Pendleton Girl Describes Reaction to Singing Group (Portland 1965)

 

Pendleton Girl Describes Reaction to Singing Group

By Donna Fisher

East Oregonian

August 26, 1965

Donna Fisher of Pendleton took a Made to Order press card with her when she went to Portland to hear the Beatles last weekend. She was crowded from the jammed  press conference the moaners held, but came up with this story anyway.

The Portland Memorial Coliseum was filled with screaming teens Sunday. The two Beatles performances held 20,000 fans.

Many fans gathered at the Coliseum hours before the Beatles arrived in their five-seat limousine. As they neared the Coliseum on Broadway, the screaming began. Police had warned the teenagers before the Beatles arrived that if they tried to break through, the car would not pass by the scheduled area. The fans were orderly, and only one girl ran past the police after the car entered. She was ushered back to the crowd.

 Running, screaming, sobbing, and yelling broke out as the frantic fans ran to get inside the Coliseum. The first performance started at 3:30 pm. King Curtis and his band, Cannibal and the Headhunters, Brenda Holloway, and Sounds Inc. appeared first.

 When the Beatles ran on stage, the crowd went crazy, but they did keep the proceedings orderly. Only a few fans tried to break through the line of police and were thrown back into the audience. Those who were caught taking flash pictures were to give up their cameras. But for minutes after the Beatles appeared, flashes were going off everywhere.

The Beatles were very much at ease during the afternoon show. They were very outgoing toward the audience, except for Ringo, who only smiled once. At one point, George stopped during a song and waved wildly to the fans at the right.

 The greatest outburst of screams came when they sang “A Hard Day's Night,” “Help” and “I Want to Be Your Man”.

Following the afternoon show, a press conference was held, and the Beatles stayed in the emergency entrance for nearly an hour until they found a hidden exit.

 Before their last performance, they were taken to a cafeteria to meet the Beach Boys for dinner. They entered through a delivery ramp underneath Lloyd Center and proceeded to a private room beneath the restaurant to eat. The manager told me he had served them a drink and talked to them for a few minutes before they left for the second appearance.

It was said their 8pm performance wasn't as long or as exuberant as the afternoon show. After their last song, they were rushed out of the Coliseum, less than a minute ahead of the fans. Near midnight that night, the Beatles flew toward Los Angeles to meet more fans who were anxiously waiting for them.

Fire Scare as Beatles plane lands (Portland 1965)

 

Fire Scare as Beatles Plane Lands

No writer listed

Hartlepool Northern  Daily Mail 

August 23, 1965

    The Beatles arrived at Portland, Oregon, last night to a welcome from 500 screaming teenagers and one screaming fire engine. The fire engine raced across the tarmac as their plane taxied in with smoke pouring from one engine, but the smoke died away when the engine was switched off .

    The Beatles laughed at the scare. "We ran to the door and yelled, 'Beatles, women, and children first. " Paul McCartney said.  An airline spokesman said the trouble was caused by an oil leak. The airline ordered another plane to take the Beatles on their tour at the first of their two scheduled performances in Portland's glass dome sports arena. Several girls tried to charge onto the stage, but were met by a dual wall of hefty undergraduates and policemen. At a press conference, George Harrison was asked about reports of his impending marriage. "It's a lot of rubbish," he said. "You can tell your editor he prints a lot of rubbish." 

    Asked if the Beatles intended to make another tour of the United States. Ringo replied, "We'll be back, whether you like it or not."

     After their second concert, attended by about 10,000 screaming teenagers, The Beatles flew on to Los Angeles.

Find time for the fans

August 22, 1980 
 

Are Mop Tops Real? Yeah Yeah Yeah (Minneapolis Press Conference 1965)

 

Are Mop Tops Real?  Yeah Yeah Yeah

By Allen Holbert

Star Tribune

August 22, 1965

The Beatles – the most Interesting thing about England since Christine Keeler- held a press conference Saturday in the Minnesota room of Metropolitan Stadium.

It was a 12-microphone and five TV camera press conference with about 150 warm bodies crowded into an even warmer, smoke-filled room. At 5:27 p.m., the Beatles walked into the room, led by five policemen carrying wooden sticks that were 42 inches long.

 First was Ringo Starr, still wearing his red and white striped polo shirt with a brown coat over it. Then came John (the poet and author) Lennon with a similar red and white polo shirt with a black long-sleeved shirt over it and a blue cap with three brass buttons on it. Next was Paul McCartney in a gray suit. Then George Harrison, who wore a suede coat and jeans. All of them were smoking, except Paul, who was chewing gum.

