A few more from Munich

Police line up

I am pretty sure this was taken at one of the Beatles' movie premieres in London.   I love the fan peeking her head between the two cops.  

Guarding the boys

Much thanks to Cara for sharing these photos that co-worker shared with her!   Great fan snaps from Detroit in 1964!

Backstage with the Beatles

The paddywagon

Packing the boot

Packages in the boot

Crowded airplane

I love this photo!   I found it on luzia's tumblr blog.

Cynthia's struggle

You can't help but feel badly for Cynthia in photos like this one.   She tried to stay out of the way, but somehow ended up getting pushed around or left behind.

Getting close to John

There must be thousands of photos of John that fans took in Philadelphia when he was there for the Helping Hands marathon in 1975.    It seems like every few months new fan taken photos from this event pop up.    And you know what?   I am so glad!    I love each and every one of them.  Keep them coming!

The fight for immigration (or the fight to get into the offices)

Greetings

Mister Bass Man

Ringo's brief time with the Village People

Exeter

Exeter is another one of those stops on the 1964 UK tour that is a bit mysterious.   I do not have very many photos from this date in my files and the photos that I DO have from this date do not seem to actually match up very well and are full of doubt. 

Here is what we know:  On October 28, 1964, after two days away from the tour, the Beatles made the journey to Exeter from London.  However, they did not give themselves enough time to travel from London to Exeter (it is about 200 miles away) and they got lost along the way.   So by the time they arrived, the show was to begin in 5 minutes.  The guys were supposed to get into a decoy van before they arrived at the cinema where they were to perform.  However, the driver turned down the wrong road and instead of arriving at the cinema, they had a meal at a fish and chip shop in the area!  But they did make in time for their portion of the first show and no one even knew the difference.

This looks more like Bournemouth to me than Exeter

The Beatle fans in Exeter were especially a loud audience.   One fan named Ann said, "I cried all the way through.  Someone put their arm around me and I didn't know who it was.   We coudn't really hear the music because of all the screaming."  

The bobbies on guard that night had more to look for than just Beatlemaniacs.   It was during this time that the 13 year old runaway from Boston, Elizabeth, had been reported missing and her mother believed that she had ran away from home to see the Beatles in concert.   So the police were scouring the audience during the mayhem for a tall blonde haired American girl with glasses.  

Three of the Exeter officers that were on duty that night

At the end of the last show, the Beatles were set to escape, but there was a lot of traffic and people walking around the cinema in hopes of catching one last glimpse of the Beatles.   Many of the fans had taken buses home, and one young fan recalls,
"I remember as a 6 year old being on a bus going to Countess Wear having to crawl past crowds outside the ABC after the Beatles had played there. The bus was full of excited girls, some crying. Quite strange and confusing for a 6 year old."

Beatles magazine

They waited outside

On September 20, 1964, The Beatles performed at a charity event at New York's Paramont Theater.   The event was to raise money for United Cerebral Palsy and Retarded Infants Services (a name that no organization would use today!!).  This concert was not part of the offical 1964 tour and it did not have the same opening acts as the other stops in the United States.  However, this concert is considered part of the tour as it was the very last performance the Beatles gave in the United States in 1964. 

It was a small venue that only had room for about 3,500 or so people.  It was much closer in comparison to the size that the Beatles were used to performing to in the UK.   Being a charity event, the tickets were expensive.   While the ticket itself might have been listed as $1.50,  you were to give a donation upwards to $100.   In 1964 that was an extremely large amount of money to spend for a concert.   Many fans were not able to attend this show because of the price mixed with the fact that the show was on a school night and they had JUST seen the Beatles in concert less than a month before at Forest Hills.

While some fans did get in to see the show, those that were not able to secure a ticket did the the next best thing:   they stood outside of the theater and screamed.    What else was there to do?  4,000 fans stood out and screamed for their favorite 4 boys.

The young girl in the middle of the sign that says "Beatles please stay here 4-ever" was in love with George Harrison.    That girl is Penelope Rowlands who had written a book called The Beatles are Here!    She was 13 years old at the time   At the time her mother was off on a Honeymoon with her new husband and told her young Beatlemaniac daughter not to go down to see the Beatles while she was gone.   Penelope's love for George was so strong that she just HAD to disobey and go into New York City alone to see her man.    Her passion was deep, as was her dislike of her new step-father and the Beatles and all that came with them that summer was a release and an escape from the changes in her life.   Of course when this photograph was printed in the paper, Penelope was busted----but the photo is a classic!

