SEPTEMBER 1964: THE BEATLES INVADED BALTIMORE

On September 13, 1964, The Beatles invaded Baltimore for a one-day stop during their first American tour. John, Paul, George, and Ringo played two concerts at the Civic Center (today know as the Baltimore Arena) and then quickly moved on to the remaining stops on their 32-performance tour schedule from August 19 to September 20.

Baltimore photographer Morton Tadder was there to document the performances. Born in 1929, Tadder began working as a photographer’s assistant while still in high school and over the next six decades established himself as one of Maryland’s premiere commercial photographers. His clients included McCormick, Baltimore magazine, U.S. Steel Corporation, and Playboy. He was also the official photographer for both the Orioles and the Colts.(1) Tadder was hired by the London Express to photograph the Fab Four for what would be their only Baltimore appearance. The newspaper asked him to only shoot only one roll of film, but Tadder ended up filling up more than ten rolls, capturing the Beatles in concert (only the afternoon performance), the between show press conference, and the masses of teenage girls.

The Beatles visit to Baltimore was typical of any of the group’s appearances at the height of Beatlemania: screaming girls, press conferences, high security, car chases, and hiding in hotels. The music itself was almost incidental. Crowds gathered all day outside the Civic Center and the Holiday Inn across the street, where the Beatles were staying, in an attempt to catch a glimpse of the group. Two girls unsuccessfully tried to deliver themselves to the concert in a box marked “Beatles Fan Mail.” Another girl, intent on fulfilling her plan to marry Ringo, persuaded a Civic Center employee to show her the Beatles dressing room. She left a note with her telephone number and “I love you Ringo” affixed to some coat hangers.

An estimated 26,000 screaming fans packed into the Civic Center for the two concerts. Seventy-one police officers were lined up three deep in the orchestra pit in front of the stage. After sitting in patient anticipation through the opening acts—Bill Black’s Combo, The Exciters, Clarence ‘Frogman’ Henry, and Jackie DeShannon—the crowd exploded in shrieks and applause when the Beatles hit the stage. Although little could be heard of their performance above the din of the audience, the group ran through a set list of 12 songs: “Twist and Shout,” “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.”

After an all night private party held at La Ronde, the revolving restaurant perched atop the Holiday Inn, the Beatles left the hotel by limousine destined for more of the same hysteria in Pittsburgh, the next stop on the tour. Despite the party, the frenzied pace of touring, and general condition of being a Beatle, The Sun reported that the group departed Baltimore looking “fresh and restive.” George and Paul “were neatly dressed in suits and blue shirts, Ringo was tie-less, and John, in sunglasses, long-hair and white shirt with bold black spots, looked like a blind Dalmatian.”(2) (Damon Talbot)

Underbelly would like to thank Morton Tadder for granting permission to use his photographs. Captions for the photographs below were taken from various contemporary articles from the Baltimore Sun and the Washington Post. 

“We believe they would be quite good looking with the hair back out of their eyes. If [only] when granting a press interview they were nicely dressed instead of rumpled and tieless – Paul was the exception here.”
Beatles Press Conference, Baltimore, September 13, 1964

“Ringo Starr – that lovable drummer – the hind quarter of the musical four, shook his locks at the girls in a way that was talented: in a way that Rudolph Valentino, with his plastered down sideburns would have envied.”
The Beatles, Baltimore, September 13, 1964

“The Beatles had been snugly guarded in their hotel throughout the morning by a main portion of a 200 man city police Beatle Guard. They slipped out and into the auditorium in a short furious limousine dash that confounded a crowd of several hundred teenagers gasping outside the hotel.”
Beatles fans outside the Holiday Inn, Lombard Street, September 13, 1964

“The youngsters had been jiggling in anticipation for hours before showtime, screaming at intervals when the spirit overtook them…A loudspeaker sternly warned “Do not run into the building, walk,” but in 30 seconds the recorded voice was obliterated by the shrieks of joyful, happy, exuberant Beatlemania.”
Beatles fans lined up outside the Baltimore Civic Center, September 13, 1964

“There were nearly 13,000 worshippers at each of the two performances – not quite as many as appeared last year for Peter, Paul and Mary, the folk singers. It was an audience of believers who performed like veterans.”
Beatles Concert, Baltimore Civic Center, September 13, 1964

“If, up close, it was apparent that the Beatles were in their 20’s and shaved, from the audience their faces were truly cherubic. They were four baby boys, each one peering from beneath his own fringed Victorian Ottoman.”
The Beatles, Baltimore Civic Center, September 13, 1964

“The Civic Center screamed in feverish excitement like some sluggish animal finally come to life. Teen-agers, mostly, and girls, primarily, burst loose in hysteric recognition when the quartet appeared. They had come. It was real. The hanks of hair. The flesh. The electrocuting guitars that had left fainting bodies throughout the land.”
Audience at Beatles Concert, Baltimore Civic Center, September 13, 1964

“When Beatle Paul said, “Thank you very much,” and kicked up a leg a meter or so, it was so pure, so true, so honest Paul that some of the most devout cried real tears.”
Paul McCartney, Baltimore Civic Center, September 13, 1964

“Only a bar here and there could be heard of the songs as wave after wave of shrieks swelled through the mammoth auditorium….There were several cases of hysterics treated at the arena first aid station but not an unusual number, ‘considering the girls were talked into hysterics by the activities in the other cities.’”
The Beatles, Baltimore Civic Center, September 13, 1964

“The enormous cavern of the building had become a vibrant, pulsating shrine with waves of shrieking adulation that burst with concussive force…They stood on the cushioned seats and bounced blissfully up and down, They jumped, high and higher, and when the excitement was too much they clasped their heads in their hands and shrieked with pleasure. Clearly, something wonderful was happening.”
Audience at Beatles Concert, Baltimore Civic Center, September 13, 1964

“The hotel party had begun shortly after their second performance and was limited to their entourage and a very select few…The boys were dressed casually – levis and English boots – and stimulated by some impromptu singing by The Exciters, the affair turned Hootenanny.”
The Beatles, Baltimore, September 13, 1964

“The mop topped quartet left the Monumental City today for their next shriek-fast at Pittsburgh, and police relaxed their tightest security measures in decades.”
The Beatles, Baltimore, September 13, 1964