Nearly 300 Beatles Fans Taken to
Hospitals
By George Christian
The Houston Post
August 20, 1965
The Beatles created something like
mass hysteria on Thursday, when they came to Houston for two performances in the
Coliseum. Nearly 300 girls had to be carted off to hospitals from the Coliseum
area in 12 ambulances, estimated R.S. Bill, an officer of the volunteer Mercy
Corps.
His vehicle alone handled 65, mostly suffering
from hysteria. Bill said some were stretched out in front of the Coliseum,
still “bawling and squalling” on Thursday night while awaiting empty
ambulances; hundreds of ammonia capsules were given to the fainting fans. Bill
said the Beatles were such hot cargo that they had to be carried to their
Coliseum concert in an armored car.
As befitted nine-day millionaires, they will
make at least a million from their nine-day US tour. The grinning singers from
Liverpool were slipped into the back entrance of the Coliseum in an armored Motor
Service Inc van at 4:40 pm. The car was decided as a necessity by the police
after the Beatles' boisterous reception at the international airport early
Thursday morning. After the Beatles arrived here from Atlanta, youngsters
engulfed their charter plane, walking on the wings and wrapping themselves around
the windows.
“They were scared to death,” Ira Sidelle,
The Beatles' company manager, said later. “They didn't want to go out unless
they could have protection.”
“Terrified”, agreed.Ringo Starr, the Beatles
drummer, at a press conference at the Sheridan-Lincoln hotel Thursday afternoon.
A quarter of an hour after the armored van
brought them, the Beatles went on stage for a 35-minute stint, during which
they were pelted with jelly beans, paper, and even keys. (The Beatles are
supposed to love jelly beans).
They smiled good-humoredly through
it all, but from the minute they stepped out before an audience of about 10,000,
they could hardly be heard at all. Youngsters, predominantly girls, stood on
chairs and shrieked continuously. Some held up pictures of their favorite
Beatle. Others had homemade signs bearing messages of affection. One sign that
hung out over a box said, “The Beatles are here. The Beatles are here. Now we
have nothing to fear. Sue and Nancy”
Starr rapped his cymbals on a high platform,
John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison sang and played electric
guitars on the stage below. All of them were wearing dark blue suits and high
Black Beatle boots, and Lennon had on a small blue cap.
Grinning through the din, they sang such
favorites of theirs as “Twist and Shout”
and their new number, “Help.” But the real big shrieks came when Ringo joined
in to sing, “I Want to be Your Man,” and all four did “A Hard Day's Night”.
The police blocked off a perimeter around the
stage with sawhorses and held the line behind it. When excited youngsters began
to push forward, the concert had to be stopped. Once the Beatles fans standing
on chairs were asked to sit down, they were back on the chairs again in
seconds, Captain Tom Sawyer of the police department said about 185 policemen
were on duty.
After the Beatles sped away, Kathy Bell, 14,
was crying happily outside the Coliseum. “They threw a kiss to me,” she wept. “John
and Paul. I knocked on the window, and John and Paul threw a kiss to me.”
Suzette Cloete, 15, of New Orleans, was
weeping too. Why? “Because I love them”, said Suzette, as if it ought to be
obvious.
Beetle admirers from as far away as Alabama
milled around the Coliseum and the Sheridan-Lincoln. The Beatles slept late
Thursday morning. They breakfasted on grapefruit, scrambled eggs, shredded
wheat, and tea, and turned up for a press conference, including many teenage
reporters.
At 2:30 pm in the hotel, they smoked and drank
water, chatting among themselves, answering a field of questions. A sign
reading "The Beatles" fell behind them as they talked.
As for an impression of Texas, Lennon
said, “We haven't seen much of it. We've only seen Dallas and here. We nearly
got killed both times.” Lennon, who was wearing a white jacket and a black and
white striped shirt, said, “You've been reading the wrong books.” When asked if
the Beatles had been knighted.
McCartney, in a gray jacket and
shirt, dodged questions about marrying the English actress Jane Asher, “It's
been reported,” he said, “I never said it. The newspaper seems to know .”
Starr, the nattiest of the four in
a black and white checkered jacket and a red and white jersey, will soon become
a father. He says he does not care whether it's a boy or a girl. “I don't mind
as long as it's one or the other.” He
said the Beatles agreed that they have the most fans in America because it's
bigger. “We don't know when our
popularity will run out”, that they “only hope we're still alive at the end of
their tour”, and that they never tired of being the Beatles. “We'd give it up
if we did,” said Lennon.
Other Beatalisms:
Lennon on space shots: “You see one Space Shot and you've seen them
all.”
Lennon on musicians: “We don't read music. A real musician is
someone who can play. If he can read it's all the better.”
McCartney on music: “We like colored American groups.”
McCartney on teenage girls nowadays: “They're about the same everywhere.”
Lennon on Elvis Presley: “He's still the king.”
Harrison was in a beige jacket and a white
shirt on Press speaking on McCartney's reported engagement: “They'll make it up
because they're short of a story .”
After the press conference, one of
the teenage reporters was carrying a glass of water out. “Ringo touched this water”, she said. Another
had John's water glass.
The Beatles reappeared in their armored van to
sing for a sell-out crowd of 12,250 in the Coliseum Thursday night. They went
on as they had in the afternoon, after an hour's entertainment by the shimmying,
Discotheque Dancers, four athletic singers called Cannibal and the Headhunters,
the instrumental Sounds. Inc., singer Brenda Holloway, and the King Curtis band.
Bill Weaver of KILT, which sponsored the show,
estimated the total attendance at 22,250 and the total receipts at $111,250. So
the Beatles took away about $72,000. After expenses, the Variety Boys Club gets
the rest.
The Troop left the airport and headed
for Chicago. Immediately after Thursday night's performance, two of the younger
fans at the sawhorse barricade near the stage during the evening performance
were Pete and Tommy Conrad, sons of astronaut Charles Conrad. Asked if he was a
Beatles fan, 10-year-old Pete replied, “I guess so. “Tommy, 8, was asked if he
was disappointed that his father's space flight was postponed. “Not too much,”
he said. The boys attended the performance with Mrs. Nancy Robbins of Clear Lake
City, a friend of the Conrads.
Overall, observers agreed that the evening
performance was more orderly than the afternoon one. “It was a more mature crowd”, said one of the
mob of mostly teenage girls.
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