 The questions covered a number of significant topics, including:

 Disc jockey:  Paul, would you hold up one of these shirts? (The disc jockey thrust one onto the table in front of him.)

 Paul:  No.

 Disc Jockey: Please!  My station said, I have to have you do it.

 Paul:  Don't do everything you're told, or you'll get in trouble.

Q:  George, hold up this cigar.

George:  I don't like cigars.

Q:  John, how much was your hat?

 John:  I got it free when I arrived in Minneapolis.

Q:  Ringo, what do you think of your fans?

 Ringo: The ones who scream and shout are a bunch of idiotic lunatics.

 Q:  Is your hair real?

 George:  Our hair's real, lady. What about yours?

 Q:  What do you do with all your money?

Ringo:  We bury it.

 Q:  When you do a new song, how do you decide who sings the lead?

 John:  We just get together, and whoever knows most of the words sings the lead.

 Q:  How do you sleep with your hair that long?

George:  How do you sleep with your arms and legs still hooked on?

 Q:  I'm such and so from wonderful rock and roll, such and so radio station.

 George:  How do you do? I'm wonderful George from wonderful, WWW.

 Q:  I understand you're all good friends of Elvis Presley.

 Beatles  (In unison):  We've never met Elvis Presley.

 After the Beatles, who mumbled to each other and laughed throughout the press conference, had finished putting down all the teenagers and disc jockeys, they ended the fun, but not until one blonde teenager stood up and yelled, “If you ever come to Omaha, you can stay at my house!”  Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Replied The Beatles.

 

 

"Want to meet my husband?"

https://x.com/MarilynDenisCTV

In 1990, Marilyn Denis was hired to interview Linda McCartney in Toronto.  While they were talking, Linda asked Marilyn if she wanted to meet her husband.   Who would say no to that question?   Here she is meeting that husband and getting a photo taken. 

Photos from Minneapolis

 

Guitar Teacher

https://x.com/KathyLette

 

George giving guitar lessons to a young boy named Jules.  

Dreaming My Life Away

 August 20, 1980 

Teen Out Yell Beatles (Chicago 1965)

 Teens Out Yell Beatles

By Will Lenoard

The Chicago Tribune

August 21, 1965

More than 50,000 teenagers, 90% of them girls, screamed “Beatles” into oblivion yesterday at two performances in White Sox Park; scarcely a note was heard. Everybody was ecstatic, jumping with joy. Some fainted, but there were no injuries. Even the Beatles liked it. “They paid good prices to get in. Who are we to say whether or not they should scream?” Said Beatle John Lennon, 24, when asked at a between-shows press conference whether it bothered him to be shouted down.

  More than 200 persons, some of them reporters, jammed into the White Sox Bard’s room for the press conference.  Almost everybody agreed that the mop-haired Liverpudlians were pretty cute in their replies.

C Haley, Deputy British Council General in Chicago, spoke up from the back of the room. “Do you think you're doing a good job for your country?”  “Yes. Do you?” shouted back Lennon.  Haley laughed and told the four subjects of the Queen (they recently won the Order of the British Empire to the amazement of many and the consternation of some) that he thought they were doing a good job.

 To some of the questions about their likes, dislikes, loves, and habits, the Beatles had a stock answer, “lots of rubbish”. A girl reporter asked what they thought of a comment that” you could be great songwriters if you wanted to?”  “Well,” said Beatle, Paul McCartney, 23 “We write what we feel like at the moment. Like Cole Porter did. People will like us a lot more when we're older. just you watch.”

 Apparently, rowdiness on Thursday night cut short the Beatles' performance in Houston, and they were asked about it. “They sent about 25 cops out to take care of 5000 kids,” McCartney replied. “In every town, they think ‘our kids are different. They have common sense. That just shows you the way some policemen think.” Behavior at Houston was among the worst they encountered. The Beatles agreed. Teenagers climbed on the wings of their airplane. “Chicago”, they said, “Was among the best behaved cities.”  

Between 20,000 to 25,000 screaming teenagers packed both decks at Sox Park for the afternoon performance between the baseline flag poles, leaving only the bleachers vacant. But last night's crowd was larger, so that the announced goal of 62,000 paid was not far off.

 What the Beatles apparently like best was the $150,000 to $160,000 gate, which, compared with only $30,000 they took out of Chicago last September 5, after their appearance at the International Amphitheater.

