We want The Beatles

 Indianapolis - 1964

Hope you all had a good fire prevention week

 

Fire prevention week was from October 4-October 11.  I hope you all remained safe and healthy.   The Beatles here are in Indianapolis in 1964 helping to spread the word about fire safety.   

Ringo and security in Indy

 

The Beatles and a golf cart

September 3, 1964 - Indianapolis   At least John isn't the one driving!

Hang in there John

Racing around the speedway

the State Fair

Photo removed at the request of the copyright holder

July 13, 2017

Beatles and Beauties

Here was a reason to try to be the winner of a beauty contest in your area---it would help your chances of meeting the Beatles!

Hello Indiana!

Press conference time again

The Beatles are here!

It is time for these Indianapolis Beatle fans to celebrate!   The Beatles had made it to their city and life couldn't be any better!

Another typical press conference

This photo is property of the Indiana State Archives whom I did contact and have written permission to post this photo.

I really think it is neat that the stuffed animal the fan gave the Beatles can be seen in the background of the beauty contest winner photo.   I think the Beatles received it and posed for the photos and then shoved it off to the lady in the background when the beauty queen came up for photos.  

Four!

I love this frame from when the Beatles were in Indianapolis in 1964.   Notice the people way in the back trying to get a look at the Beatles?

Concert memories from the Beatles at the State Fair

To read more about the Beatles concert in Indianapolis, I recommend two books.   The first is Some Fun Tonight vol. 1 by Chuck Gunderson.   In this book, you can read the great (true) story of when Ringo left the Speedway and went cruising around Indy with a police officer and ended up at his house and met his daughter!   It is worth reading!

The second book came out this summer.  It is called All Those Years Ago and it is by David Humphrey.   It is all about the Beatles Indianapolis concerts and has a ton of fan memories and interesting information.   You can purchase your copy here.  

The Beatles performed 2 shows in Indianapolis.   The first one was inside the Coliseum and the second was outdoors in the bandstand.   I believe that all of the photos I have seen are from the Coliseum.   There is also a great film that shows this concert.   What I recall about the film is that it shows an ice cream vendor not doing his job, but listening to the Beatles.

Concert memories (collected from many places online)

"I was a 9 yr old boy going to see the Beatles that summer at the Indiana State Fair. However, I have very good recall of this, my first concert. I remember walking around the fairgrounds and seeing girls with Beatles buttons with words on them ‘I Love John’ ‘I Love Paul’ and such. There weren’t many girls wearing ‘I Love George’ or Ringo buttons though. My father was a pediatrician and was the doctor of the ticket manager of the State Fair and he got 4 tickets and sent his 11 yr old daughter and son to this along with our older cousin and her friend. (Very cool, dad) 

The Beatles came out and played the east end of the Coliseum, which for people that saw concerts there in years following was maybe the only time anyone played this end. The west end became the common location. I think John beginning to sing ‘If I Fell’ and the screaming became so loud I had to put my fingers in my ears. I mean, there is loud and there is Beatles loud. I think the beginning of my hearing loss began on this day Since this time I have seen many major concerts but none even began to come close to the fervor of this hot summer day inside the Coliseum.

There were men in white coats running around with stretchers picking up girls who had fainted and carrying them off hurriedly. Lots of girls, thousands, maybe I was the only boy in the place. And many were out of control. I just stared at them wondering what was the big deal.

It is interesting that the Beatles would later comment on this concert that it was “quite quiet” only I don’t know if they had started drugs by this time or had earplugs in because it was anything but quiet. It was unbearably loud and it never stopped, relentless.

I mostly remember just looking around at the girls who were screaming. I was in a bit of shock that someone could lose control like this over a bunch of guys up there singing. But, the impression was everlasting: THESE GUYS WERE C-O-O-L.

After this I remember guys began wearing Beatles boots. I thought they were pretty cool but parents frowned upon them because they looked like something ‘hoods’ would wear.

After the concert ended, we exited the southeast corner of the Coliseum. As we walked away there was a sudden shrilly, high pitched scream that went up and I turned to see what had happened, only to find a surge coming towards me that to this day kind of gives me chills. It was the feeling being trampled underfoot and it was not pleasant. I looked up and there was a surge of girls then the Beatles were running right past us, within 3 feet, and got into a black car that was parked nearby. I have a memory of one of the Beatles brushing against me slightly as the cops cleared their way for them. It was thrilling in a sense, but it was over in maybe 10 seconds. But how thrilling can it be for a 9 year old, anyway? Wish I’d been a few years older.

This is one of the memories you have in your lifetime that cannot be erased and I would say that nobody will ever cause a commotion and stir that the Beatles did. And the decibels of the screams given Elvis, especially Michael Jackson, don’t approach the levels given the Beatles.

