By William Kelly
At 8:30 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 30, 1964, showtime finally came for The Beatles. Atlantic City Police Officer Robert Clifton escorted the Fab Four from the dressing room, down a narrow staircase to the backstage area.
“Each Beatle remained calm, patiently waiting to go on stage,” Clifton recalled. “The noise from the audience at this time is rather hard to describe. It was different; not an impatient murmur, but more like one of expectation – a funny kind of excitement.
Clifton, who was one of several officers assigned to security duty that day, put together his recollections for Beatlefan Magazine in the August/September 1983 issue.
“Then came the words from the giant speakers situated throughout the large auditorium, ‘The Beatles!’ And all at once we were moving; walking quickly out onto the stage. Once there, we were met with a mighty blast of sound – a solid wall of noise that actually struck you with a force that stopped your forward momentum.”
The Convention Hall stage was huge – too big for the small group and their small sound system, which was what a garage band would use today. Instead of using the main stage, The Beatles were on a makeshift, 15-foot-high platform constructed on scaffolding in front of the stage, with a half dozen police officers, Clifton among them.
“Eighteen police officers stood below us, between The Beatles and 25,000 screaming fans,” Clifton wrote. “But no one moved from in front of their seats toward the stage as The Beatles began to play.”
They were disorderly but polite.
The cheering was nonstop. Clifton couldn’t even tell what songs were being played; but with all of the cheers and all the tears from the screaming girls, there was no doubt – it was Beatlemania!
Of The Beatles’ fans, journalist Larry Kane later said, “I wanted to look at their faces and what I saw, almost to a person, was the boys and mostly young girls ripping their hair, tears flowing from their eyes – not tears of agony or joy. It was possession, and they were possessed with these four young men.”
In a little over a half hour it was all over with no encore. “The show was over,” noted Clifton, “but there was plenty more to come.”
For the record, The Beatles opened the 12-song set with “Twist and Shout,” which The Isley Brothers had made a hit, and concluded with Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally,” sandwiching them around Chuck Berry’s “Roll Over Beethoven,” The Shirelles’ “Boys,” and some originals: “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “She Loves You,” “You Can’t Do That,” “All My Loving,” “Things We Said Today,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “If I Fell,” and “A Hard Day’s Night.”
Totally unappreciated were the opening acts. The Righteous Brothers left the tour early on, feeling neglected by the crazy Beatles’ fans, and all but forgotten are the others – Tommy Roe, the Bill Black Combo, The Exciters, and New Orleans soul singer Clarence “Frogman” Henry. Singer Jackie DeShannon was there, too. She stuck with the tour and got to work with The Beatles, considering it an important time in her career.
The Escape
The Beatles got out of Convention Hall in a commercial delivery truck of some sort, though there are differing accounts of exactly what kind.
Clifton recalls them arriving in a limo and leaving in a laundry truck. “The Complete Beatles Chronicle” says it was a fish truck. One fan remembers an ambulance, while Robert Palamaro, a former AC motorcycle policeman assigned to The Beatles, recalled that they arrived in a bread truck from A. Rando Bakery. Clifton said a laundry truck was used to take the band members to their hotel. Whatever it was, they needed stealth to escape from their ravenous fans who refused to be denied.
“As the auditorium cleared,” Clifton said, “fans raced to Pacific Avenue to join thousands who had been there before them. All wanted to see the group one more time.
“The street was filled with milling people. Traffic stopped and had to be rerouted. The limousine that brought them was unable to make it into the street from the garage, and even if it had made it, there was a danger that the vehicle would be swarmed by eager fans. It became a security nightmare.”
Chillin’ at the Lafayette
Palamaro recalled that, “We did the show at Convention Hall and then took them to the hotel – the Lafayette, which is no longer there (on South North Carolina Avenue). We just made small talk with them, and mainly dealt with their manager.
“They were just chillin’, just trying to relax, and we were making sure nobody got near them,” said Palamaro in a 2014 interview. “Our job was to keep people away from them so they could relax, but girls were climbing up the fire escape. It was really unbelievable.”
Clifton said The Beatles became virtual prisoners in their own suite of rooms.
When it was time to get something to eat, they wanted to try a local delicacy, so Palamaro suggested White House subs. As he explained it, “My uncle Tony Basile owned the White House subs, and we couldn’t take them there, so we decided to bring sandwiches to them.”
Basile’s daughter, Jen, whose family runs the White House today, was too young to recall The Beatles, but has a paper plate with their signatures on it.
When Palamaro brought the special 6-foot sub to The Beatles, he recalls that, “Brian Epstein, their manager was there and he frowned on anyone taking pictures. But we had Jim Barber, the official police photographer there, so they let him take that picture with me and the White House sub.”
One of the opening acts, Jackie DeShannon, whose hit songs would include “What the World Needs Now,” “Put a Little Love in Your Heart,” and “Bette Davis Eyes,” can be seen in a photo of her and George Harrison playing Monopoly on the carpet floor of the Lafayette.
Al Black
A major reason why The Beatles were able to move so smoothly amid the chaos that followed their Atlantic City show was the partnership of Steel Pier owner and concert promoter George Hamid and Al Black.