 A solid line of blue-shirted police sat shoulder to shoulder, their backs to the infield to prevent any teenagers from jumping into Beatle territory and taking second base, where the plywood bandstand had been erected. But nobody tried.

There were 10 microphones for four Beatles. But even at that, they were not heard above the screaming. With the help of two girls, wise and Beatle lore, the titles of some selections were discovered. “You Make me Dizzy. Miss Lizzie, “She's a Woman”. “I Feel Fine,” “Help,”(  Title of this year's Beatle movie) and “A Hard Day's Night”( Title of last year's Beatle movie.) The Screaming went up a few decibels when Beatle McCartney sang his own composition “I'm Down” making this one easily the artistic success of the evening.

 The Beatles arrived quietly at Midway Airport at 3:15am yesterday, with only about 350 teenagers who violated the curfew to do it on hand for the screaming.

 Their headquarters were in $105 a day suite at the O'Hare Sahara Motel on Manheim Road, Shiller Park. The entertainers were scheduled to leave today for Minneapolis.

 There were only a few adults in the crowd at Sox Park yesterday. One gray-haired woman was overheard, telling her seatmate, “They all wear wigs, you know.”

EEEiiiiiaaaaahhh Beatles are Hit (Chicago 1965)

 EEEiiiiiaaaahhhh Beatles Are Hit

By Linda Myers and Bonny Kaske

Belvidere Daily Republican

August 23, 1965

Two Guilford high school seniors, Bonny Kaske of Rockford and Linda Myers of Cherry Valley, went to see the Beatles in Chicago on Friday. Here was their report on the singers.

 

Armed with Beatles tickets and cameras, we arrived at Chicago's White Sox Park just in time for the eagerly awaited concert that was to present perhaps the best-known people in the entire world, as well as a few other lesser talents. The latter was actually quite unnecessary, however, as most of the audience ignored them, except for bursts of loud applause when each act was over. These people were, in a way, keeping the approximately 20,000 fans from their heroes, George, Paul, Ringo, and John.

 It was generally a well behaved crowd, however large, and although there were a few girls crying, biting their nails down to the skin and wearing “I love Paul” buttons, (since Ringo’s marriage last February, he has apparently been ousted as the closest to the hearts of the fans) the majority of the audience, about 90% were teenage girls,  were polite, totally civilized, and just the kind of girls one would want their daughters to be.

 When the Beatles, dressed in tan coats and carrying their instruments, finally came out of one of the White Sox dugouts, the excitement was infectious. The crowd, as one, rose to meet the boys, cheering happily, and sat down to watch the rest of the concert when their favorite Beatle was safely on stage.

 The Beatles themselves seemed cheerful, pleasant, and eager to please, although it was quite difficult to hear anything that was said, in spite of the many amplifiers and microphones. There were the usual screamers, but they weren't half as annoying as the movement of teens with the slogans singing, “Don't scream”. Anyone who wanted to hear the Beatles' own voices must have been lucky enough not to get seated near a group of these singing girls. Perhaps, if the Beatles are back in Chicago next year, these girls can schedule their own concert miles away from the place where the four Liverpool boys are going to perform.

The Beatles sang a dozen songs, including favorites like “Twist and Shout” and “A Hard Day's Night”, as well as newer ones like “Help” and “I'm Down.”  As everyone knows, John and Paul write most of the material, and we think that all these songs  performed are written by them, but we're not sure.  They've written enough excellent songs to present quite a few concerts at the length they give.

 Although the Beatles were fun, their fans were more fun. It struck us as being quite sad that all the idolized four could see was a large sea of faces when each girl so wanted to be an individual and be noticed by the boys. But between the efforts of Triangle Productions and the Chicago Police Department, not even the most imaginative young girl could possibly break through the restrictions and security.

We kind of felt that all the precautions were unnecessary, and that perhaps the rumors of the girls tearing at their clothes and causing riots were built up. However, one girl managed to leave the barricades and get out on the field before being tackled by two policemen. No one else tried to see the world's favorites from a somewhat closer distance.

As we left, we noticed a lot of young girls walking around in a daze, hardly looking where they were going. Then we noticed that Betsy, our Beatle expert, had exactly the same look. We came to the conclusion that Beatlemania is quite a healthy disease and a fun one too. In fact, we can't wait for the next time they come to our area, and maybe next time, we'll meet them. Betsy says she just knows she's going to meet John. I think that she might have a plan.