Photographer caught in the photo

 

Morgan Studios

 

500 Scream Welcome to Beatles to Malton (Toronto 1966)

 

500 Scream Welcome to  Beatles to Malton

No writer listed

The Globe and Mail

August 17, 1966

    The mop-haired Beatles arrived at Malton Airport at 125 this morning, one hour late, in a chartered flight from Philadelphia, where they performed last night. Their departure from Philadelphia was delayed by fog. 

    About 500 screaming teenagers turned out for a 10-second glimpse of their heroes at the airport. Some arrived as early as 6p.m. and waited to get choice viewing positions, with their faces jammed against a wire fence. 

    Four customs men boarded the plane as soon as it touched down. Within five minutes, the Beatles, led by Ringo Starr, emerged. The young people screamed, cheered, and sobbed. The Beatles were taken to a deserted hangar, where they entered a car and were gone within two minutes.10 minutes later, a 14-year-old fan, Carol Mary Wood, was still sobbing and shaking from the experience. 

    Beatle fanciers began to gather at the King Edward Sheraton Hotel downtown, hours before the Liverpoolians were due to arrive. They sat on the hotel steps, mingled with guests in the hotel lobby, and wandered around the corridors. A few stood at the door to the hotel's Oak Room, listening to the music issued forth. Most were teenage girls, wearing the standard bell-bottom pants and shell rig. The young males were mostly a little older, and not a Beatle haircut was to be seen among them. 

    Three sisters from Ashtabula sat on the trunk of their gold-colored Mustang and gazed wistfully at the facade of the hotel, armed with press passes that they hoped would admit them to the Beatles' press conference today. The girls were driven up from their Ohio home by their mother. "Mom doesn't mind; she's as crazy as the rest of us," said one of the daughters. 

    The girls and their mother refused to give their names. The trio who drove to Toronto and to other Beatles Tour cities last year were part of a crowd of hundreds of mini-skirted, Carnaby-clothed teenagers who wandered in and around the hotel early this morning. Subdued groups of fans squatted on the sidewalks, listening to portable radios and chanting Beatles songs while waiting for their idols to arrive. Police were out in scores at the front and rear entrances of the hotel. All of them were instructed to be evasive about which door the Beatles would use.

The Old Beatle Magic (Toronto 1966)

 

The Old Beatle Magic

By Art Lewis

The Toronto Telegram

August 18. 1966

    Screaming fans of the Beatles literally shed blood for their idols at a Toronto airport farewell today. Several girls cut their arms while lunging against a barbed-topped fence, as 250 teenagers screamed a goodbye to the Liverpool mop tops as they boarded their plane. About 1,000 broke through police cordons behind the King Edward Sheridan Hotel as police escorted the Beatles to the airport after their two performances yesterday at Maple Leaf Gardens. None of the girls were badly hurt at the airport incident. 

    The Beatles were taken from downtown Toronto in a police paddy wagon. "I saw them! I saw them!" Screamed the ones who caught a glimpse. 

    Their performance in Toronto allowed them to take back $100,000 to bolster the sagging British economy. Although they made as much money as in 1964 and in 1965, their 35-hour Toronto stay was a placid affair compared to the mob scene then. Whether it was Beatle John Lennon's recently much publicized comment on Christianity or just the natural decline of all pop music groups, The Beatles didn't draw the crowds this year the way they have in the past. Show business insiders are predicting this will be their last North American tour. 

    Crowds outside the Gardens and the King Edward Sheridan Hotel were tiny compared with the 1000s that mobbed the mop-headed singers during earlier visits. Police said everything went smoothly with few incidents. One 19-year-old youth was arrested at the Gardens and charged with causing a disturbance. Another youth was ejected from the Gardens during the afternoon performance after he climbed down a wired screen behind the stage and fell to a ramp 15 feet below. And another youth was struggling so violently, police had to handcuff him before carrying him out.

     During both performances, girls made frantic runs up the aisles for the stage and were carried out screaming by police. More than 100 Saint John ambulance workers treated 167 people, including a 77-year-old woman. The gray-haired little old lady was from Port Hope and had slipped on her way to her seat. With tears in her eyes, she begged Saint John workers to let her go back because she didn't want to miss the Beatles. 

    Most of the others were teenage girls treated for hysteria. 15 were sent to the hospital. Seven treated during the matinee performance were back again with hysterics during the evening show. One Garden usher reported a 16-year-old girl approached him with $50 cash in her hand, which she offered in return for getting her into the dressing room backstage. 

