather wooden and wan flesh was enough. But the tribute was not wholly undeserved because the show's last few numbers really cooked, despite Harrison throwing a big dose of religion ranting before that, things scarcely simmered. 

    Harrison has long been an admirer of sitar player Ravi Shankar, and most of the first half of the show consisted of Shankar leading his percussive Indian orchestra in ragas and religious paeans while Harrison served as little more than side man. One of the hymns to Krishna, "I am Missing You," was intriguing, but after a while, the music began to merge into dreary sameness and became merely something to sit through while waiting for Harrison himself to step out.

     But Harrison never proved to be much of a showman dressed in a white shirt and upgraded bib overalls with picture buttons of gurus pinned on (like all the big rock stars turned religious fanatics favor); he looked tired and sounded it. He also sounded painfully, ruinously hoarse. Harrison may very well have been tired, having gone through the same show only hours earlier, but the double workout didn't seem to have affected Preston at all. He was even able to dance, which brought one of the biggest hands of the evening. The applause signs weren't even needed.

     Yes, the applause signs throughout the show as Harrison and crew slogged through selections from his forthcoming Dark Horse album and such oldies as John Lennon's "In My Life," some kids kept busy skittering around backstage holding corny hand-lettered signs along the lines of "Bless Billy Preston," "What a horn section" and the ever popular "applause." Apparently, someone thought George could use a little help. A case of throat lozenges and some judicial pruning of the Shankar portion of the concert might have been a more practical panacea for the proceedings.

Last day in Chicago for Broadstreet

 

October 19, 1984 

Ringo's gold plated Ludwig

 

September 5, 1964

We often talk about the guitars that George and John were given during their touring years in America, but the first Beatle to be gifted a special instrument was Ringo. Prior to the concert in Chicago, William Ludwig II presented Ringo with a gold-plated snare drum as a thank-you. Ever since everyone in the United States watched The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show with Ringo playing his Ludwig kit, sales of Ludwig drums have skyrocketed.  

Last year, when I was selling my book at a Beatles event, someone approached me and told me he went to school with Miss Ludwig (I can't recall her first name), the daughter of William and who is in the photos with the Beatles.   He said that she was quite popular after meeting the Beatles and told the story over and over to whoever was around to hear it (and who could blame her?)

John In Chicago 1972

On May 11, 1972 - John and Yoko were in Chicago, Illinois and appeared on the "Kup Show."  Recently this photograph and signature from John has been put up for sale.   Here is what the seller had to say about the items:

John and Yoko we're in Chicago, 1972, to appear on Irv Kupcinet's talk show. A friend and I caught the couple coming out of the Conrad Hilton hotel and approached. Both were extremely nice. John signed for us, allowed us to take pictures, and in turn took pictures of us - if you can believe that. Framed is a black and white photo of John in a small crowd signing THE piece of paper that appears in the frame WITH THE PHOTO.

 

In Quest of a Teenage Phenomenon

Photo  by Scott C. Dine (St. Louis Post Dispatch photographer)
The apex of a Beatle fan's career -- Miss Gale Wachsnicht touches Ringo's sleeve. George follows John in a rear door escape from their Chicago motel.  "I grabbed George," Gale said breathlessly, "just a couple of seconds before the policeman grabbed me."

 

In Quest of a Teenage Phenomenon – the Beatles

By Sally Bixby Defty

St. Louis Post Dispatch

August 27, 1965

 

“I touched them!  I touched all four Beatles with this hand!” Miss Barbara Ziegenbein gasped as her idols sped away from their Chicago motel to a doubleheader at White Sox Park.  To touch even one Beatle requires the resilience, imagination, and raw courage of James Bond, Barb, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ziegenbein 111 Five Meadow Ballwin, had spent three months planning the feat. She and Miss Gale Wachsnicht, whose parents are Mr. and Mrs. Henry Washsnicht 10334 Oak Avenue, Overland had obtained tickets in May.

Craftily, they wrote to the five swankiest Chicago hotels saying they would be in Chicago the weekend of The Beatles’ arrival and did NOT want to be involved in mob scenes.  “Please assure us that the Beatles are not staying at your hotel,” the letter concluded.  The one hotel that did not reply was obviously their target, the girls reasoned.

