Today In Pop Culture: The Beatles Invade New York

By Jeffery X Martin

It’s difficult to write about anything that ends with the word, “Mania.” Look at how Hulkamania ended, with Hulk Hogan in court and releasing sex tapes and whatnot. And I would love to write about last year’s WrestleMania, but that whole Terminator: Genisys tie-in was so atrocious, even the memories of it burn like a lye bath.

Let’s talk about Beatlemania instead, which really began in America today in 1964, when the Beatles landed in New York for a short tour and two television appearances.

On the way here from England, Paul McCartney is famously quoted as saying, “They’ve got their own groups. What are we going to give then that they don’t already have?” The answer to that is probably incontinence, but we’ll get to that in a bit.

The band was met by 4,000 people at JFK Airport in New York. Most of that crowd were screaming teenage girls. It was the largest crowd the airport had hosted for an incoming flight. Each of the Beatles was placed into a separate limo and driven to New York City for a press conference. They stayed at the Plaza Hotel.

When they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, 75 million viewers tuned in. That was two-fifths of the entire American population! Imagine if Firefly had gotten those numbers.

Their first US concert was at Washington Coliseum, located in, of all places, Washington, D.C. There were 8,000 Beatlemaniacs in attendance, and the Beatles took breaks during the show to turn the equipment around. That way, the audience could take turns seeing the band play facing them. For a group of mop-topped rebels, that was an incredibly polite thing to do.

2,000 fans showed up the next night at Carnegie Hall. After that, the Beatles went to Miami and did another Ed Sullivan spot from there, performing in the Napoleon Ballroom at the Deauville Hotel.

And then, they went home. It was a whirlwind tour, for sure, and the Beatles would only tour the US twice more as a fully functioning unit.

I mentioned incontinence before, and there is a reason for that. It has recently come to light that, during the live Beatles shows, the girls in attendance were so excited that they wet their pants; so much so, that some have gone on record stating they associate the Beatles’ music with the smell of urine.

At least one source claims that’s only an urban legend, but it could still be true. If one person at one show says it didn’t happen, that still leaves a lot of other shows with a bunch of other folks.

Was Beatlemania really Peetlemania? I don’t know, man. I didn’t do it. But that level of idol worship was something the States hadn’t seen since Elvis came on the scene. The Beatles got bigger than Elvis soon after that, and have arguably left a bigger footprint on popular music than The King.

Still, 8,000 people for a show? That seems like nothing now, in the days of music festivals and touring shows like the Warped Tour. It was huge in 1964, though, and that first US tour is one reason the Beatles are still huge now.

So long, Beatles, and thanks for all the piss.