One of a kind. Originals." The best. –Larry R.

"I was at the concert in the early evening. I remember lots of sailors were there in white uniforms. We were sitting up high in the stands, indoors, and had a good view of the stage and whole crowd. I don’t know directions, but the stage was to our left. It was the first time I had been back to the Coliseum since the horrible explosion the year before. What impressed me the most about the Beatles was how polite they were and professional in their performance. They bowed all together after each song. Their hair seemed so long and you could see why they were called mop-tops. It seems funny now to think how much fuss was created by their appearance. There was a lot of screaming, but not right near us, as we were mostly adults in that area, and we could hear the music well enough. It was a wonderful show, and I’m so glad to have seen the Beatles live."—Ruth

"I was inside the Coliseum that day in Indy. My buddy and I had front row seats. The Beatles were all dressed in gray Nauru jackets and pants. I don’t possibly know why the fab four thought the crowd was “quite quiet”.
The thousands of screaming girls were so loud and it never let up…we could barely hear the songs they were playing, yet we were only 30 feet away from the stage! It was a moment in time I will never forget!" –Eric J.

"At the first performance inside, they started letting the crowd into the lobby. But were not letting anyone go to their seats. A lot of pushing and shoving. Saw a guy's arm break a window glass. Remember at least one kid knocked down. Fortunately they quickly yelled to let them go to the seats. It was pretty scary. I was 16. Could have been a tragedy. I was ready to leave!
Glad my older brother talked me into staying! It was a great thrill to see The Beatles live!" –James B.

"My father was the MC for the second show in the grandstands, WIBC morning DJ Bouncin' Bill Baker. We lived on the north west side of town behind Broadmoor golf course. We had a police escort to the concert from our home and when we arrived in my fathers Greenbrier van painted up with WIBC logos and Bouncin Bill Baker signs all over a crowd swarmed the van thinking that The Beatles were inside.  My brothers and I loved it, but my mother was a little worried. I was only six but I remembered it well and sitting in the second row from the stage, girls kept pushing everyone as I stood on the wooded chair to get a better look. My father came out on stage wearing a green Nehru jacket and a Beatles wig, which Ringo took off his head when they came out! My older brother was fortunate enough to meet all The Beatles back stage in their dressing room. It was a great memory of a magical evening, I’m still hoping to find someone who might have taken a picture with my father on stage that night and get a copy for our entire family. We still have a complete roll of Beatle wallpaper from the radio station left over and other memorabilia, which my sister is avid collector. A very fond memory! " My Best Brad W. Baker

"I  was at the early show in the Coliseum and I was one of the screaming girls. I really loved the music so I tried not to be so loud that I couldn’t hear anything. It didn’t matter though, everyone around me and my friend were so loud we couldn’t hear much else. My father drove us up from Lexington, Ky. and we barely got there in time for the seating. I remember Jackie De Shannon wearing a bright blue fringed disco dress right before the Beatles came out. When they came out and started singing it was so surreal I couldn’t believe I was really seeing them in front of me. The memory maybe a little faded but some parts I remember so well. We couldn’t get tickets for the second show but my Dad let us hang around the fence by the tunnel where they were driven out to the stage area in a black limo. I was a huge George fan and he actually waved at us as they drove by, it was magical, there are no other words. After that my friends and fellow outcasts at our preppy school had Beatle parties where we shared bootleg records and videos not yet released in the states. Someone’s dad went to Europe and brought them back for us. It was huge in my life to be there and some of my best memories." –Jean

"My mom and I went to see them! My dad thought it was ridiculous to pay $5 bucks a piece for our tickets...it was awesome!" –Charlie H. 

"I was 11 years old, We saw the Beatles at the Grandstand show. My Mom told me & my sisters not to scream, but I did anyway" – Sally P.

Beatle Reporters qualify for combat pay

Times photo by Bruce I. Gerard

Beatles, Reporters Qualify for Combat Pay
By Peter Hinchlifte
The Indianapolis Times

Just what is this with the Beatles?
Well, they're English.
So am I, for that matter.
They sing.
I do too.  Just ask my bathtub.
They play musical instruments.
I play a useful "Bells of St. Mary's" on the mouth organ.
They earned $101,000 for 58 minutes work at the State Fair.
Hmm!
Still, the more I think about it, after watching them at close quarters for two hours last night, they are welcome to every nicked they earn.  After one brief sample of the ordeal they have to go through every day.  I wouldn't swap places with them if they were getting $1 million a show.

In a hectic span of three minutes, I was slapped in the teeth with a hard object, had my ribs crushed to breaking-point and got muscles out of place down the whole right side of my body!

