Aug. 27, 1964 - A screaming, howling “Beatle-cane” struck Cincinnati Gardens tonight.
Veteran reporters and policemen were stuck for words to describe the demonstration 14,000 seemingly demented teenagers put on for their idols. “Unbelievable” was the closest they could come to creating a word picture of the bedlam.
When the Beatles came on stage following the Bill Mack Combo and the Exciters, 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 for 25 minutes, but they might as well have been doing a pantomime. The screaming was so loud that the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Marine Corps Band would have been drowned out.
A technician from a television station was trying to measure the sound with an instrument. He gave up when the instrument recorded its maximum reading and broke.
Pushed past their psychological limits, members of the audience began to “break” as well. Girls started to faint en masse. Eyes turned cherry red. Throats became too hoarse to utter even a whisper of adoration. Shock began to set in, and the merry-go-round gradually broke down. The time was 10:07 p.m.
More than 100 police officers, detectives, and Pinkerton detectives were assigned to the Gardens for security reasons and to maintain order. They were helpless to do anything but stare.
The Beatles ran off the Gardens stage before the audience knew what was up, scooted into waiting automobiles, and headed toward Lunken Airport from which their chartered plane took off for New York shortly after midnight.
Captain Ted Bird of the Cincinnati police department said the young audience “conducted themselves like young ladies and gentlemen. They screamed, yelled, and panted, but there was no other sign of disorder. They were a credit to Cincinnati.”
When it was over, the stage was littered with tattered notes that had been thrown there by fans. “I love you Ringo.” “Please call me Paul, my number is…” “I can’t go on without you, my dearest darling John.” Most of the notes had been stomped on by the high-heeled Beatle shoes.
After it had struck, the “Beatle-cane” moved on to strike again somewhere else. And the maintenance men at Cincinnati Gardens began picking up the trash and Beatle buttons.l
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