Rolling Stones Touch Off Riot

May 16, 1965 - In California this afternoon, a mob of more than 4,000 teenage girls poured out of the Long Beach Arena after a “Beatles-type” rock ’n’ roll performance and caused a melee which injured three police officers, damaged three vehicles, and sent seven girls to the hospital.

The Rolling Stones played to an almost-capacity audience at the Arena; then, despite security precautions, they were mobbed as they attempted to leave via the back exit.

The musicians were freed from the mob and sent with sirens screaming to the heliport at the foot of Magnolia Ave. after eight motorcycle officers, five squad cars, and two police sergeants, headed by Lt. Donald Tubbs, held back the crowd of 13- to 16-year-old girls.

When the concert broke up at 5:30 p.m., thousands of the teenagers stormed through back exits and surrounded a small black station wagon which had been hidden to spirit the Stones away.

Motor Officer Ken Johnson, trying to break through the crowd of screaming girls to escort the car to the stage door, was thrown to the ground and his cycle damaged when the mob pushed him into the car.

Jars of cosmetics, shoes, purses, wallets, lipsticks, bottles, and articles of underwear were thrown at the officers and the Stones as they tried to make their way to the “escape car.”

Officer John Turley, in plainclothes, and uniformed officer Jim Reed finally jumped on top of the vehicle and began clearing the yelling girls from in front of the path of the vehicle to get the way cleared.

Officer Turley suffered ripped clothes and bruises to his legs as he hung onto the rear of the car as it sped away from the Arena, west on Ocean Boulevard and down Magnolia to the heliport.

In the fray in back of the Arena, Sgt. D.L. Goldsmith suffered a cut hand and lost his shirt to the mob. Goldsmith, splattered with makeup, was taken to St. Mary’s Hospital for emergency treatment.

Seven unidentified girls were taken to St. Mary’s in three ambulance runs after they sustained minor injuries in the crush of the mob.

The car carrying the Stones had its front lights broken out, the luggage rack torn off the top, and was splattered with cosmetics before it could flee the mob.

As officers tried to make a path in the crowd to get the car to the musicians, the Stones were battered by the screaming mob until officers formed a human battering ram around them and warded the blows off onto themselves.

By 6:15 p.m., the Stones had reached the helicopter and were airborne as the running crowd of girls ran across the beach in an attempt to reach the aircraft.

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