“It’s not sex,” the girls explained.  “The Beatles are just cuddly.  We’d like to do their laundry for them – things like that.”  When asked who was her favorite, Barb answered, “First I  liked Paul best, then John’s book came out and I loved him.  After I saw “A Hard Day’s Night” I liked Ringo the most. Now that I I’ve read the book by their manager, Brian Epstein, I kind of go for HIM.” 

Having received a tip that these mid-century phenomena, would be staying at the Sahara Inn near O’Hare airport, I decided to accompany the girls in their quest last week.  I arrived at the motel to find them casing the layout of the sprawling Sahara.  Eager-eyed teenagers filled the corridors.

A porter confided that the Sahara was already planning to sell the Beatles’ sheets at $1 a square inch.  (The girls ended up such friends of the head maid that they were given free swatches of both Thursday and Friday night sheets).

Many informants believed that the Beatles were to stay on the sixth floor of the motel tower. The junior detectives telephoned all rooms on the sixth floor, but received no response we decided to investigate via the fire escape under cover of darkness.

As we crept to the fifth floor, Barb spotted a ladder leading to a parapet on six. We climbed up gingerly only to find the sixth floor was under construction. In the inky blackness we debated whether to tie a rope to a stud and slide down the outside of the building to rap on a Beatle window when they arrived.  Gale sighed, “Oh, if they only knew what we go through for them!”

All kinds of girls came and went during the long vigil in the parking lot. There were cleanout girls in madras shirts and denim skirts, Courreges girls in white boots and short dresses belted at the hip, and a trio with long, straight hair, tight white Levis, black leather caps and jackets and pale impassive faces so tough they scared me.

It was after 4a.m. when, without fanfare, black limousine glided to a stop before the motel and was immediately buried under ecstatic girls, including Barb and Gale.  After police scraped fans off the car, out came the real live Beatles:  first Paul (the cute one), smiling and gently raising his finger to his lips to quite the crowd; then George (the man of mystery), Ringo (the Chaplinesque Beatles) and John (the thinking girl’s Beatle)  (John has just published his second book ‘A Spainard in the Works’ which has been called the teenagers introduction to James Joyce.)

Girls stuffed themselves into the Cadillac to breathe Beatle air.  A tiny blonde ran up to me glowing and said, “Look! A chewing gum wrapper from the floor!” I started to examine it and she cried, “Don’t unfold it!  THEY squashed it up that way!”

I awake the next morning to find a sea of teenagers on the parking lot waving, shouting or just staring at the fifth floor.  By early afternoon they had become a formable force which broke police line as if it were a daisy chain.

So Barb and Gale sneaked around to the back door and when the Beatles emerged the girls had their idols almost all to themselves. They returned dazed and weak in the knees.

“I got to touch Ringo!” Gale said, “and then I grabbed George!” Though a policeman had pushed her to the ground to disentangle her from George, her current favorite, it was an experience of a lifetime.

At the concert at White Sox Park the screaming rose to an excruciating pitch   as the Beatles trotted from the dugout to a stage set up on second base.

Leonard Berstein, who considers the Beatles’ music an art form, listens to them in person with his fingers in his ears.  I discovered that the conductor of the New York Philharmonic knows what he is doing.  A gentle pressure on the ears muffles the piercing yells so that one can faintly hear the twang of guitars and the beat of Ringo’s drums.

Though a few girls wore “Please don’t scream – sing!” buttons, most of the audience of 30,000 shrieked as though in agony.  Weeping, shaking their heads with faces contorted, fists clenched, they screamed in staccato barks of pain.  Barb explained it, “These girls have been waiting so long – they just love the Beatles, they’ll never love anyone else, and at the same time they know they’ll never get close to them and it’s all in vain.”

Paul, smart and well-groomed in striped shirt with a stiff white collar, tie, and well-cut navy suit, appeared poised and cheerful at the press conference. Ringo, dressed in a wide stripped T-shirt and jacket, looked indescribably woebegone. His eyes and his eyebrows slope down toward his earlobes, the mouth droops, and that nose….

