My Own Memories of La Crescenta – Part 3

Continuing from last time, I’m writing up my own memories of growing up in La Crescenta in the 1960s.

In 1966 I was 8 years old and my mom introduced me to rock music. The radio was always on, tuned to “Top 40” KRLA where the DJs were Casey Kasum and Bob Eubanks. An alternate was KHJ “Boss Radio” with DJs Robert W. Morgan and The Real Don Steele. I remember loving the song “Red Rubber Ball” by the Cyrkle. I also remember being confused by Bob Dylan. His nasally singing voice reminded me of the nasally voice of Floyd the Barber on the Andy Griffith Show and I thought maybe they were one and the same?

Mom and I quickly became huge Beatles fans and in August 1966, the Beatles were to play at Dodger Stadium. Amazingly, my timid single mom was going to take 8-year-old me to my first rock concert! Bob Eubanks was the organizer of the concert so it was all over KRLA radio. We bought our $4 tickets at a record store in La Cañada and anxiously awaited the evening of Sunday, Aug. 28.

I remember just fragments of the concert. My mom and I found our assigned spot at the very highest level of the nose-bleed seats. The audience was an unruly sea of teenagers. A raised stage had been set up at second base with giant letters KRLA in front of the platform. Our first intro to Beatle-mania was when, just before the opening acts came on, the announcer said, “For your information, the Beatles have arrived and are in their dressing rooms.” The audience erupted into screams – 40,000 kids at the top of their lungs, a sound as loud as a jet engine at full throttle. 

The opening acts did their time on the tiny stage: Bobby Hebb, The Remains, The Cyrkle, and the Ronettes. The speakers were ridiculously small for a stadium that size and, due to the continued screaming, Mom and I could barely hear “Red Rubber Ball,” my favorite song. That would be the last we would hear because as the Beatles took the stage the jet engine noise screamed again, drowning out everything.

We were so disappointed. We couldn’t hear anything but the screaming. It was actually painful. Years later I met a girl who had been there too. She said that she resisted screaming with her friends but finally gave in. She said that once she started screaming she could actually hear the band playing, a weird trick of sound dynamics.

After simply watching, but not hearing, the Beatles perform their historic second-to-last concert ever we watched the antics on the field as the Beatles tried to leave. There were 45,000 insane fans and only 100 security guards. Predictably, teenagers flooded onto the field and surrounded the stage where two escape limos were parked under a tent.

The Beatles made it into one limo and the support staff into the other. The support staff’s limo shot out, making for the center field gate. But the kids were everywhere, blocking the way. Kids jumped off stands onto the top of the car. The second limo containing the Beatles also tried to make it out but were blocked as well. The driver slammed it into reverse and floored it, barely missing the crowd. He then did a high-speed circle of the field and skidded to a stop at the Dodger dugouts. The Beatles piled out and retreated to the Dodger offices.

After two hours the crazy fans allowed an ambulance onto the field. The Beatles jumped in the back and again tried to drive through the crowd. The ambulance slammed into a pole but kept going, chased by fans, breaking down in the parking lot. An armored car pulled up and the Fab Four barely made the transfer. They were being attacked as they transferred. One of the Beatles grabbed a handful of a fan’s hair, and it came off in his hand – a wig! The armored car doors slammed shut and took off, the wig dangling in the door as they sped away. 

And the Beatles escaped into history.