By John Gibbons
It was early morning of August 30th, 1964 and Atlantic City region was abuzz with the news. The Beatles were coming to town.
Word got out fast without TV news and before cell phones or social media. The source was from the band’s promoter George A. Hamid Jr. announcing on the radio that The Beatles were coming to Atlantic City by bus and staying at the Shelburne Hotel. This news got to the city fast and locals raced towards the hotel to welcome the band and see them in the flesh for the first time. What they had not known was that The Beatles arrived in secrecy right behind their backs.
Just the night before, August 29th, the band took a helicopter from New York City to Bader Airfield. From the airfield they drove south to a Cape May hotel. Around 2:15 pm the next day The Beatles took a fish truck to the Atlantic City. They arrived at the LaFayette on North Carolina Avenue without incident and stayed there before their show. The entire seventh floor was given to the band. Word soon got out about where they were staying-which led fans to surround the building hoping to see the band.
While staying at the hotel, John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote the song Every Little Thing, which appeared on the Beatles For Sale album at the end of 1964. During the filming of “The Beatles Off the Record” McCartney was quoted in saying “John and I got this one written in Atlantic City during our last tour of the States. John does the guitar riff for this one, and George is on acoustic. Ringo bashes some timpani drums for the big noises you hear.”
Fans spent most of the day waiting for the band to come out of their room. It was not until 6 pm that fans were alerted that the doors to the show were opening at 8:30. In the blink of an eye the line was wrapping around the outside the Atlantic City Convention Hall. People of all ages buzzed and looked in awe at the signs that read “The fabulous Beatles.” For fans in the South Jersey area this was a dream come true.
The doors opened promptly at 8:30 pm. Fans filled into every free spot. When the doors closed for the show there was 18,000 people in the Convention Hall, fully sold out. The Beatles performed their standard 12-song set. including “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”, “A Hard Day’s Night”, and “Long Tall Sally”
The crowd screamed throughout the whole set. Because it was so loud it was reported that the fans could barely hear the songs that were being played. The Beatles were also bombarded with the flash from thousands of cameras pointed towards them. With all of these distractions it is hard to believe that the band could do their whole set without failure.
After the show, The Beatles left the venue in a laundry truck, as their limousine would have given them away. Following their concert the previous night at the Convention Hall in Atlantic City, The Beatles relaxed for a few days at the Marquis de Lafayette Hotel in Cape May.
Paul McCartney used the time off to call Elvis Presley on the telephone before their next show on September 2 in Philadelphia.
