Beatlemania struck Cincinnati 60 years ago as fans got the chance of a lifetime to see The Beatles perform live at Cincinnati Gardens on Aug. 27, 1964.
Based on news reports of the day, Cincinnati didn’t quite know how to handle it all. The Enquirer reported that authorities were bracing for “teen-age massteria,” with the level of preparations usually reserved for presidential visits.
The frenzy had been building for months, since the Fab Four – John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr – made their American debut on “The Ed Sullivan Show” on Feb. 9 before 73 million television viewers.
The lads from Liverpool, England, scored nine top-10 songs already that year, and in April had held the top five spots on the Billboard Hot 100 at the same time. Their film “A Hard Day’s Night" just released in theaters. This was the height of Beatlemania, and The Beatles were coming to Cincinnati.
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WSAI’s Good Guys DJs brought The Beatles to town
Cincinnati radio station WSAI-AM was ahead of the game, playing Beatles records, such as “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” back in January 1964, before the “Ed Sullivan” appearance. Disc jockey Dusty Rhodes (the future Hamilton County auditor) started the Dusty Rhodes’ Beatles Boosters, one of the first Beatles fan clubs in North America.
The WSAI DJs known as the Good Guys – Rhodes, Paul Purtan, Mark Edwards, Steve Kirk and Bobby Harper – sent a telegram to England on a whim to ask if The Beatles would come play in Cincinnati. The Beatles’ management agreed. It was a big deal to host a concert during the band’s first U.S. tour.
The five DJs ponied up $5,000 each for the $25,000 price tag (the equivalent of $250,000 today ) to pay for the concert.
The hottest ticket in the Greater Cincinnati area cost between $2.75 and $5.50 (that’s $27.90 and $55.81 in 2024 dollars).
More than 1,000 fans camped out at Lunken Airport to catch a glimpse of John, Paul, George and Ringo when they arrived the afternoon of Aug. 27, “clad in various colored suits and their famous unruly hair,” The Enquirer reported.
As The Beatles arrived by limousine at Cincinnati Gardens in Bond Hill that evening, swooning and screaming fans outside the arena held up handmade signs: “I luv u, Ringo.” “Do you luv me, Paul?”
The Beatles held a press conference before the show for local newspaper, radio and television reporters. The foursome smoked cigarettes while answering the same old questions with cheeky responses.
One reporter asked, “What do you plan to do after you go?”
Ringo quipped, “Count the money.”
Rhodes recalled meeting The Beatles before they took to the stage. “They were really easy to talk to, just great guys,” Rhodes told the Community Press in 2014 . “They were as bemused by the scene as everyone else.”
14,000 screaming fans drowned out The Beatles
The Enquirer ran the front-page headline: “Young fans drop veneer of civilization for Beatles.”
Reporters ran out of wild adjectives to describe the “14,000 seemingly-demented teenagers” crammed inside the sweltering Gardens. The temperature inside was reported to be 115 degrees, which “melted bouffant hairdos as well as inhibitions,” The Enquirer wrote.
After the opening acts, featuring Bill Black’s Combo, the Exciters, the Righteous Brothers and Jackie DeShannon, The Beatles finally came on stage about 9:35 p.m.
“Then it struck,” The Enquirer reported. “The Beatles made their appearance, and the mob exploded into a maelstrom of sound – screaming, stomping, crying, begging, moaning – every imaginable sound a human is capable of making.”
The Beatles played 12 songs , including “Can’t Buy Me Love” and “A Hard Day’s Night,” in a swift 28-minute concert, but no one could hear anything and could hardly see. Flashbulbs blinded the band, who couldn’t hear themselves play using the limited equipment of the day.
“Everyone stood up so you couldn’t see at all,” Shirly Chaney, who had been a 16-year-old Boone County High School student in 1964, told The Enquirer in 2014 . “We spent the entire concert standing on folding chairs with our ears covered. But it was all worth it to say we saw The Beatles.”
While the Fab Four headed out to the airport to fly to their next gig in New York, the Cincinnati Gardens audience was left in an arena littered with notes tossed to the band – debris of the tempest that had hit Cincinnati.
In the days following the concert, Hamilton County Juvenile Court Judge Benjamin Schwartz filmed a lecture in which he warned about the harm of The Beatles hysteria on children.
“These girls went into a coma,” Schwartz said in the clip available on YouTube . “They ranted, they fainted. Their eyes were glassy. Some pulled their hair out. Some tore their dresses. They threw notes of a very undesirable nature on the stage. Some girls after the performance kissed the stage and some went up and kissed the very seats in which The Beatles had sat.”
He concluded: “If you could see how uncontrollable they were … you would agree that the show was not good for them.”
The fans who were there might disagree.
Ten years ago, at the 50th anniversary of the concert, Sallie Mullinger, who had been a 13-year-old from Mount Lookout back then, told The Enquirer: “It was, without a doubt, one of the most memorable nights of my life.”
Sixty years later, Cincinnati Gardens is long gone . The Beatles were not a flash in the pan, but rather the most significant and influential musical act of the 20th century. And that August night at the Gardens remains a cultural milestone for those 14,000 fans.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Beatlemania swept through Cincinnati 60 years ago, leaving 14K fans starstruck
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