It Was 60 Years Ago Today … That the Beatles Nearly Lost Their Careers in Vegas

Posted on: August 20, 2024, 08:04h. 

Last updated on: August 20, 2024, 02:19h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Las Vegas Myths.

Ahead of the Beatles’ only two concert performances in Las Vegas, on Aug. 20, 1964, the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper warned of “thousands of adolescent females ready to tear down brick walls with their bare hands to get a look at the furry foursome.” They weren’t wrong.

The Beatles take the stage at the Las Vegas Convention Center. (Image: Las Vegas News Bureau)

With a population of fewer than 200K, Las Vegas was by far the smallest of the 23 US cities in which John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr performed that year. Still, the local sheriff’s department was worried enough about the impending frenzy to mandate riot training for all its officers two days earlier.

After playing the Cow Palace on August 19, the Fab Four flew directly to McCarran Airport. A planned parade for them in San Francisco had to be called off over security concerns, but the schedule change from a noon landing on August 20 to 1:35 a.m. proved serendipitous. That’s because tens of thousands of teenage girls were bound to be awaiting their chartered Lockheed Electra by sunrise. (In those days, anyone could just walk up to the gate.)

However, even at 1:35 a.m., hundreds of them had already gathered outside McCarran’s brand new main terminal (today’s Terminal 1), in defiance of a countywide 10 p.m. curfew. So police directed the Beatles’ plane to pull into the old terminal, which was at least a mile away, after touching down.

A small group of dignitaries and photographers were assembled to meet the Beatles there. While coming and going, they were instructed to keep their headlights off for secrecy.

This was only the second stop on the band’s first North American tour, and nobody — least of all the Beatles and their manager, Brian Epstein — realized that Beatlemania would grip America the same exact way it had Europe the year before.

In fact, six months earlier, the Beatles were booked for a single appearance at the Sahara’s 700-seat Congo Room.

In the interim, Sahara entertainment director Stan Irwin realized the inadequacy of his space. So he rebooked the group for two shows at the Las Vegas Convention Center, adding a 4 p.m. show so that Strip performers such as Liberace and Pat Boone could see and meet the Beatles while still performing their own shows that night.

So how exactly did the Beatles nearly lose their careers in Las Vegas? We’re getting to that, promise!

Help!

The Beatles arrive at the back of the Sahara. (Image: Las Vegas News Bureau)

The motorcade arrived at the Sahara — where the band would stay, as per the original deal. Hotel officials traveling with the band were congratulating themselves for pulling off a discreet landing — until they eyed the Beatles-starved mob surrounding the casino hotel.

The lads’ car pulled into a shipping dock in the back to slip them onto a freight elevator. To do that, Irwin recalled, hotel employees had to form “an arm-in-arm link,” a fence of humans to hold back the girls, who were grabbing as much British hair and flesh as their hands could hold.

“If any of us had fallen, we would have been stomped to death,” Irwin said.

(Image: Montreal Star via Newspapers.com)

The Beatles had initially wanted to see Las Vegas and try their hand at gambling — all but Lennon, who said he had no interest. However, since so many of the band’s fans were under 21, management was concerned about keeping them off the casino floor.

It had also become depressingly clear by this point that the Beatles would not be safe venturing anywhere outside a heavily guarded hotel room for the duration of their tour.

So, on the morning of the show, the Sahara brought gambling to the Beatles. In Suite 2344 of the Sahara’s Alexandria Tower, the Fabs tried out two slot machines as they clowned around for invited photographers and reporters.

Come What Mayhem

Nearly 17K fans packed the two sold-out performances at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Ticket prices ranged from $2.20 to $5.50. The Beatles received a $25K appearance fee plus 60% of the ticket sales, which amounted to $33K. (Image: Las Vegas News Bureau)

Doors to the convention center’s then UFO-shaped rotunda opened at 3 p.m. for the 4 p.m. show.

First up were The Exciters, whose name created false expectations. The Righteous Brothers followed, but were then largely unknown, since it would be three more months before their big hit, “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.” Finally, Jackie DeShannon was nearly drowned out by chants of “We want the Beatles!”

Liberace enjoys the Beatles’ early show. (Image: Las Vegas News Bureau)

The Beatles, introduced by Irwin — also part of the deal — played to an incessant jet-engine blast of high-pitched screams from 5:30-5:59 p.m.

Those 29 minutes contained “Twist and Shout,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “All My Loving,” “She Loves You,” “‘Till There Was You,” “Roll Over Beethoven,” “You Can’t Do That,” “If I Fell,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “Boys,” “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Long Tall Sally” — though few in attendance could make out more than a stray note or two of any song.

Following the concert, the band retired to the Sahara, whose elevators, stairwells, janitorial closets, and balconies were infested with young female fans hiding from hotel security.

Two fans reportedly attempted to climb the hotel’s outer wall from the floor below the Beatles’ balcony. They didn’t succeed but, by a miracle, didn’t kill themselves, either.

Two others managed to get their wishes granted, and that’s where things almost went terribly wrong for the lads ….

Do You Want to Know a Secret?

Between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. on Aug. 21, 1964, two underage girls were found in John Lennon’s room at the Sahara.

Do these look like the faces of girls who are not willing to go to any lengths necessary to meet their idols? (Image: Las Vegas News Bureau)

The discovery was made after the front desk phoned up to inform the group’s handlers that a woman was in the lobby, claiming that the Beatles had kidnapped her twin daughters.

Longtime Beatles roadie Mal Evans found the girls and woke up Miami radio reporter Larry Kane at around 5 a.m.

Kane, who was covering the tour and sleeping in an adjacent room, was asked to meet with the woman because he was the only one in the entourage who traveled with a business suit.

Before taking the elevator, Kane opened Lennon’s door to investigate for himself. He found him asleep with the girls watching TV at the edge of his bed.

No one can say for sure what happened before that — and Kane has repeatedly stated his emphatic belief that nothing did — but it was the perception that was the problem. Had news got out at this juncture that the lads from Liverpool may not be as squeaky clean as their press image suggested, their winding road might not have ended up so long.

Not a word was leaked about the untoward discovery for three more decades, however. And that was only because Beatles manager Brian Epstein secretly squashed a lawsuit either threatened or filed (it’s never been clear) by the girls’ mother when she got back home to LA, according to Kane. (British journalist Ivor Davis has claimed that a $10,000 payment was made.)

And so it was that the Beatles departed Las Vegas at 11:24 a.m. on Aug. 21, 1964, for that night’s concert in Seattle and the rest of their famous futures.