    Unlike past shows, which were sold out, there were several thousand empty seats at the evening show. A Garden official said 16,000 of the 18,000 tickets were sold. Beatle fans caught few glimpses of their idols, except for two 30-minute stage appearances. They were spirited from their hotel to the Gardens and back in a police paddy wagon. Admission to their between performances press conference at the Garden was rigidly screened during the performance. 

    Screaming girls threw everything available on the stage, including lipstick cases, love notes, earrings, rings, pens, papers, cups, clothing, and a screwdriver. 

    Over at the hotel, about 35 police officers kept an all-night vigil, as the keener fans, many who had taken rooms in the hotel, kept up their attempts to sneak up to the Beatles' eighth-floor suite. Two enterprising girls were caught by police when a hotel employee noticed the dirty clothes in his hamper began to move. Dozens of less imaginative fans crept up the back stairs, only to run into the arms of police at the Beatles' floor.

Fewer Fans and Fainters -- But Beatles Bedlam Was as Usual (Toronto 1966)

 Fewer Fans and Fainters -- But Beatles Bedlam Was as Usual

No Writer Listed

The Toronto Star

August 18, 1966

    The Beatles flew on to Boston today with 96,000 Toronto dollars, a white-haired troll doll, and unless the staff got rid of it, a friendly hamster named Brian. Those were among the souvenirs of their third and dullest Toronto appearance. It was the dullest by any yardstick. Fewer fans paid to get into Maple Leaf Gardens. Fewer milled around the King Edward Hotel. Fewer police were needed to handle them. And horrors! Only half as many teeny boppers fainted from the sheer excitement of it all.

     They filled the Gardens last night with 18,000 fans, but only 15,000 showed up in the afternoon. Saint John ambulance workers handled 167 stricken fans, compared with more than 300 last year. The 33,000 who did show up created just about as much bedlam as usual, drowning out their idols with shrieks and trying to pelt them with paper balls.

     At a between-show press conference, the boys gave one-sentence quips on Christianity and Vietnam to reporters. John Lennon, trying to clarify his "Beatles are more popular than Jesus," told a United Church minister he wasn't really against Christianity. "I recommend it to anybody, all the people in the world, especially old people," said Lennon, wearing a pink linen suit. 

    The group said they support the basic ideas of Christianity, and George Harrison added that "People who dislike us are not offering a Christian answer to what Lennon said." Reverend Gene Young, a United Church minister, said afterward he was amazed and really impressed with the Beatles as individuals. 

    On Vietnam, Lennon said he could see no reason on earth why anybody should want to kill anybody else. Challenged to comment on the war itself, Harrison declared, "America is in there, but thou shalt not kill means thou shalt not amend Section A." He said, "People forget about thou shalt not amend Section A."

     "But we can't say things like that," piped up Paul McCartney. "We're not allowed to have opinions. You might have noticed that," said Lennon. The literary Beatle also said anyone who did not feel like fighting should have a right not to go into the army.

     McCartney sat playing with a white-haired troll doll during the conference. One of a mountain pile of gifts sent to Maple Leaf Gardens, and the Beatles Hotel during their stay.

     Is the Beatles' craze ending? "If our popularity does diminish, we'll be the last to worry," said Harrison, who wore a fishnet shirt and a brown windbreaker.  "It shows no signs of diminishing."

     Will the group ever break up? McCartney said, "It will be a bit embarrassing at 35 to be doing the same routine."  Lennon:  "We do not intend to go on holding hands forever. It might last. I don't know."

     But if anyone thought Beatlemania had ended, the fans who swarmed through the Gardens for two shows proved otherwise. Nearly 300 police officers guarded the building in the afternoon. Another 50 were added last night. The College Street subway station scene prompted one TTC worker to compare it to the Blitz. Extra subway staff were on hand to keep people from being pushed off the platform, and barricades were erected in the station.

     Waving signs proclaiming "I'm happy" and "Paul, I love you always." The fans lined up from Carlton Street around to Yong Street. 

    Two Albany, New York teenagers, Mary Ann Scott and Patricia Novak, marched past officers into the Garden Restaurant, having booked reservations a month ago. They later infiltrated the press conference held in a nearby room.

     A 77-year-old Port Hope woman arrived in time for the nighttime show, but tripped on the way to her seat. After sitting out the early acts at a first aid center, she got back in time to stand on her chair and watch the Liverpool group.

     The noise got so bad at one performance that a hefty cop, one of the barriers in front of the stage, pulled a couple of bullets out of his holster and stuck them in his ears. And twice yesterday there was a thunderclap of voices as four famous faces half-skipped into view, wearing forest green mod jackets, charcoal gray slacks, and polka dot shirts. Paper balls, glittering tin foil, and sounds-tons and tons of adoring screams-cascaded onto the stage as the Beatles bobbed about in the pool of light. It went on for just over half an hour, screams interrupted only by louder screams, as youngsters stormed the stage or were carried out.

