Sept. 20, 1964 - The Beatles came to Times Square for a benefit show in the Paramount Theatre tonight, and a funny thing happened — the microphone system broke down while they sang 10 songs, and nobody noticed.
The 3,300 teenagers in the crowd filled the place with bedlam and couldn’t hear, and the 500 begowned and dinner-jacketed adults smiled and couldn’t hear. After their half hour onstage, the Beatles were whisked out the 44th St. door to a hotel near Kennedy Airport before flying home to Britain.
The benefit, where seats were priced from $5 to $100, raked in an estimated $75,000 for United Cerebral Palsy and the Retarded Infants Service.
Disaster threatened Times Square when the mop-top quartet arrived — scores of teenage young ladies of America rushed the Beatles’ limousine and rocked and rolled it.
Because of police vigilance — there were more than 200 cops on hand — the demonstration did not get entirely out of hand. But dozens of young women reached the singing group as they alighted from their limousine.
Some of the girls got their hands on them briefly, but then the four musicians and their manager sprinted into the stage entrance.
“I was a little afraid. They were starting to rock the limousine,” said Louis Savarese, the chauffeur who brought the group from the Wall St. heliport.
The Beatles had arrived at Kennedy from the Ozarks and then shuttled by helicopter to Manhattan, thus foiling fans along the Van Wyck and Long Island Expressways.
At the concert, everyone applauded enthusiastically enough while such stars as Eydie Gormé and Steve Lawrence performed, and when Leslie Uggams and the Brothers Four, among other acts, sang. But it was the Beatles, introduced by Ed Sullivan, who sparked the bedlam.
Banners dropped from the balcony, proclaiming: “We love you, Beatles.” Some teenage gals almost dropped too, proclaiming the same thing.
In accordance with Beatlemaniac tradition, the fans pelted their hairy heroes with a variety of love trinkets: fruit, lipstick, jelly beans, confetti, hairpins, and soda cups. The junk was up to the Beatles’ ankles before they were through.
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