When asked why he always looks so sad, Ringo answered, “Thot’s joost the way the face works.  Ah’m really quite hoppy inside, it just doesn’t show.”

George, a distinctly lupine young man with a mouthful of crooked teeth, said that in Houston teenagers had broken police lines and swarmed over and under the airplane.

“When I saw them lyin’ on the wings smokin’ I thought we were dead for sure.” He said in a soft Liverpudlian burr.

Philip G.D. Adams, the British Consul-General made his way to the front of the room. “I do beg your pardon,” he intoned in a Rule Brittania voice, “but do you chaps consider that you do a good job for your country?” John leaped to his feet with a fixed toothy grin and a snappy salute.

As the Beatles nodded their assent to the question amid general laughter John shot a level glance at the British official and quietly asked, “Do you?”  

Ringo in Chicago

 July 13, 2008 

They look like little ants

 

Beatles first time in Chicago

 September 5, 1964 - Chicago press conference 

Following the Dark Horse Tour - Part 1

Tonight I am starting a three-part story about a group of fans that were able to go to several stops on George Harrison's 1974 Dark Horse tour.   As usual, it was more than just seeing George, but also the adventure that occurs that makes these stories so interesting. 

Written by Brenda Lo

With a Little Help From My Friends

December 1974

 

Well, by the time this gets into the newsletter, a month or more will have passed since the Chicago shows of Mr. Harrison.  But ohh, will the memories always be there! 

I couldn’t even imagine me at a “Beatle” concert, but when I finally realized I’d be seeing FOUR of George’s it was like a dream come true! (just for the record Paul is my fave!)

The day came to finally fly out to Chicago, about a 3-hour plane ride and we touched down in Chicago at O’Hare.  Plans were that about 25 of us would be staying at the Holiday Inn down on Lakeshore Drive by Lake Michigan.  Most of us had sent in our reservation to Barb so that was all set.

I got an airport bus right out of O’Hare which would be taking me right down to the Inn.  And on the way out of the terminal on the bus, I saw a mucky green airplane which I later discovered was George’s!  And by that time it was too late.  Oh well.

Being a stranger in town I finally got to my destination at the Inn.  I was a bit tired and wanted to get to my room, so I stood in line for two hours to get my room (I flew in alone) and when I finally got to the desk, they said there was no reservations under my name or Barb’s.  So, upset as I was, I put my suitcase down by a door in the lobby and waited.  There were so many people running around.  I didn’t have a clue if any of them were there for the concert or not.  After about 15 minutes a girl came in the door and I noticed a Yellow Submarine pin on her coat so I asked if she was there for the concerts and she said yeah.  I was so relieved!  Key was with the Cincinnati people (Barb, Sue and Stephanie) so we all stood around in the lobby and I had told them what the desk had told me about reservations, so we all stood confused and then Kathy and Chris came in and along about 5 Barb trudges in and gets our reservations all straightened out so we all got our rooms.

A few hours later some more kids from the Chicago area showed up and most of us were standing around in the lobby and someone said something about Ravi and the gang staying at our hotel. No sooner said than done, and I looked over by the elevators and there stood Mr. Shankar himself!   About that time alarms and bells started going off because an elevator had gotten stuck.

Well, Bonnie and I decided we wanted to get Ravi’s autograph, and about that time he stepped into the elevator and the door closed (we had found out he was in room 916 earlier).   So, Bonnie and I in desperation ran up 9 flights of stairs to try and catch him.  Bonnie was about 3 flights ahead of me and when I finally got to the 9^th floor, she came around the corner from the elevator and said “I got it.”  So, I walked around to the elevator and there he stood, so I got his autograph and we started talking to him about the tour and an elevator opened and we all got in (Ravi too) and headed for the lobby.  Ravi was very nice to us and when I told him I’d come from Oregon just for the concerts, he smiled and goes “Really?”  He seemed pleased.  Also said how long it had taken George to learn to play the sitar and stuff.

 

We got back to the lobby and Ravi got out (as we did) and went around to the front desk for something.  (Meanwhile, they had gotten the elevator unstuck and were taking a guy out on a stretcher).  Then he went back to the elevator and we were still standing there, so we rode back up with him and talked some more.  He was probably glad to get rid of us even if he was being nice to us!  I really don’t think Ravi could be mad at anyone.