One youth appeared from nowhere and climbed to a front seat in midair, reaching for the platform. When the crunch came, a dozen officers bore him away. Last night, a youth climbed over the elaborate backdrop barrier, came rolling down yards of bunting and drape behind him. Dozens of teenagers at both shows went into faints from heat and excitement. One girl somehow lost her skirt when she collapsed.

     As the Beatles finished their show shortly after 10 p.m. in a windowless room in the depths of the Gardens, staff members fed a hamster pieces of lettuce and mused over what to do with it. Apparently named after Brian Epstein, the Beatles' manager, the hamster was sitting in the Beatles' dressing room when they came back from the news conference. No one knows how it got through the scores of police. A note with a crayon-drawn heart says, "This is Brian. We love you, Linda and Sue."

     The 65 policemen really didn't have much trouble holding back the 200 teenagers, as the Beatles returned to the King Edward Hotel by police paddy wagon last night. A fan wants the hotel named a national shrine because it has been the Beatles' sleeping quarters three times now.

John '75

 

Grocery Shopping

 

August 16, 1981 

Beatles Cheered and Thunder Claps (Philadelphia 1966)

 

Beatles Cheered and Thunder Claps Too

By Jerry Gaghan

Philadelphia Daily News

August 17, 1966

    You couldn't hear the thunder for the kids in Kennedy Stadium last night as the Beatles made their second visit to the city. The thunder and lightning, heralding the cloudburst that mercifully came after this beaded-up program, had electric competition from the youngsters' flashbulbs. The pitch-dark concrete glen on South Broad Street littered steadily, as though from an infestation of giant lightning bugs.

     The British aristocrats of rock worked precisely 30 minutes on the improved field stand, which meant that, with the guarantee paid by George Hammond Jr., they were chopping up $25,000 every 10 minutes. Official attendance figures given out were 20,844. No total gross was announced, but with ticket prices at $5 and $3, the Steel Pier impresario had apparently suffered a loss on the show. 

    The ill-timed remarks of John Lennon, the group's downbeat evangelist, undoubtedly cut into the advance sale, and the weather bureau's promise of showers sloughed the gate sales. Police precautions were impressive. There were rows of barriers and blue coats to form a no man's land of more than 50 yards between the English entertainers and the nearest rows of youngsters. However, our well-behaved children gave no indication of any righteous surges in the stadium.

    Gloom, where hawkers of field glasses and popcorn had to hold their wares high just to be seen. There were several false shrieking outbursts as the girls thought they saw their idols. They finally came from under the west stand, and after that, it was one long-standing ovation. Seats may be sold for Beatles concerts, but nobody uses them. Surprisingly, there was a large proportion of young males last night. The boys apparently had decided to live with the Beatles. That's where the girls are. 

    The Beatles come on stage at 9:17, in their conventional three-guitar-down-front and drummer-mounted-backstage arrangement. The squealing and waving, the flashbulbs never let up, but the sound is turned high, so high that you can best hear the words by holding your hands over your ears. 

    The Liverpool Four ran through a succession of their recent hits, starting with "Rock and Roll Music", and gained tumultuous welcomes for such numbers as "She's a Woman, "Nowhere Man", "Paperback Writer, "Day Tripper, "I Feel Fine," "Yesterday," with "Long Tall Sally" for the get off.

     Hamid acted as MC and sagaciously had the "Star-Spangled Banner" played for the finale, while the headliners escaped in a waiting truck to the International Airport, where their private jet took them to Toronto for the next show. Because of the imminent rain, the entire program ran without intermission. The warm-up acts included the Remains of Boston, a group of two guitars, Electric Piano, and Drums, who acted as the noisy accompaniment for other performers, the Ronettes (Be My Baby and Walking in the Rain) and Bobby Hebb, who drew the first ovation with his hit "Sunny." The Cyrcles, [sic] a quartet that started out at Lafayette College four years ago as the Rondells, are traveling with the Beatles. They seem a highly professional unit with bona fide haircuts, trim blazers, and two guitars, drums, and an electric organ for instrumentation. They tally strongly with their trademarks, "Red Rubber Ball" and "Turn Down Day," as well as their impersonations of other groups, the Beach Boys, Four Seasons, Gary and the Playboys, etc.

Beatle Fans Back Idol's Remark (1966)

 Beatle Fans Back Idol's Remark

By Lisa Cronin

The Morning News

August 16, 1966

    Eight Wilmington area girls think Beatle John Lennon was not far wrong when he said the group is more popular than Jesus, and they're out to prove it tonight. The eight will be driven by Frances J Nicoletti of 312 Silverbrook Drive, Elsmere, father of one of them, to attend the 8p.m. Beatles concert at John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia. 

