In the teeth of the Olympics and “The Walking Dead,” the two hour special marking the 50th anniversary of The Beatles U.S. television debut Sunday drew 14 million viewers, showing there is still interest in the band that burst on the pop music scene here in February, 1964.
Less widely remembered in the hubbub of that week – amid the photo opportunities, uproarious press conferences and the marketing cash-ins – was the Beatles’ first full U.S. concert performance two days later in Washington, D.C., 50 years ago tonight.
Normally, three consecutive weeks on the highly rated Sullivan show would alone have been worth the trip from England, where the band had been hot for a year.
But Sullivan was paying only $4,000 for the band. So a few live performances were scheduled to help offset the costs. Two in Carnegie Hall on Feb. 12 were thought to be the prestige live gigs, outside of the TV broadcasts. According to some reports, the Washington show was to serve as a warm-up, though as filmed by the Maysles brothers, and later made available as a closed circuit theatrical experience and eventually VHS and DVD, it proved to be much more.
The original plan was for the Beatles to fly to Washington, but a major snowstorm on the morning of the 11th changed their plans. Fresh in their minds was the tragedy that had occurred five years earlier, when one of their biggest heroes, Buddy Holly, died in a February snowstorm flight.
A special train car was attached to the regular passenger train to Washington so the Beatles and their entourage could travel to Washington.
Ringo Starr mugged with the photographers; George Harrison pretended to be a bellhop. It all looked like a scene from “A Hard Day’s Night,” which they would shoot when they got back to England.
According to reports, Paul McCartney and John Lennon were relatively subdued (Lennon’s then-wife Cynthia Lennon, in a dark wig and sunglasses, traveled along incognito and was nearly left behind at the train station in New York).
When the Beatles arrived in Washington, 3,000 fans showed up to meet them at Union Station. They were mostly held back by 20-foot platform gates, but some got in with a sponsoring radio station.
The Beatles took over the entire seventh floor of the Shoreham Hotel at Connecticut and Calvert in Rock Creek Park, but only after hotel management (unbeknownst to the band) forced out one family who had refused to move by shutting off their light, heat and power, claiming there was a power failure and giving them a larger room on the ninth floor.
(The D.C. show set list, apparently in Lennon’s handwriting, was on display for the 50th anniversary this week as part of the Fab February promotion at the still-grand 1930s hotel now called the Omni Shoreham).
The venue for the show, the Washington Sports Arena, at Third and M streets Northeast, was a cavernous building used mostly for boxing. Accordingly, the stage was the boxing ring, minus the ropes.
Under the lightning of flashbulbs, they shook hands with the hosts – local DJs in goofy Beatles wigs – and immediately began adjusting their equipment. Openers included Bobby Vee, the Chiffons and the Coravelles
In those early days of rock, the term “roadie” hadn’t been coined, and there were no stagehands to help with the equipment. And there was lots of work to do. In the first and possibly last concert the Beatles ever played in the round, after every few songs, the band had to move the microphones to face another direction, and Ringo had to rearrange his drums.
The tiny Vox amps, one each for John, Paul and George, were pitifully small by modern standards. Most garage bands these days have more power.
Still, the excitement of the show was undeniable. Among those in the audience: a young future vice president and presidential nominee Al Gore.
The set list, by modern standards, was also quite limited, beginning with the blast of the Chuck Berry cover “Roll Over Beethoven” and continuing with “From Me To You,” “I Saw Her Standing There,” “This Boy,” “All My Loving,” “I Wanna Be Your Man,” “Please Please Me,” ” ‘Till There Was You,” “She Loves You” and the group’s reigning No. 1, “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” followed by two more sturdy covers, the Isley Brothers’ “Twist and Shout,” and Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally.”
It was all over in about a half-hour.
Afterwards, the Beatles were paraded through the British Embassy where they were pawed more than a red panda. When someone clipped a bit of Ringo’s hair for a souvenir, they all stormed off.