 

Anyway, later on that night, well, into the evening, we were so sure that George was staying there too, so some of us waited in the lobby for a while.  There were some members from the band and road crew hanging around in the lobby too.  A guy from the India group were there, so I went over to him and talked to him for a while. His name was TV.  He really enjoyed talking to us and he was really great.  And of course, there were some guys from the crew wearing “Dark Horse” shirts and that’s how we knew they were part of the tour.

Long about 12:30am members of the band were still arriving, and we were so confident George would be along too.  So, this tall dude with blond hair looks at us all and goes “George Harrison is NOT staying at this hotel.  Will you kindly leave!”  HE had a British accent and we just stood there.  How the Hell could we leave when that’s where we were staying!  We had just as much right to be there as he did!  That was one thing we were all floored about.  Of all the Holiday Inns and other hotels in Chicago, Ravi and friends picked the one we did!  It wasn’t planned or anything because we didn’t know Ravi was there until we had our reservations!

Well most of us finally decided to go n up to our rooms, giving up hope for George’s arrival.  So about 1:00am the people from Cleveland arrived – Pat, Joy, Tempy, Maria, Deb and Deb’s sister Patti.  They were all beat after the seven hour drive and Pat had worked that day, so we called it a night and hit the sack.

 

The next day, Saturday November 30 was THE day!  I had managed to get a scalper ticket for the 3^rd row about 4 feet from George!  I had three cameras – an Instamatic, 35 mm, and a movie camera.  They were playing some new George songs before the concert over the amps and then the lights dimmed and they played “Lumberjack,” a funny little song.  So after that a guy walks out with a funny little hat on and sunglasses over the hat, with a scarf, obviously being the quiet lad, Mr. Harrison! The crowd roared as the rest of the band came out, and they started out with an instrumental.  I was so surprised that I wasn’t in hysteria since it was my first concert and second sitting of one of them.  I just kind of stared for a few minutes, pinching myself to make sure it wasn’t a dream, and then I started taking pics.  One time when I had my movie camera going, he looked into it as if to say “what the Hell’s she doing with so many cameras – and a movie one to boot!”  That look almost killed me!

I had gotten to be friends with a chap next to me, and he could never get a pic of George looking to his camera.  So, he kept holding his camera way up into the air so George would look over at him.  Well, George DID look over at him, and when he saw what this guy was doing, he held HIS hand up and looked at me and laughed. Of course, THAT sent me straight through the ceiling.  Wow!  I’ll never forget it!

Well – after about 45 minutes or so the Indian part came and George stayed on the stage the entire time Ravi played.  During the 2^nd show he was off to the side booging to the music and having a good time and he intruded the Indian musicians by saying “We’ll enlarge a bit and add 16 members to the band – well really there’s only 14 but I’m a liar.”   You can really get into the Indian music if you’re right in front where you can observe what is going on.  But if you are way up in the balcony and can’t see a bloody thing, you just kind of go to sleep.  I know because that’s where I got planted in the 2^nd show.  And the Indian music was rocked up a bit with electric guitars and the whole bit.  It really wasn’t too bad.

And I dunno how the rest of the concerts were, but when Billy Preston (or William Everett Preston as George called him!) came on, he really got the crowd rocking.  And that cute little dance George and Billy did!  Fantastic!  (I got it on my movie film!) It was so great!  And the end of Billy’s number, George smiles and goes, “That Billy – he’s a gas!”  It was so good.

In the first show, they started to play “Sue Me Sue You Blues” and George raked his fingers really hard over his guitar strings and one of the strings broke. He threw his hands up in the air and goes” Hold it! Hold it! “Then the music died out.  “I just snapped a string here.”  He then looks around for another guitar and shrugs – “Oh well, guess I’ll play without one string.”  So, he did!  And you couldn’t really tell. He also snapped a string at the evening show, plus nearly dropped a guitar once.  He didn’t have a strap on secretly enough and he caught his guitar just before it hit the floor and he had trouble keeping that strap onto the guitar throughout the rest of the concert.  Also, that scarf he was wearing, he said Emil knitted it for him, and he kept getting the scarf tangled up with his guitar strap.  He wasn’t too coordinated, but Yeah George!