Another fan named Thom said this in the youtube comments fora short news clip about the show: 

"I was there outside the theater with hundreds of other kids waiting for them to arrive. I watched John and Paul get out of a big black car from just a few yards away. It was very scary because a squad of police on horseback tried to hold us back without much success. "

Memories of the Dallas Show

"I was one of ten Dallas Police Reservists assigned to sit in and wait in a side lobby until we received further orders. We could hear the music coming up from the basement. After a while we heard the echo of running steps getting louder from the floor below. Up the stairs come regular police with the Beatles.
“Line up five on each side!” is the command. The doors fly open. Two unmarked police cars roll up, one behind the other with their doors open. I heard someone down the street yell, “There they are…Let’s get ‘um”. Without stopping, the police yelled for the Beatles to jump in, which they did except for, I think Ringo, right in front of me, hesitating to get in. I finally pushed him into the back seat.
Someone jumped on my back trying to grab at Ringo. I was knocked down as the cars pulled away to get to the airport. Instead of a teenager on top of me, it was a middle-aged woman. She apologized afterwards and meekly walked away. Five minutes later, I realized that my wristwatch had broken from the fall."  -  Jerry K.

"I was there, 7 years old, with my mother and my step father’s assistant, who at the time was the #1 DJ in Houston at KILT, Jim Wood.  My mom was at the press conference, she talked her way in with the radio station rep story which was true, from what I understand it was last minute thing and as she didn’t work for KILT, couldn’t get press pass so she worked it.  Hate to hear they stopped doing them after that. Worked for me, she met someone she said was their PR Mgr, who put me on his shoulders directly in front and center of the stage with The Beatles (legs) in my face. She also got one of those photos signed by them to me that was later stolen after we moved to LA when my dad put it in a display for some stupid reason. Saw them again in LA at Dodger Stadium which I just realized was their next to last concert. It was just me and Jim Wood, and never a bad concert seat with him but that day in Dallas, made me feel like the luckiest girl in the world for a long time. God Bless Jim Wood, RIP. Oh and just in case anyone knows about an autographed photo to Becky, there’s a reward for it and no questions ask." --  Becky R. 

"In those days we had only seen the Beatles in black and white.  Our television sets were black and white, A Hard Day’s night was black and white, and so you had this image of them as being black and white.  They came out on stage and popped out!  They were in pastel pinks and were almost florescent." –Tom

"I brought with me a piece of paper and a pencil.  You can tell I was excited because I wrote on the wrong side of the paper.  What I did was I wrote down the songs in the order they sang them."–Claudia

"I don’t remember hearing much, but I think that was because I was screaming so hard." – Alice

The last press conference (well for now)

They made it!   The last press conference of the 1964 North American tour!  

The Beatles with Bert Shipp

I love the reporter trying to hold back the girls in this photo....so funny!

Crazy times in Dallas

The Beatles were a bit frightened about going to Dallas.   It had been less than a year since President John F. Kennedy had been shot and killed in broad daylight while in Dallas.   The Beatles loved the Wild West and cowboys, but the whole thing about traveling to Dallas sort of scared them some.   It is understandable, really.    While the President could have gotten shot at any city in the country, and it was in now way the city's fault that it happened there, it is still freaky to go back to the "scene of the crime."   

But the Beatles landed at Love Field (which if Ringo landed there today he might try to rename it 'Peace and Love Field'  haha! )   and there were fans waiting for them behind a chain length fence.  The fans were screaming and waving and acting like---well Beatlemaniacs!   The Beatles received ill-fitting white Stetson hats from some opera association (I have no idea why) and even though they disliked these hats, they wore them anyway for photos.

From there the guys traveled in a car to the Cabana Hotel, where fans were waiting to greet them.   However, the police did not seem to have control over the situation and things got out of hand for what must have been a few scary moments for the Beatles as they tried to get inside.

The boys did make it inside of the hotel unharmed, but one fan wasn't so lucky.   While trying to see the Beatles in the hotel, the fans began to push against the plate glass window at the hotel.   Eventually the glass broke sending the fans through the broken shards.   One fan was injured so badly that she need to go to the hospital.   It is said that the Beatles felt bad about the whole situation and promised to send the injured fan flowers  (not sure if that happened or not).