A few of the 55,000 fans that were at Shea

I was there with my girlfriends I think on the 2nd level. I had the sign JO LOVES JOHN the other sign was a British Flag with a sign for John. I have seen my sign on copies of the Shea stadium concert. I still have it. My friends crack up when they see it. I also have my ticket stubs. – Joann

Have my ticket stub – Sec 31 / Row A / Seat 16 – Gate D – Sun Aug 15, 1965 – $5.65. I was very upset because I really wanted to hear them sing but due to the loud screams could not. I recall Paul trying to quiet the crowd but it was a losing battle. Even so, I’m glad I was there to be part of the experience.—Mary

Beatle craziness backstage at Shea

The Beatles private dressing room

These photos were offered sometime in the past year as an ebay auction.   According to the seller, the paper was posted on the door of the dressing room (aka locker room) for the Beatles at Shea Stadium.  I find it strange that it would be a yellow piece of paper and advertise that this is where the Beatles are.     Security things are so different now days!

Shea the second time around

Wasn't a sold-out crowd

The Beatles at Shea Stadium: A Book Review

When I told some online Beatles pals that I was supporting a book all about the Beatle's 1965 Shea Stadium concert on Kickstarter, I got a bunch of gripes.  "Uh...another book about Shea?  Don't we know all about that already?"   "There are too many Beatles books out.  This one won't be any good."     I just wanted to stare at them (but since I was online, that was impossible).  Too many Beatles books???     Ummm...I do not recall there EVER being an entire book written about the Shea concert.    So I scoff at you who do not want another Beatles book or who think we know it all on a Beatles topic.   Scoff Scoff!

The book The Beatles at Shea Stadium is written by Dave Schwensen, the same guy who brought us an amazing book about the Beatles' Cleveland concerts.   I really enjoyed the Cleveland book, and this one is just as great.  Dave has done some extensive research in finding people to interview for this book.   He has spoken to insiders who were there backstage with the Beatles as well as fans who were in the stands and everyone in between.

The book takes you song by song through the concert and explains what was going on with the Beatles and their fans during the songs.  

My favorite story told about the concert comes from one of the fans in the stands, Judith Kristen (that name should sound familiar).   She explains what was going on in her section of the stadium that caused John Lennon to do this:

The information about the actual concert was great, but what I really found interesting was how the Shea Stadium television special came to be.  I especially liked reading about the Beatles re-recording parts of the audio for the special.  They did this recording in early January 1966, right before John and Ringo left on their holiday and George got married to Pattie.  There is a detailed letter in the book from one of the guys who worked on the project that was written back to his son in the United States (who was a Beatles fan).  This letter goes into a lot of detail that we would not know otherwise about this recording session.  Reading that letter alone was worth the book for me.  Although there are a lot of things like letters, telegrams, etc in that section that just kept me wanting more. 


There are many great Beatles books that just came out or are coming out this year, and I would put The Beatles at Shea Stadium on the list of ones to read. 

The link below is the affiliate link to Amazon, where you can purchase this book.  I get a small percentage of anything purchased through this link.  Money made from the Amazon Afflication is used to pay the annual fee to keep this site online.  Thank you for your support.  Sara

https://amzn.to/3T9qSOx

See how they run

Notice how the young girl has ran up fairly close to the stage and has been stopped by the police.  It looks like the cop is telling her that she can't be up there and it looks like she is not paying any attention to him and is just staring at Ringo.   I love how you can see the film cameras in this photo.  This is a neat one.

Shea fans

I love this fan shot from the 1966 Shea Stadium concert.   It doesn't look like an empty house to me.  I love the sign that someone made wishing John and Cyn a happy anniversary.  And I really love the girl who is trying to escape the audience and get to the Beatles. 

Stop hogging the mirror!

Only photo I have ever seen of the Beatles that features a urinal in the photo.

My Date with Paul

Patty Michaels in the middle next to Murrary the K.  Can't you see why Paul was attracted to her after seeing her on TV?

Paul backstage right before the Shea Stadium show.  Patty was back there somewhere too!

I am not sure where this article originally appeared.  It was in some teen magazine from the 1960's but I found a re-print of it in a magazine called "Welcome Back Beatles" from the summer of 1978.  Patty Michael was a child actress and was in the  musical, the Sound of Music on Broadway as a little girl.  In 1965, she was a dancer for the Murray the K's television special, It's What's Happening Baby!   In the years that followed during the 1960's Patty made some records and continued to sing and dance.   She had a few minor hits, but her career as a recording artist never really took off and in 1967 she found herself having a popular show performing in Las Vegas.   

