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BEATLES FIRST CANADIAN VISIT - WINNIPEG
Ref: John Einarson ~ Winnipeg Free Press

On this date, August 18, 1964, the Beatles visited Winnipeg for approximately 22 minutes. Our city became the first Canadian location that the Beatles collectively set foot. It was a brief encounter but nonetheless memorable. Here's my story from the Winnipeg Free Press in 2013.

While Beatle fans continue to bask in the afterglow of Paul McCartney’s triumphant concert this past week, 46 years ago today all four of the Beatles stopped, albeit fleetingly, in our fair city. That’s right. At 2:05 pm on August 18, 1964 the Fab Four themselves first set their Beatle-booted feet in Canada at Winnipeg International Airport. They were greeted by some 1000 screaming fans.

Intended as a routine twenty-five minute refueling stop, word leaked out that the Beatles were onboard a flight from London to Los Angeles that day to begin their first full North American tour. “Around noon I got a call from the public relations director for Air Canada who was a good friend of mine,” recalled CJAY TV personality Bob Burns, host of popular Teen Dance Party. “‘Get out to the airport for the interview of your life,’ he told me.”

Radio stations CKY and CKRC were also tipped off and announced the imminent arrival of Liverpool’s most famous exports resulting in a mass of teenagers descended on the airport. Traffic was blocked and the parking lot jammed. As the Pan American Lockheed Electra, dubbed “Jet Clipper Beatles,” taxied to a halt they unleashed a deafening roar. “We want the Beatles!” With no plans to disembark, Beatles manager Brian Epstein noticed the pandemonium on the observation deck and prevailed upon the lads to make a brief appearance. Dressed in suits and ties, all four emerged from the plane waving to the hysterical throng.

First down the stairs was Paul McCartney. “Hello Winnipeg!” he shouted. Reporters including Mike Sholes quickly swarmed in, microphones thrust in his face. “It’s a luverly welcome,” chirped McCartney. Burns managed to snag John Lennon saying “Bob Burns from CJAY Television” to which the cheeky Beatle replied, “That’s not my fault.” As Burns remembered, “He had a smart-aleck answer for everything.” Burns took great pride in being the first Canadian television reporter to interview a Beatle. He found Ringo Starr the most gregarious. “He seemed more mature than the others,” he noted. Other reporters managed to glean a few words from various Beatles.

Among the mob of squealing teens jostling for a sight of their heroes was 14-year-old Diane Clear. “Oh, I wish they had stayed longer,” she gushed to a reporter. “They are so cute.” CKRC receptionist Sharon McRae was fortunate to shake hands with George Harrison and receive a kiss on the hand from Ringo. She was later besieged by a horde of Beatlemaniacs. “I was just overwhelmed by all the people and the noise.”

“George and Ringo were very polite and nice,” recalls McRae, who says she wasn’t a Beatlemaniac at the time. “It wasn’t until I got home that night and my parents, neighbours, and friends started bombarding me with a million questions about that day that I realized what a big deal it really was.”

Minutes later, waving one last time, the four ducked inside the plane. But not before Ringo suggested that the group might return to Winnipeg on their next North American tour.
Seventeen-year-old Silver Heights Collegiate student Bruce Decker, a member of rock band The Deverons, heard the news on the radio and with friends lit out for the airport. “We couldn’t see anything from the observation platform so we sneaked down to the ramp,” Decker related years later. “It was fascinating to see the Beatles in person here in Winnipeg.”
Seizing the moment, he suddenly dashed across the runway, some twenty-five yards, to the stairs of the plane just as the four Beatles were stepping back inside. “Quick thinking, that’s all it was,” reflected Decker. “I just figured I could make it up those steps and I no sooner thought of it and I was gone. I had to get a closer look at them. The crowd roared when they saw me go. I got right up the stairs before the Mounties grabbed me.” His friends had to wait while the Mounties detained him.

Decker’s bold move amused the Beatles. “Just as the Mounties were wrestling with me I caught a glimpse of the Beatles through the door and they were chuckling.” As fans began collecting money for Decker’s bail, authorities eventually let him go without any charges. He became the object of instant adulation. “Kids crowded around me, touching me and screaming. Tears were streaming down their faces as they asked me: ‘What do they look like? Did they say anything?’ The girls thought there was some kind of magic about me just because I’d got so close to them.” At a Deverons gig that evening Decker was heralded as a hero by the audience. The next day his impulsive act made the front page of the local papers dubbed Decker’s Dash.

Dozens of dazed teens remained behind after the plane was long gone. “It was a little embarrassing having to tell kids to stop kissing the runway after the plane left,” commented RCMP Sgt. E. G. Varndell. Others sat on the grass weeping. “We’ve never seen anything like this before and I hope we won’t see it again.”

When I had lunch with Beatles biographer Mark Lewisohn in Liverpool ten or so years ago, I told him all about this event. He loved it and asked me to send him the story and photos. I haven't read his volume 2 yet to see if the story made it. 

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On August 19, 1964, following their brief stopover in Winnipeg the day before, The Beatles kicked off their first North American tour at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, California, to a crowd of 17,130. Playing 12 songs which made up their repertoire for the entire tour: ‘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’, and ‘Long Tall Sally’. Supporting acts were The Righteous Brothers, The Bill Black Combo, The Exciters, and Jackie DeShannon.

Gate receipts amounted to $91,670. Of this the group took away $47,600 gross. The Beatles took to the stage at 9.20 pm wearing dark blue suits.

Their Cow Palace performance lasted just 29 minutes, and was stopped twice due to the numbers of jelly beans being thrown at The Beatles. Afterwards they were transported by ambulance (their limousine was besieged by Beatles' fans) to the airport and on to their next concert in Las Vegas the next day.
Nineteen girls required first aid during the concert, one boy dislocated his shoulder, 50 fans were hurt and two were arrested. A further fifty were prevented from invading the stage.

George Harrison: "On tour that year, it was crazy. Not within the band. In the band we were normal, and the rest of the world was crazy. Everywhere we went, the police were putting on their display. Everybody got into the mania. You could make a film, just showing how idiotic everybody else was whenever The Beatles came to town. In America, the police would be directing the traffic. They'd drive ahead of the motorcade; they'd come to a crossroads, put both hands up and blow their whistles. Then another bike would pass and go to the next link, but they'd all try to be flash, going in and out and racing up the road. They loved the feeling of: 'It's the President coming!' But they were all crashing, falling off. It was happening everywhere – even in Sweden! Wherever we went it was that kind of thing."

John Lennon in 1964: "We just can't get out on our own – but we had seventeen years of being able to walk to the shops. Occasionally, one of us slips out on his own and we take a chance there, because people think we travel in fours all the time. When they see us on our own, they often don't recognize us. People think fame and money bring freedom, but they don't. We're more conscious now of the limitations it places on us rather than the freedom. We still eat the same kind of food as we did before, and have the same friends. You don't change things like that overnight. We can't even spend the allowance we get, because there's nothing to spend it on. What can you spend on in a room?

"When you're on tour, you exist in this kind of vacuum all the time. It's work, sleep, eat and work again. We work mad hours, really, but none of us would have it any other way. When I look back, I can't remember a time when I wasn't in the business – it seems years to me, now."

~ John Einarson

THE BEATLES IN WINNIPEG IN 1964 on Youtube
Paul McCartney Recalls The Beatles' 1964 U.S. TV Debut | Letterman

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