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Reliving Seattle’s bout of Beatlemania

The world’s most famous rock band The Beatles visited Seattle for the first time in 1964 and it rocked the city. Here’s what happened.

The four members of the Beatles are pictured leaning out of a window at the Edgewater hotel in order to fish in Elliott Bay.

Imagine looking up and seeing the Beatles fishing out of the hotel room window above you.

Photo via the Edgewater Hotel

Let’s travel back in time, shall we? It’s summer in Seattle, and the year is 1964.

Crowds are piling around the Edgewater Hotel so thickly that police are installing cyclone fencing around its perimeter to keep people away. Others are jumping into Elliott Bay to try and swim around the backside of the building. More crowds flock toward the Coliseum — and even more are at the airports.

What causing all of the commotion? Nothing other than Beatlemania, of course.

The world’s most famous rock band played their first-ever show in the PNW on August 21, 1964 — and the city just couldn’t get enough of them.

It may have been 60 years ago, but it feels like it was just “Yesterday.”

Here comes The Beatles, do do do do

Even before the Fab Four’s plane touched down on the tarmac, Seattle was in a frenzy.

To prep for the visit, Seattleites were writing letters to the Mayor asking to be selected to give the music group a tour around the city. Department stores were selling $2.99 Beatles wigs and the Seattle Police Department was already implementing extra security measures following the Beatles’ San Francisco show just a few nights before.

Once The Beatles stepped on our turf, it was clear the fanatics were just getting started.

A selection of newspaper clippings from around August 21, 1964 show headlines like "After hassle at motel: Beatle sit-in Nearly ends in police toils" and "Get ready: The big Beatle blast near."

The newspaper headline in the middle references a group of fans who protested having their reservations canceled at the hotel the day the Beatles were in town.

Scanned newspaper clippings via Edgewater Hotel

The crowds were “Here, There, and Everywhere”

Tickets for the sold-out show at the Coliseum cost a whopping $5, equating to ~$43 today. The Beatles played hits like “Can’t Buy Me Love” and “I Wanna Hold Your Hand,” with one concert-goer describing the noise as almost electric — “The air fairly quivered, shimmered with it.”

Once the concert was complete, fans rushed the stage. It took the combined effort of several police officers, firefighters, and sailors to keep the throngs of fans — predominantly teenage girls — at bay. The band had to leave in an ambulance with other taxis acting as decoys to ensure a safe departure.

Check out this story from our friends at KING, where they talked to a fan who was there 60 years ago.

To this day, some say you can still hear the fans’ echoes among the sound of crashing waves near the Edgewater Hotel...

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