Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n
Four of the most influential musicians the world has ever seen had a concert to play in West Philadelphia<\/a> on Sept. 2, 1964<\/a>. But they needed an inconspicuous way to get in.<\/p>\n DJ Hy Lit recalled to the Daily News\u2019 Phil Jasne<\/a>r in 1980 that kids were everywhere.<\/p>\n Philly\u2019s finest knew exactly what to do to get the Beatles into Convention Hall.<\/p>\n \u201cThey came in a Hackney\u2019s fish truck,\u201d Lit said.<\/p>\n Here comes the sun<\/p>\n The Beatles were playing in Philly nearly eight months after their February appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, which introduced the Fab Four to the U.S. audience. <\/p>\n By September 1964, the band\u2019s first U.S. tour and Beatlemania were in full swing.<\/p>\n Lit was promoting the band\u2019s Philly appearance at Convention Hall, at 34th Street and Civic Center Boulevard, on behalf of popular radio station WIBG-AM. <\/p>\n He paid the band\u2019s agent $25,000<\/a> to get the band to play Philly, which was still reeling from the Columbia Avenue riots<\/a> at the end of August 1964.<\/p>\n More than 12,000 fans paid $2.50 to $5.50<\/a> to take part in the festivities, which also featured opening performances from Clarence \u201cFrogman\u201d Henry and Jackie DeShannon.<\/p>\n Which songs the Beatles played that night are almost irrelevant, as the songs were accompanied by a chorus of teenagers shrieking.<\/p>\n A hard day\u2019s night<\/p>\n Frank Rizzo hadn\u2019t yet risen to the rank of police commissioner.<\/p>\n In 1964, he was second-in-command to Commissioner Howard Leary. But he ranked high enough to meet the band that had galvanized his city, and to help smuggle them into Philly and Convention Hall.<\/a><\/p>\n Lit told Jasner that it was Rizzo who came up with a plan to fake out the crazed fans. <\/p>\n Rizzo arranged for a couple of buses and a police escort to divert attention, while sneaking the band into what we now call University City<\/a> in a very non-posh accommodation.<\/p>\n