I followed two or three yards behind the Beatles as they were taken out of the Communications Building to the stage in front of the Grandstand for their second show.

"Well, here we go again, troops,"  Ringo said as they came out of the room where they had succeeded in snatching two hours of peace and quiet between shows.

"Face the music,"  John Lennon said.

As they were shoved into a car outside the building, a teenage girl tried to jump in beside them.  She was forcibly removed.

Bess Coleman, an attractive young miss who used to work for an English newspaper and who is a member of the official party traveling with the Beatles was grabbed by a policeman as she followed the Beatles out of the building.

The policeman, who obviously mistook her for a fan, roughly tried to hurt her over a fence.  She managed to fight free and scramble into a second car.

"I'm shaken but I'm not seriously hurt," Miss Coleman said later, "I know the police have a hard job but they had seen me around all night long."

I followed behind the two cars with three English newspaper reporters who are covering the Beatles' tour of America.  Police tried to bar our way at one point and I was struck in the mouth.  I don't know what hit me and I don't know who hit me.

Seconds later I as pushed almost to the ground.  My ribs were jarred and my side was strained.

As I watched the Beatles perform less than four yards away, during the second show, I decided that my father had made a wise decision in buying me a football instead of a steel guitar for my birthday.

Still, I had to report on them for only one night.  One of the English reporters, Ivor Davis of the London Daily Express commented as he looked out across the sea of faces which flooded across the Grandstand and out onto the track, "Think of us boy, tomorrow.  It's like this.  Us pressmen traveling with them ordered four beers and a grilled cheese sandwich a piece this afternoon and before we could take either a bite or a sip the Beatles were being rushed somewhere and we had to follow.  Then we have to risk our lives and limbs following the boys up onto the stage.  I tell you it's tough.  We have to do it every day too.  Your worries are over."

Fans Pout, Plot to get near idols-it's do use

photo by Curt Gunther

photo by Curt Gunther

Photo by Curt Gunther

Disgruntled teenagers stalked the Beatles at the Speedway Motel today while other clever fans converged on the State Fairgrounds to plan strategy so they can be near the ragmops tonight.

Sleuthful efforts at both places were squelched by the forces of the law and led to such comments as that by Marie Halligan, 16, in her attempt to get close to the motel where the Beatles are staying, "I'm so angry.  We can't get within 500 miles of them." 

It was the same for about 50 other fans who found the Beatles' whereabouts at the motel.  State troopers and sheriff's deputies cordoned off the motel, and at one time 30 policemen were parked in the motel's parking lot.

One mother registered herself and two daughters in the motel to get close to the Beatles.

The Beatles were said to be camped out in either Rooms 222 or 224, and troopers turned windows on the second floor into guard towers.

The fans at Speedway were being kept on the south side of 16th Street across from the motel.

William Cash, 14, saved somewhat, at least, the day for the outsiders.  He said he was part-time bus boy in the motel and reported "with authority" that the Beatles had boiled eggs, toast, and coffee for breakfast.

The motel situation after the Beatles' arrival here today was so hectic that the press contingent had to sleep on the floor of a locker room last night.  Seven representatives of the foreign press were among the crew.

Fans on the mob

One fan wrote about her experience on the back of her Beatles concert ticket

Fans trying to sneak a peek of the Beatles.  Photo by Curt Gunther

a crush of fans greeted the Beatles when they arrived at the Fair grounds.  Photo by James C. Ramsey

Mrs. Henry Schricker Jr, the dauther in law for the former governor received first aide after she was knocked down by Beatle fans. (Star photo)

The Beatles played two shows at the Indiana State Fair.   Everywhere they traveled, it was a bit of a mob scene and several people got hurt.   They needed constant police protection. 

The meet the Press for Laughs

photo by Curt Gunther

They Meet the Press For Laughs
By Richard K. Shull
The Indianapolis Times-- September 4, 1964

The original Mersey dolts, whom the world has come to know as the Beatles, faced a press conference last night in spite of a most ominous threat to their heady careers. 

The audience in the Coliseum was so quiet the paying guests could hear their peculiar brand of music.  Exposure such as this, without the screams to drown out their guitar thwacking, could be their ruination.

Cheerfully, the four lads from Liverpool filed into an upstairs corridor of the Fairgrounds Communication building last night between their two shows to meet the press.

Outside the building was a press of another nature as several hundred girls loitered in hopes of 1) somehow sneaking in or 2) at least getting a glimpse of them.  "Ringo's the greatest!" a shrill-voiced girl shouted.  "The Lord is the greatest," a curbstone evangelist admonished her.  "Ringo is here," the girl replied.  "The Lord is everywhere," quoth the evangelist.

Inside the building, the press, radio, TV and a number of persons who looked suspiciously like friends of the Fair Board assembled through a stair door at one end of the corridor.  The Beatles and their omnipresent police escort entered from the other.