When the Beatles in New York City for the Shea Stadium show, Paul was watching It's What's Happening Baby on the telly in his hotel room.   Patty caught his eye and he contacted Murray the K to invite her backstage.    This is the teen magazine story.   We all know that these teen magazines are pretty tame and often exaggerated accounts of what really happened.    
 

My Date with Paul

By Patty Michaels

I was sitting at home watching TV when the phone rang on Saturday, August 14, at about 10 p.m.  It was deejay Murray the K calling to tell me that the Beatles had just seen me on his TV special and Paul had asked if I would like to be his guest at the concert the following evening.  Being a normal, red-blooded young girl, I said I certainly would.  Murray said, “There’ll be special tickets waiting for you at the press gate.”  Now, as a dancer and actress, I have had occasion to meet many stars and quite a few groups, but I must admit – my heart was beating quite a bit faster that night as I went to bed.

The next evening, Sunday, August 15 at 7:30p.m., my sister Dale and I arrived at the press gate of Shea Stadium to find two box seat tickets waiting for us.  We were escorted to our seats by a guard and already the screams were deafening.  About five minutes later, a guard came over to me and said, “Are you Patty Michaels?”  When I nodded he said, “Come with me please.”  With absolutely no idea where I was going, I followed the guard down the steps into the dug-out, and then down a narrow plank and through a long stretch of corridor until we reached a door marked – private – keep out – Beatles dressing room.  There were perhaps two dozen photographers and fifty policemen stationed outside.  The guard knocked twice and very pleasant looking fellow with ruddy cheeks and blonde hair opened the door.  I learned later that this was Tony Barrow, the Beatles’ press agent.  He ushered us in, and as I entered my only prayer was that the whole room couldn’t hear my heart pounding.

The Beatles were getting ready to go onstage and the first thing I noticed was that they were wearing their bronze medals saying M.B.E. on their jackets.  They all looked so handsome in their beige suede jackets and black pants.  The first one to speak was George, who told me how much he had enjoyed watching me dance on TV.  Soon John and Ringo came up and they seemed to be looking me over very critically.  I smiled and tried to act as calmly as I could, and in a minute it was over.  I guess I passed their “test” because John patted my shoulder and smiled and Ringo offered me a can of “Veep” soda.  Paul, who had been combing his hair when I arrived, came over to me and simply said, “Hi.” His eyes and smile held so much warmth that I was immediately attracted to this sincere, direct manner of his.  We spoke of many things – the crowd of 59,600 outside, the songs they would sing, and Ringo gave me another can of “Veep.”  Then it was time for them to go on.

In the dug-out, the screams were almost totally deafening.  Brian Epstein, Tony Barrow, and scores of press agents and photographers ran about shouting last minute orders, but the Beatles stood by calmly.  Paul held my hand during these few minutes and just before they ran on to the field, he whispered, “you’re beautiful Patty.”  I didn’t see Paul again until much later, after the concert.  A man escorted us to a limousine and drove us to the Warwick Hotel where the boys were throwing a party.  When we entered the room, everything was bedlam.  The TV, tape recorder, radio and record player were all going at full blast.  People were shouting and screaming to be heard.  I felt like leaving.  But then Paul came bouncing over and took my arm.  “Glad to see you,” he said.  He steered me over to the sofa and we sat there all night, talking and holding hands.

John, George and Ringo were sitting on the floor opening presents from Malcolm Evans, their road manager.  You see, every night Mal must go out and buy each boy a present.  It’s a sort of tradition with them.  They played with things like a magic slate and wind-up toys when they got tired of them, they’d just toss them away.  John was taking pictures all night.  Ringo kept laughing all night, although I don’t know why.  Paul and I spoke of many things for those four hours.  He told me about life in England, running from the fans and his loneliness when he can’t see his Dad or family.  His father remarried recently and Paul is crazy about his little six year old step-sister.  Among other things, he expressed his annoyance at being hounded by the press on the subject of his relationship with Jane Asher.  “I’m getting sick and tired of it.”

When I said goodbye that night, I knew I had acquired a lasting and deep friendship, and when Paul gently kissed me and told me he’d miss me, I wasn’t sad because I know we will meet again next time and it will be the same with us.  Absence does not kill the bonds of friendship.

The Beatles at Shea through the eyes of a Beatlemanic

While these girls did not meet the Beatles, I found this story about three Beatle-crazed fans from 1965 attending the Beatles concert at Shea Stadium to be a lot of fun to read.  I hope you agree.

The Beatles at Shea

By Terry Klemmer

Dad, my brother Biff, Judy, JoAnn & I departed at 5:30a.m.   Unknown to JoAnn’s somewhat protective mother, Dad and Biff would leave us at Shea to spend their day at the World’s Fair.