    With them will be a hand-painted sign proclaiming, "We luv you, Beatles," "Beatles or bust," and "Beatles 4-ever." The girls say they hope to show the Beatles that their fans are still loyal, despite the controversy caused by Lennon's remark.

     Several radio stations across the country banned Beatle Records to protest the comment. "I think that they were misinterpreted," said Marlene Konopka, 15, daughter of Mister and Missus Henry Konapka, of 323 Osborne Road, Elsmere, "but they still are basically right," she added.

     "Yeah, you just put a Beatles concert next to a church and see which gets more people," another chimed in. The girls said they were relieved that the controversy didn't cause the cancellation of the Philadelphia concert. Each wrangled $5.25 from her father to attend.

     Lennon later apologized for his remarks at a Chicago news conference on August 11. "I think that the whole thing was unfair, but I love him twice as much since he apologized," said Mary Ellen Medkiff, 14, daughter of Mister and Missus Samuel L. Medkiff, of 1322 Clifford Road, Oak Hill.

     Tonight the girls plan to arrive at least an hour early, and hope to attract the Beatles' attention with flashing lights. They say they're taking along other Beatles' equipment, such as Beetle dolls, sweatshirts, books, and posters. "I know I'll get to meet them," said Debbie Berry, 12, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Albert G. Barry, of 302 Taylor Road, Elsmere. "I'd like to kiss every one of them and then melt at their feet."

     The other girls are Gail Schmidt, 12, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edward C. Schmidt, of 205 Rosemount Drive, Elsmere, Marie Nicoletti, 12, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Francis J. Nicoletti, Georgine Mellon, 15, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Albert E. Mellon, of 1047 Wagner Drive, Woodland Heights, Linda Rattle, 15, daughter Mister and Missus James Rattle of 110 Valone Road, Valone Village, and Charlotte Godfrey 14, daughter of Mister and Misses John A Godfrey of 902, Highland Avenue, Marshalltown. 

    Debbie Berry added that she likes the Beatles more than she does her own boyfriend, but would she like to marry one? "No, I don't think so." Came the reluctant answer.

Solemn Beatles Respond to Silly Press Questions (Washington D.C. 1966)

 

Solemn BEatles Respond to Silly Questions

By Muriel Dobbin

The Baltimore Sun

August 16, 1966

Solemn Beatles Respond to Silly Press Questions

By Muriel Dobbin

The Baltimore Sun

August 16, 1966

Washington, August 15. 

    There were Beatles in the locker room of the Washington Senators tonight. Beatles in polka dots and velvet, long-haired and straight-faced, were giving solemn answers to silly questions. The Beatles' press conference at the D.C. Stadium sounded like an attempt on the part of the mop-haired rock and rollers to soften the American impact of the remarks made by one of the quartets, suggesting that their popularity exceeded that of Jesus Christ.

     The offending Beatle, an apparently inoffensive man called John Lennon, was subdued tonight before a group of alleged reporters who behaved like a Beatles fan club. Lennon was even conservatively clad in a brown sports coat compared with the purple polka dots of Ringo and the canary yellow of Paul, sitting in the locker room with the temperature of both their surroundings and the screaming faithful outside rising.

    The Beatles conducted themselves with more sobriety than the occasion demanded. The first question involved reincarnation. "In what form would the Beatles like to return to this world? "  "A tree," said velvet-coated Ringo. "Did they feel that Lennon's comments about Christ versus the Beatles had affected crowd attendance, which is said to have diminished on their present American tour?"  "The crowds are big enough for me," said Lennon, carefully adding that he was concerned because so many people were upset by his remarks. He had recently explained apologetically that he did not mean what people thought he meant. 

    "What did they think of British Prime Minister Wilson's stabilization policy which involved wage-price freezes?"  "Not much," said the Beatles unanimously. They were asked about a magazine interpretation that one of their songs was sinister. "The song means exactly what it says," said a Beatle patiently. "Nothing." What would happen to them when they stop being Beatles? "We will just be four people, "they said. 

    After 18 minutes, the press conference was over, and the Beatles went to face what was estimated to be 30,000 quivering fans, including four girls who had baked them a cake. A man selling Beatles pendants and buttons was pessimistic about the future of the group with whom he had been traveling on their current visit. "We're dying," he said. It was reported that around 400 police were assigned to maintain order at the Beatles' performance, but one large policeman took time out to find a taxi cab, into which he thrust a sullen teenager. "Take my daughter home," he told the driver.