Getting the foursome to their gig and then to their hotel with thousands of screaming fans blocking the streets was certainly a big chore. But Hamid grew up in a circus family so he was used to sensational events. To handle the problem he turned to Black, an Atlantic City private eye in the best Sam Spade/Peter Gunn tradition.
The son of a policeman, “Big Al” was a former Marine, around the island swimmer, and later a central figure in an undercover sting operation. A short-lived TV detective show starring Brian Dennehy called, “Big Shamus, Little Shamus,” was based on Big Al’s exploits. Keeping The Beatles on time, safe and secure was something that Al Black could do, with a lot of help from the Atlantic City Police Department.
Palamaro recalled that, “Al Black was the one who put it all together.”
Lennon and McCartney Write a Song
During their stay in Atlantic City the dynamic songwriting team of Lennon and McCartney combined to write “Every Little Thing,” which they recorded in late September for their fourth album, “For Sale,” released in the UK at the end of 1964 and in the US in June of 1965.
Every Little Thing
When I’m walking beside her,
People tell me I’m lucky,
Yes, I know I’m a lucky guy.
I remember the first time,
I was lonely without her,
Can’t stop thinking about her now.
Every little thing she does,
She does for me, yeah,
And you know the things she does,
She does for me, oooh.
When I’m with her I’m happy,
Just to know that she loves me,
Yes, I know that she loves me now.
There is one thing I’m sure of,
I will love her forever,
For I know love will never die.
Every little thing she does,
She does for me, yeah,
And you know the things she does,
She does for me, ooh.
Every little thing she does,
She does for me, yeah,
And you know the things she does,
She does for me, ooh.
Every little thing.
Every little thing.
Every little…..
Paul wrote the lyrics and later said: “John and I got this one written in Atlantic City during our first tour of the States. John does the guitar riff and George is on acoustic. Ringo bashes some timpani drums for the big noises you hear. ‘Every Little Thing,’ was my attempt at the next (big) single. I remember playing it for Brian backstage somewhere. I thought it was very catchy, something I thought was quite good, but became an album filler rather than the almighty single. It didn’t have quite what was required (to be a hit single).”
Writer Keith Badman described it as a “devotional love song, most likely written with Jane Asher in mind, and emotionally revealing… although the music was less successful, the lyrics are among McCartney’s most succinct and tender on the album.”
And it was penned at the Lafayette Hotel in Atlantic City on Aug. 30, 1964.
Palamaro, who stood guard at their hotel room door, recalled his experience in a 2014 interview. “I was 30 years old then, and now I’m 80, but I still remember them. They were really nice kids. We got to talking and you just had to like them.”
Clifton wrote that his encounter with The Beatles was like being part of history.
“The summer night turned into morning and a few hours later The Beatles were gone, off to some other city, to some other concert,” Clifton nostalgically wrote. “Many things have happened since 1964, but looking back over the years, that one particular evening stayed with me. I never forgot it. I never will. The Beatles made an impact not only in show business, but in the world. And I was there seeing, hearing, feeling, maybe in a very small way a part of it, a part of history that Summer of 1964.”
A Visit to West Atlantic City
Before The Beatles left the AC area for good they paid a visit to the home of Al Black. He had them in the back of the delivery truck so he took them home to his house at 1112 Bay Drive in West Atlantic City to meet the family and some of the neighbors.
Black’s daughter, Donna, who now runs a security business, was only a child who sat on the shoulders of a neighbor when The Beatles visited the Blacks’ home. A few photos were taken, but only one survives.
Donna Black recalled, “My babysitter was among the throngs at Convention Hall, and was really upset at missing The Beatles at my house.” But some of the local neighbors came by and the lads from Liverpool got a taste of the real Atlantic City while they were here.
The pitstop in West Atlantic City isn’t mentioned on The Beatles Bible fan site, which says they continued on their Jersey Shore journey:
“2:15 pm left Lafayette Motel-Hotel in fish truck which took them to their tour bus, which took them to Cape May where they stayed at the Lafayette Hotel.”
Neither of the Lafayette hotels are standing today. Although no one seems to recall the group being there, records indicate The Beatles stayed in Cape May for the two days – a short hiatus before their Sept. 2 show in Philadelphia.
The Chronicles say: “Day off in Cape May, New Jersey. 10:00 am Monday, 31 August, 1964, following their concert the previous night at the Convention Hall in Atlantic City, The Beatles relaxed at the Marquis de Lafayette Hotel, Cape May. Paul McCartney used the time off to call Elvis Presley on the telephone. Cape May – Monday, 31 August – Wednesday, 2 September.”
The Cape May Film Festival in October of 2014 at The Chalfonte Hotel featured a showcase of Beatles films in honor of the 50th anniversary of their first US visit, including “A Hard Day’s Night,” which was released in September of 1964 and may have been privately screened by The Beatles when they were kicking back in Cape May.
“A Hard Day’s Night” somewhat captures on film the madcap “Beatlemania” mayhem – a possessive, contagious pandemonium that swept through Atlantic City for one day in late August, 1964, and is still remembered by those who were there.
