Fans paid up to $5.50 to see the Beatles' only Twin Cities concert in 1965
Meet the Beatles! That’s what happened 60 years ago when the Fab Four played their only concert in the Twin Cities on Aug. 21, 1965.
The show was at Met Stadium, the old ballpark in Bloomington that was home to the Twins and Vikings, located where Mall of America now stands.
Tickets cost $3.50, $4.50 and $5.50 (about $56 in today’s money).
Sixty years later, the tax man would do a double take at the price to see Beatle Paul McCartney at U.S. Bank Stadium on Oct. 17 — from $135 and to $750-plus.
That’s now. Let’s look at some numbers from back then.
A ticket from The Beatles' only Minnesota performance, on Aug. 21, 1965 at the old Met Stadium. Provided by Jeff Syme. (Jeff Wheeler/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
1 Ringo Starr and George Harrison each sang one tune at Met Stadium. John Lennon and/or Paul McCartney sang the rest.
2 There were only two Beatles souvenirs for sale at Met Stadium that night, a $1 program and a $1 megaphone, with all four musicians photos on it.
4 A quartet of limousines waited at Wold–Chamberlain Field airport to transport each Beatle to the stadium. Instead, all four rode in the same limo.
4 Opening acts were Brenda Holloway, King Curtis, Cannibal & the Headhunters and Soul Incorporated. Three local bands — the Underbeats, the Accents and Gregory Dee & the Avanties — also performed in the concourse of the stadium.
11 The Beatles breezed through 11 songs in 30 minutes, though they performed 12 tunes in some other cities on the tour. (These days, McCartney is doing about three dozen songs over nearly three hours.)
16 The Fab Four’s 1965 North American tour, their second visit to the States, featured 16 concerts in 10 different cities.
20 Two full decades is how long Met Stadium stood after the Beatles show. The facility was demolished in 1985, three years after the Twins and Vikings headed to the Metrodome. The Mall of America opened on the Bloomington site in 1992.
21 That was the age of the woman in McCartney’s Leamington Hotel room when Minneapolis Police Inspector Donald Dwyer threatened the noisy Beatles entourage for having “lured” underage girls into their fifth-floor chamber in downtown Minneapolis. Telling the Minneapolis Star that “those people are the worst I have ever seen visit this city,” Dwyer threatened to take McCartney to jail unless a young woman left the room within two minutes. She emerged, showing identification that she was 21 and from Cleveland.
25 The preshow press conference at Met Stadium lasted 25 minutes, almost as long as the concert itself. Best exchange: “Is your hair real?” Harrison: “Our hair’s real, lady. What about yours?”
40 With the stage set up near second base at Met Stadium, the closest fans were 40 yards away from the British rock stars.
150 The estimated number of “media” people (including their children) who attended the Beatles preconcert press conference. Another favorite exchange: “What do you do with all your money?” Starr: “We bury it.”
Bloomington police during the Beatles concert at Met Stadium Aug. 21, 1965. (KENT KOBERSTEEN/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Source: startribune.com/Jon Bream
