A Day in the Life: Meeting the Beatles in Miami Beach

This post is part of a BlogHop to commemorate the 50 year anniversary of the Beatles’ first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.

Not that I’m bitter.  But it’s been 50 years and I might never get over the fact that I didn’t get to see the Beatles perform live when they were literally in my neighborhood.

Especially  since other girls I knew actually did see them.  Like Andy and Ila and Vicki who were in my grade at school in Miami Beach and got to see them and even TALK to them.

I never held it against them.  Although I didn’t  know about this until I found out a couple weeks ago thanks to a Facebook comment.

Since this is a historic time 50 years later, and I have no personal story to tell (not that I’m bitter) and Andy does, here’s her story in her words:

We were 14 years old in 1964 when the Beatles came to Miami Beach to perform their second Ed Sullivan show.

We all had serious cases of BeatleMania since their first Ed Sullivan performance in NY, and of course, we were listening to their records non stop.

Ila’s mom owned the Beauty Shop at the Deauville Hotel where the Beatles would be staying and doing their performance.  Ila’s mom got us the tickets to the show and also the inside scoop (from the hotel security guards) on how and when they would be entering and exiting the hotel. 

The Deauville had an extremely long driveway which led down to the back trash entrance, which the Beatles would be using.  The throngs of fans were cordoned off at the other end of the driveway out to Collins Ave.  Lucky for us, Ila lived in the apartment building right next door to the Deauville.  Her building was separated from the hotel by a high concrete wall. 

We heard that the night before the performance, the Beatles would be exiting the hotel through the trash exit; and  because we had exclusive access to that wall, we decided we would camp out on the wall in the hopes that we would see them come out. 

So there we were: Ila, Vicki and me  sitting high on the wall waiting and waiting, far from the crowds camped out on the main street.

 After many long hours of anticipation, George came out and  we started to make some screeching sounds (which sounded very pathetic when you are only a crowd of three).  George put his finger to his lips making the “shush” sign as not to alert the crowds waiting down the road.  He got into a little red sports car & zoomed off.

 Not too long afterwards, a Lincoln Continental drove up with a girl in the front and  one in the back.  Out came Paul and Ringo; and we started our pathetic screeching again. 

They came and stood by the trash cans along the wall right below us and said Hi Girls, how you doing tonight? in their wonderful Liverpool accents. I’m sure there was more back and forth but I was beside myself with excitement so the particulars are a little foggy now.  I did say something snarky like, you know your dates are only in high school!  Anyway that didn’t seem to deter them a bit, and they each got into the car next to their dates and rode off to the awaiting screaming multitudes.

 The Beatles’ rental car was parked there too, so Vicki somehow jumped down off the wall and took a couple of souvenirs from it, like a knob or two.  I guess the Statute of Limitations are up by now?!

 The next day was the big show.  Again with our inside info, we knew when they would be coming down the elevators and we were stationed right in front.  And as the doors opened…there we were, our grinning, shrieking faces once again. 

And at the show, we were able to be right up front on the platform with the cameras.  I always wondered if they thought the three of us were stalking them.  Whenever they turned the corner…there we were, the three little amigos.

With thanks to Andy Schecter Fonorow for having a great story to tell  not that I’m bitter  and for telling it here.