Our first stop was church for the early mass, though any thoughts of God, religion or praying were admittedly the farthest things from the minds of the three Beatlemaniacs.  Dad must be credited for his show of patience as we stood our Beatle dolls on the pew, and occasionally squealed at each other in anticipation of what was to come.

When finally on our way, we made a sign that read, “WE’RE BEATLE BOUND” from a paper bag and my eye liner, to display in the car window.  When Dad elected to stop for food, we managed to choke down some hamburgers, but who could think of food at a time like that?

We arrived in N.Y.C. and saw many posters advertising, “Help!” in the subway.  It was 10 a.m. when we reached Shea and found gate “A.”  The first people we met were from Manhattan and they told us that the Beatles were to arrive by helicopter at 7.p.m.  We left to buy some magazines and photos to add to our collections and met a girl who said she’d talked to Paul on the phone.  Then back to Shea we found a crowd of girls who were marching around the stadium singing “We love you Beatles” and joined them.  One girl had a 6 foot poster of Ringo mounted on a stick.  She gave us lipstick asking that we add our “kisses” to the others on the poster.  With obviously phony press cards we made a futile attempt to get inside the stadium, which only resulted in our incurring the wrath of several of New York’s “finest.”  Having failed there, we found a phone booth and took a shot at calling the Warwick, but when Judy asked for John the operator promptly hung up!  Some people just have No sense of humor.

Concert time was getting nearer, so we got in line at Gate A.  We met many super people in that line, and everyone was sharing everything they had such as food, sodas, tissues – anything one had and another needed.  This atmosphere of peace and love seemed to follow them wherever they went.

When finally inside, we found our seats in the blue section and decided we need a plan to get ourselves closer to the front.  Since the ushers determined where one belonged by the color of the ticket, I suggested that we pocket our tickets and make a mad dash for the front and center.  As each usher asked to see our tickets, I pointed to someone too far ahead in the crowd to hear us and began yelling about that was “Pam” and we’d have to catch up to hear because she had our tickets.  It worked like a charm and we managed to secure some great seats in the brown section.

The show began with Cannibal the Head Hunters followed by several others.  During this time our eyes were glued to the dugout in search of familiar faces.  We spotted Brian walking around chain-smoking and screamed his name at the top of our lungs, but he was too far away to hear us.

When Ed Sullivan walked on stage our hearts jumped to our throats.  After a brief introduction, THEY ran across the field to the stage.  Judy screamed, JoAnn cried and I froze and stared fearing that I would miss something if I would move to even breathe.

I haven’t much of a memory for detail; therefore my reference material is an 8 page narrative I wrote the morning after Shea.  Unfortunately, the bit on the actual concert is primarily filled with ramblings about how we actually saw and heard THEM, not a photo in a magazine or voices on a record.  It goes on to tell of how we felt being there breading the same air as they were, seeing the same sights, etc. etc. etc.

They took turns speaking to us between songs which were, Twist and Shout, She’s a woman, I Feel Fine, Dizzy Miss Lizzie, Ticket to Ride, Everybody’s Trying to be my Baby, Can’t buy me love, Baby’s in Black, Act Naturally, a Hard Day’s Night, Help! And I’m Down.  John had said something about George changing guitars.  One lucky lady managed to get onto the field.  She made a mad dash for the stage while being pursued by several members of the security force.  She had but a few feet to go when she was caught.  This happened between songs and Paul had paused to watch her.  He yelled “Boo” into his mike, so naturally e all joined him.  John was fantastic during I’m Down and he made everyone crazy as he played keyboards with his elbow and his leg.

Suddenly it was over and after thanking us for coming; they waved to us before running to the station wagon.

Judy, JoAnn and I collapsed into our seats for a moment and then we tried to get down on the field in hopes of pulling up some grass that they had walked on.  Judy went totally out of control when she was grabbed by a policeman.  In her hysteria she happened to belt him in a place where NO man cares to be hit, and this was our cue to get going!

We ran outside and grabbed handfuls of grass and dirt from where their car had been.  JoAnn was running around in circles yelling about how she needed a “bag for her dirt” until some guy told her to put in in her mind.

We went to meet dad and Biff at the subway and found them literally hanging on to a pole so as not to be pulled away in the crowd of thousands coming from both the concert and the World’s Fair.  On the subway a man was reading the Daily News until Judy noticed a photo fo us taken earlier when we were marching around Shea.  She grabbed it out of his hands screaming “That me!!”  The poor guy said she could have it and moved to another seat.  JoAnn and I got copies at the station.

We all cried on the way home feeling ourselves inch by inch getting farther away from Shea and our wonderful Beatles.  Judy fell asleep leaning on me, and JoAnn on her as the best day of our young lives came to a conclusion.