And to sum the concerts up, about the only bitch most people had was all the songs, lyrics were changed around.  Such as “Something in the way she moves it,” “While my guitar gently smiles” and in the song “In my Life” he goes “I love God more.”   “My Sweet Lord” and “What is Life” were pretty good.  He also sang “Dark Horse” and “Maya Love” – great songs!  He also said after “In my Life” “God Bless Paul, John and Ringo and the ex-ex-ex’s” In the beginning of the second show he said, “Good evening, Chicago – and it’s windy, just like they said it was! 

I might add in the first show he had a t-shirt on that was promoting “Walls & Bridges” - it had John’s eyes (From the LP) across the front of it, and then “Walls & Bridges” around the sleeves.  It was really cute.  They also of course sold tour books at $2 a shot, all money from them going to the Appalachian Regional Hospital – that’s one thing about George – he’s always trying to help and aid the ones who don’t have it so good and show need help.  I’ll always admire that about him – his concern and thoughtfulness of others.

And for all f you who didn’t notice at the concert and otherwise, George does wear an earring in his right ear!  But as I was saying about the program – it has some NICE photos of George in it.  And then the rest of the members of the band.  And just for the record, outside of the concert hall, Krishna people were giving out Indian cake, or something like that.  No way was I going to eat any of it, but some of the other girls that had the courage to eat it said it was pretty good.

So after the concerts, we went back to the Holiday Inn and went to our rooms.  And about 15 minutes later, I was sitting on the can and a girl from outside the door goes “Where’s Brenda?  Where’s Brenda””  “A guy from the tour wants to talk to Brenda!”  I scrambled right out and went out in the hall, where everyone was standing around this guy.  So I walked up to him and someone goes, “He wants that pin of George you were wearing at the concert – the one that flashes on and off.” I said I hadn’t been wearing a pin, just a George shirt.  He’d mistaken me for someone else, but we all got to rapping with this guy, and his name was Jeff Raven and he did publicity for the tour and made the hotel arrangements.  He was telling us how George has a museum in his house in England, and that he collects old Beatles things and he wanted that button that flashed on and off.  So since we couldn’t give him that, everyone scrambled to their rooms and dug up something Beatle, ranging from a George coat hanger to a portrait of George.  So, Jeff said that we’d all been so nice to him, he was going to invite us all up to his room so we could preview George’s new album (which wasn’t out at the time).  So about 20 of us went up to his room and sat and listened to the new LP.  It has about 8 songs on it, but they are long ones.  And despite George’s hoarse voice, it’s pretty good.  About 1:30AM, we all split and thanked him. 

After that, most of us went to our rooms, rapped a while and then went to bed because some of us had to get up early and head for Cleveland.  So the next morning me, Tempy, Barb, Richie, Deb and Patti got up around 8:00 and went down and had breakfast.  The restaurant was always swamped for breakfast, so by the time we were done eating, the rest of the gang were just getting seats to eat. 

Around 11:30 (Sunday) the kids that were going back home to Cleveland and the Cincinnati kids and me that were headed for the Cleveland concerts had to get on the road.  We all met in the lobby and got a group picture of everyone that’d met there for the concerts.  After that, I noticed TV standing in the lobby watching us, so I went over and said goodbye to him and told him I’d see him in Cleveland at the concerts and he seemed really surprised I’d be at the Cleveland shows!  Then I made him pose for a pic and he smiled greatly as I snapped the photo.  And a sad goodbye as we headed to Cleveland.  There were three carloads of us altogether – Pat, Joyce, Kris and Marla were in Pat’s car and Deb, her sister, Tempy and me in another, and then the Cincinnati kids in their car – but they didn’t leave Chicago until a few hours after we did.

Well, after stopping at a truck stop in Gary, Indiana (blah- the food was rotten – yuck!) and eating we went on and the further east we got, the worse the weather got.  It was snowing like mad almost all the way to Cleveland.   We left Chicago at noon and pulled into Cleveland at 11:30 that night – over 11 hours on the road when it normally takes 6 hours to drive! So we pulled into Pat’s house and were all hungry and cold.  Her mom was good enough to fix spaghetti for us!  So we all ate spaghetti and watched an Elvis movie, “Speedway” (not Red Rose). 