"Evenin' folks," Paul McCartney said, when a hush fell over the hall.
"Hello anyway," Ringo Starr added.

Then began a session of flashbulb popping.  Before they entered, there "press officer," Derek Taylor, whose hair is too long to be fashionable, and too short to qualify as a beat musician, laid down a few ground rules.

First would come the still photos, then the interviews, and finally the TV.  In the interim, three girls representing interests especially dear to the Fair Board's heart were permitted to make token presentations and lay hands on the singers.

Taylor, who was quoted in the Saturday Evening Post as saying the Beatles are so, "anti-Christ they shock me, which isn't an easy thing," then complimented local police on their excellent security.

Then came the questions.  Here are some:

About Leonard Bernstein?  Paul:  He's great.  He wrote West Side Story.

Are the Beatles leading a teen revolution against adults?  Paul:  They've been revolting for years.  (George Harrison correct the ambiguity, saying they meant in revolt. john Lennon allowed he like the way Paul had said it). 

What do  they think of American food and drink?  John:  Kellogg's is all right.  I mean, the cornflakes are all right.

Why does Ringo dislike Donald Duck?  Ringo:  I can never understand Donald Duck.  Can you?

Why aren't the Beatles in the British draft?  John:  We all miss it.  If not, we'd be hiding the south of Ireland.

What is their favorite song?  John:  Land of Hope and Glory (known in this country as "Pomp and Circumstances).

Were they aware Indiana would take its state tax off the top of last night receipts?  John:  Really? (with feeling).

What do they do all day locked in their hotel rooms?  John:  We play tennis and water polo and we hide from our security.

Would they like to be able to walk on the streets without being disturbed?  John:  We used to anytime, with no money in our pockets.

Is Paul anti-religion?  Paul:  If anything, I'm agnostic.  I'm not religious and I'm not anti-religious.

The Saturday Evening Post said John drank Scotch and Coke. Is that true?  John;  Scotch and 7-up.  It was changed.

Is Paul going to write a book?  John:  He writes on walls.

What is their favorite U.S. music?  George:  The Detroit sound.  Paul:  The Beach Boys have good harmonies.

What do they do with all the presents they receive?  George:  Ship them  back to England.  Paul:  Unless it's a 50 foot cake, we dont' keep that.  John:  We haven't received a 50-foot cake.  Paul:  Well a three foot cake.  We give that sort of thing to charity.

Would they go behind the Iron Curtain?  Paul:  Who's there?  John:  No rubles.  George:  No taxes.  John:  No money, either.

How did they get their hairdos?  John:  We've told so many lies we've forgotten.

Where did they have their loudest audience?  Paul and George:  Cincinnati!"

The quietest?  John:  This was very quiet.

What's the oddest rumor about them?  John:  That I've got a new baby coming.  I've not.  I haven't been home that long.

What do they do with their money?  John:  We can't find it.

Have they ever resented that their manager, Brian Epstein, gets 25 per cent of their income.  All in Unison:  No.  George:  Before he handled us, he handled our money.  Paul;  We've never resented him.

Do their throats get sore on tour:  George:  I've got a bit of a throat now.  So has John.

What do they talk about when they are alone?  Paul:  We talk very normal with each other.

What would happen if the fans broke through the police lines? John:  We'd die laughing.

Conclusion:  The Beatles may die laughing, even if the fans don't crash the barriers.

Who else, even the President, could get the press to stand around and cool its collective heels as they did last night?  Who else could poke fun at their own music, their fans and their patrons?  Who else could induce the state police superintendent to hover about like a "possum over a new nest of eggs?"  Or as Paul said, at one point in the proceedings:  "God save the queens." 

Shaking hands with royalty

The Beatles always seemed to meet the local beauty pageant winner when they came to town.  This one, Miss Indiana State Fair was Cheryl Lee Garrett and she seemed to enjoy meet the fabulous four!

photo by Curt Gunther

Winner of the "I want to meet a Beatle because..." contest

In 1964, the Indianapolis News newspaper held a contest called "I want to meet a Beatle because...." and the winner was 15 year old Elaine May.    Elaine got to attend the Indianapolis press conference and during the questioning she was allowed to ask a question.   She asked John if he was going to write another book after his first, "In his own write."  John answered her by saying, "Yes, tomorrow."

Afterward she presented the Beatles with an original Beatle  editorial cartoon by the newspaper's cartoonist, Robbie Robinson. 

Elaine May  meets with the Beatles -- photo by Curt Gunther

Paul holds up the newspaper with Elaine in the background--photo by Curt Gunther

The Beatles with contest winner, Elaine.  Photo by Nick Longworth