The Fab Four Hit the Hoosier State 61 Years Ago This Month
Sixty-one years ago this month, Thursday, Sept. 3, 1964, saw an event that, according to one news program of the day, left some in Indiana wondering if they’d ever see such a phenomenon in the Hoosier State again: The Beatles came to Indianapolis — and what’s more, they performed not one but two shows at the Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum before a total of nearly 30,000 screaming fans.
This was the group’s second American tour, beginning in August 1964 — six months after their legendary U.S. television debut on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and four years after the band exploded onto the scene with their first album in 1960. The Indianapolis concert was one stop on a tour that also included San Francisco, Las Vegas, Seattle, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Denver, Cincinnati, New York, Atlantic City, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, Montreal, Jacksonville, Boston, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, New Orleans, Kansas City, Dallas and New York.
According to The Indianapolis News, the Fab Four landed around 1 a.m. at the Allison Division landing strip at Weir Cook Airport, after which they were whisked to a suite of 12 rooms booked for their entourage at the Speedway Motel on West 16th Street — where switchboard operators would field more than 40,000 phone calls during the course of their stay.
Perhaps understandably — especially since they’d just completed an extensive European tour and had zipped from city to city across the world in the months prior — members of the band knew Indiana and its capital city mostly for its famed auto racing legacy.
Asked about the city, George Harrison replied, “It’s the place with the hot rod races, isn’t it? It’s the only sport I like.”
Indeed, when Ringo Starr was nowhere to be found before the first concert, it turned out he’d been driving a police car around “a nearby racetrack” and lost track of time, arriving mere minutes before the start of the concert, according to The Indianapolis Star.
The Beatles were greeted upon arrival at the coliseum, said the Star, by “souvenir-hungry teenagers” (similar to those camped out at the motel), who damaged windows, mirrors and upholstery of the cars in which the band rode. They also all but ran over Maude Schricker, wife of former Gov. Henry Schricker. Outside the concert — most of whose attendees were female — a number of young men wore “I hate the Beatles” pinback buttons, perhaps understandably!
According to Beatlesbible.com, opening acts for the band included The Bill Black Combo, The Exciters, Clarence “Frogman” Henry and finally Jackie DeShannon — quite a lineup of classic rockers in their own right.
The Beatles themselves hit the stage at 6:21 p.m., playing for 12,413 fans. This was followed by a press conference and then a second show before 16,924 audience members.
The band opened with “Twist and Shout” and followed with what comprised their standard 12-song set at the time: “You Can’t Do That,” “All My Loving,” “She Loves You,” “Things We Said Today,” “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “If I Fell,” “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” “Boys,” “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Long Tall Sally.”
Virtually every report about the concerts made note of the constant, near-deafening screaming from the audience (no surprise to those who watched the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show), which increased in volume with various movements of the band or during the choruses of some songs. According to the Star, some audience members threw jellybeans onto the stage, “continuing a sort of Beatle tradition,” while others sat and wept quietly. Some “had the forlorn looks worn by victims of great unrequited love.” Still others held signs, including one that read “Ringo for President.” When the show ended, it “was as though someone suddenly turned off the screaming machine.”
More than 30 fans were treated for minor injuries, an asthmatic attack, and “nine emotional reactions diagnosed as probably hysteria.”
Interestingly, band members later described the fans at the Indianapolis shows as “quite quiet” compared with others on the tour.
Tickets for each show were $5 (about $50 in today’s prices, adjusted for inflation), and the Beatles took home $85,231.93 ($1,719.02 was deducted as state income tax) for their day’s work.
After the 1964 show, fan hysteria surrounding the rooms back at the Beatles’ Speedway Motel lodgings led their handlers to change plans and sweep the band out of the city and on to their next performance site in Milwaukee, immediately after the second Indianapolis concert.
And while the front-page Indianapolis Star article placed most of its focus on audience screaming and hysteria, Star writer Stephanie Hoppes’ review, several pages deeper into the paper, focused more on the music and the experience of the concert. She wrote: “Parents, we wish you could have all been there to see the overpowering cries of happiness from your children… it was a sight we will always remember.”
Last year, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the concert, the Indiana State Fairgrounds staged an event in which those who had attended the original show could share recollections; audio and video of the 1964 show were played, and the Beatles tribute band 1964 recreated the entire concert — right down to the onstage banter between John, Paul, George and Ringo.
WFYI.org writer Jill Sheridan quoted Max Colver, who was 9 years old when he attended the original concert with his mother and brother.
“We were on the floor about three rows from the back, and we barely could see anything,” Colver says. “The sound quality was horrible, but it didn’t matter, because we were screaming so loud and having such a good time.”
For his part, Beatle George Harrison again recalled the motorsports side of the city first and foremost in his recollections of that day in 1964.
“Indianapolis was good. As we were leaving, on the way to the airport, they took us round the Indy circuit, the 500 oval, in a Cadillac. It was fantastic. I couldn’t believe how long the straightaway was; and to be on the banking and see all the grandstands was great.”