Then we wondered if George would cancel out his Cleveland gigs because of the bad weather. So Monday morning (December 2) it was still snowing and a lot of airports had been shut down, including Chicago.  So Pat called Jeff Raven in Chicago and told him there was no way they could make it to Cleveland for the concerts because the roads were so bad and the weather was zilch for flying. So Raven said George definitely would NOT cancel, and they would fly to Columbus and go up to Cleveland by bus from there.  We were all worried and concerned about George’s safety trying to fly and drive, but there was nothing we could do but keep our toes and fingers and legs crossed.  So we headed off to the Coliseum around 2pm.  Halfway there, they announced over the air that George had canceled both of his Cleveland gigs.  We were relieved that they weren’t going to try to fly in and even if they had driven, there was no way they would have made it in time for the show and his equipment was already there.  But at the time we were relieved about the cancellation we felt sad because of so many Cleveland kids who were really counting on his shows and who were not fortunate enough to be able to get to Chicago or anywhere else for a concert. 

 

An Embarrassing Moment

 An Embarrassing Moment (no, make that four minutes) in the life of a Beatle (female) reporter

By Marilyn Doerfler

With a Little Help From my Friends

January 1978

 Scene I:  One upon a time in the land of Beatleism, we settled into our Chicago Hotel.  Since we had a little time to ourselves and my interviews were worked up for the next day, yours truly decided to take a little nap at 11:00PM.  When said reporter woke up, it was 3:00AM and since four hours of sleep were par for the course on Beatle tours, decided to take a nice soothing bath in the hopes of getting sleepy again. However, after the nice soothing bath, this “stupid” reporter reached into her purse for the key to unlock the suitcase that had all her underwear (like girdles – yes they wore them back then- and bras and sleeping gear) only to find no key.  Yep, you guessed it – she panicked and turned the purse upside down, scattering the contents left and right.   After a half-hour of searching for the key, hysteria set in.

 

Scene II:   Hold on – we still have not come to the final embarrassment and won’t in this scene either.  What to do?  Well, since road managers are usually the last to hit the sack, I crossed my fingers and called Malcolm Evans (who was definitely the nicest and most considerate road manager I’ve ever met).  Mal told me to hang on and would go down to the desk of the hotel to pick up their luggage skeleton keys (that was a new one on me too).  I got dressed just in time to answer the door.  Mal told me that the manager of the hotel had gone home and the personnel said that he had locked the keys up for the night.  It didn’t take Mal long to figure out another plan of action after reading my stricken face.  He told me to hang on and he would go and get his pocket knife and see if he couldn’t open the one case anyway.  Well, after about an hour, the lock snapped, and to my delight, I was able to open the case.   That was the good part.  As Mal was leaving, he informed me to get a rope to tie around the suitcase, as the lock probably wouldn’t hold.  That was the bad part.

 

Scene III:  Well, here is come:  the most embarrassing moment that I can remember.  Scene:  Next day – wake up call – first thing acquire a rope or facsimile – anything!  Call desk – no rope.  Go out of the hotel and try to find a store with rope, string, baling wire, cord…no luck.  Back just in time to catch the Beatle bus to American Airlines.  The only thought in the back of my mind was the carry said suitcase very, very carefully.  Well, as it were, when the time came, I had to carry my train case and purse along with the delicate suitcase, because of a time shortage.  I already had my big case loaded on the bus.  John Lennon was in front of me just going up the bus stairs.  Jim Stagg (WCFL Disc Jockey and a good friend) were just behind me and Mal behind him.   By now, I suppose you have already guessed it --- said suitcase came apart and all my unmentionables were all over the place.  Since Jim and Mal both snickered, John turned around and said, “Marilyn, what a place to drop your drawers!”  All three then proceeded to help me get my “drawers” back into the suitcase which took about four minutes.  About time, everybody was leaning out of the bus laughing and teasing.

Conclusion:  The next day and a new city – Brian Epstein delivered a spindle of rope, personally, with a big smile on his face.  My face --- color it red for quite some time!