Hell or high water: Beatles overcame obstacles to play '64 concert in Jacksonville
A hurricane couldn’t stop them. Segregationists didn’t even slow them down. Disputes with a musicians’ union and some rogue filmmakers were just temporary roadblocks.
The Beatles were coming to Jacksonville, come hell or high water.
Sept. 11 marks the 60th anniversary of the Fab Four playing to a screaming crowd at the old Gator Bowl stadium. They played for about 30 minutes, but the echoes linger six decades later.
It's a show that almost didn't happen for a number of reasons: Hurricane Dora had just roared through town, bringing President Lyndon Johnson in to survey the damage; the band nearly canceled in a dispute with stadium management, which wanted to segregate the audience; and a group of rogue filmmakers caused the band's road manager to threaten cancellation if they didn't stop shooting unauthorized footage.
Thousands of fans, having paid $4 and $5 for a ticket, couldn't make it to the show because power was out in large parts of the city. The band played a 30-minute set in conditions so windy that Ringo Starr's drums had to be nailed to the stage so they wouldn't topple over.
The Storm: Hurricane Dora lashes Jacksonville before Beatles arrival
Hurricane Dora was a Category 2 storm when it made landfall around Vilano Beach just after midnight Sept. 10, causing extensive damage and leaving thousands of people without power for more than a week. The Beatles were scheduled to fly directly to Jacksonville from their Sept. 8 concert in Montreal, but were diverted to Key West because of the storm.
The band waited out the storm in Key West and didn't travel to Jacksonville until the day of the show.
Damage from the storm was still clear when the band's plane landed at the old Imeson Airport on the north side of the city.
"They said the hurricane had passed when we flew into Jacksonville, but it was as windy as hell and it was dark with very heavy black clouds all over," George Harrison commented in "The Beatles Anthology," released in 2002. "It had cleared a bit, but there were still turbulent winds, and as we were approaching we could see the devastation: palm trees fallen over and mess laying everywhere."
The controversies: Beatles demand show be desegregated
Three controversies — one with a union, one with the stadium management and one with cameramen — nearly derailed the show.
The American Guild of Variety Artists, a union that represents entertainers, threatened to picket the Gator Bowl unless the Beatles paid union dues. "I have a directive from my headquarters in New York to get them into AGVA or they won't sing," the Sarasota Herald-Tribune quoted union representative Al Fast of Tampa as saying. "They can play their guitars but they can't sing unless they get right with AGVA. I can put a picket line around the Gator Bowl and the musicians' union will back me."
The band paid $1,800 in dues and initiation fees and avoided the pickets.
The next controversy centered over plans to segregate the show. The band had been told that the management of the Gator Bowl wanted the show to be racially segregated. That didn’t go over well with the Beatles, especially John Lennon, who said he’d cancel the show before he’d play before a segregated audience.
Journalists following the tour started asking the Beatles about the segregation issue weeks before the show, but ultimately the point was moot. Between the time the concert was booked in the spring of '64 and the time it was actually played, the Civil Rights Act was passed, making any segregation plans against the law.
In the end, the audience was integrated, although very few Blacks attended.
The third controversy came moments before the band was to play. Eight cameramen had been following the band on the tour, taking unauthorized footage of the performances, then selling it as newsreels without paying royalties to the band — an early form of bootleg videos. Derek Taylor, the band's road manager, had enough of it and went onstage to tell the audience that the Beatles wouldn't play unless the cameramen left.
"The Beatles are 100 feet away," a Times-Union story published the next day quoted him as saying. "They came thousands of miles to be here. The only thing preventing their appearance is the cameramen."
The cameramen reportedly got the message and fled before the crowd could get to them.
One fan's story: Jacksonville Beatles show echoes through Kitty Oliver's life 60 years later
The press conference: Segregation issue comes up again
The band flew from Key West to Jacksonville, landing in what the Times-Union described as "a secret arrival at Imeson Airport at 5:30 p.m." that was apparently not so secret — 150 fans were waiting for them (the same story also referred to the band as "the hirsute scourges of Liverpool"). A police escort took them to the downtown George Washington Hotel, which stood on West Adams Street.
The band had intended to spend the night at the hotel, but the segregation issue came up again — this time with two of the four opening acts. Black performers the Exciters and Clarence “Frogman” Henry were on the bill and weren’t exactly welcomed to spend the night. Rather than send the other acts to a different hotel, the Beatles and their management decided early that they'd board their plane after the show and fly to the next date, in Boston.
But they did use the hotel for a short press conference, where they answered some pretty silly questions ("Do you have nicknames for each other?" "Hi Ringo, Where are your drums?" "Do you always eat on the run like this?"). At one point, Ringo Starr alluded to the controversy with the hotel, saying "We usually eat in the room, but seeing the hotel's got no room for us, we have to eat here, you see."
Following the press conference, the Beatles climbed into a car to head for the stadium. But there were so many fans mobbing the car that they moved just 25 feet in 15 minutes. It took 25 police officers to finally clear a path.
The show: Beatles play 12 songs in 30 minutes
At least 20,000 fans were in the Gator Bowl, which was the largest venue the Beatles played on the entire tour and the only full concert the band ever played in Florida (the band's second performance on the "Ed Sullivan Show" was from a hotel in Miami). The Gator Bowl stage was on the 10-yard line and was about 20 feet wide and 10 feet high. A 6-foot-high fence stood 15 feet from the front of the stage and 40 police officers stood in front of the fence. The first row of seats was another 30 feet back, creating a 45-foot buffer between the band and the fans.
The Bill Black Combo opened the show (minus Bill Black, Elvis Presley's bass player, who passed away the following year), followed by the Exciters, Henry and Jackie DeShannon. The Righteous Brothers played some earlier dates on the tour, but not the Jacksonville show.
The band only played for about 30 minutes, which was standard for the '64 tour. They played the same 12 songs they played at every show, and the sound system was terrible. It was still windy from Dora, with gusts reported up to 45 mph, leading to Starr's drums, which were on an elevated platform, being nailed to the stage.
What songs did the Beatles play in Jacksonville in 1964?
"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"
"Long Tall Sally"
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: The Beatles in Jacksonville in 1964: A look back at Gator Bowl concert
