The Beatles In Cleveland
The
Beatles In Cleveland
From Cool
Cleveland Creator Thomas Mulready
With cameos by Jane Scott, Ghoulardi's assistant Ron Sweed (later to become television's The Ghoul), and anecdotes about radio rivalries between WIXY 1260 and WHK, any Clevelander will relate to this account of the Beatles two infamous and riotous visits to our home town.
When you've read a lot of Beatles books, and there are a lot of them, and I've read most of them, you start to hear the same anecdotes and stories and myths propagated in book after book. In a way, the story of the Beatles has become, like the story of Elvis, an oral history passed down from father to son, from mother to daughter. It is a story that tells us about who we are as a generation, through the embodiment of four average blokes who together created a musical nirvana never since eclipsed.
Cleveland-based entertainment journalist Dave Schwensen returned to Northeast Ohio from Hollywood after tiring of "making his hometown a vacation spot every year," and has put together not only a memory-filled tale of the two Cleveland Beatles concerts in 1964 & 1966, he has created the most microscopically detailed account of any period in Beatles history.
On 9/15/64, the Beatles stop at Public Hall caused such a commotion that the show had to be stopped by the Chief of Police after 3 songs when thousands of the 10,000 fans rushed the stage. After 20 minutes and the calming influence of radio personalities, the show continued, but news got out that security cost the city $14K to protect the Beatles, so Mayor Ralph Locher banned pop music concerts, causing the Rolling Stones to lose $5000 for a gig already scheduled. So Cleveland missed out on the 1965 tour entirely.
Fast forward to 08/14/66, and somehow, they got booked to play Municipal Stadium, which could have held 50-60,000 people. That is, if John Lennon hadn't been quoted a few months earlier saying the Beatles were bigger than Jesus. The result? Probably 20,000 fans in the stadium instead. But those 20,000 again overpowered the meager police force guarding the stage built over second base. Actually, the police were facing the stage, enjoying the show, and were oblivious to the riot going on in the stands. At the start of the 4th song, "Day Tripper," an estimated 2500 fans topped the flimsy wooden snow fence and rushed the stage, forcing the Beatles to retreat to a large mobile home that had been wheeled out next to the stage to serve as a green room.
After a half hour or so, and coaxing by WIXY DJs, the Beatles apparently played the concert opener, Chuck Berry's Rock and Roll Music, again, the only time they played a song twice in one concert. A concert that many have still not forgotten.
The Beatles in Cleveland by Dave Schwensen, with a foreword by Beatles biographer Bill Harry, published by North Shore Publishing, http://www.beatlesincleveland.com.