"They gave their money and they gave their screams, but the Beatles kind of gave their nervous systems." - George Harrison

The video above is three quarters of Australian airport arrivals in June '64, including Ringo and Brian jetting in separately after Ringo got out of hospital. Make sure you watch the last minute or two of Heathrow footage (right at the end) How those boys had to get in the car was crrraaazzy!

Possibly, Beatlemaniacs are the craziest fans ever. Judge for yourself...

Two girls hired a helicopter to fly over the house The Beatles had rented in Benedict Canyon, Beverly Hills, in August 1965, proceeding to jump into the pool from the helicopter in order to meet The Beatles.

Some girls in the U.S. ate the grass Ringo had walked on. (When told about this, his comment was: "I just hope they don't get indigestion.")

"Fainting fans were commonplace, with bodies littering the foyer of the theatre... One nurse told said that some girls reached such peaks of excitement they genuinely had orgasms." - Photographer Terence Spencer on British Beatlemania.

Carol Dryden, of Sunderland, England, had herself packaged and sent to The Beatles (she didn't get very far, having forgotten about the lack of oxygen in a closed box...)

"A van carrying 3,000 copies of... With The Beatles was stolen in Reading, Berkshire. The driver was making his first delivery of the record to a shop when the vehicle was taken. It was found nearby soon after, but the albums had gone." - The Daily Mirror

"Sales of jelly-babies soared after word spread that George Harrison liked the sweets. Beatle fan Jill White... explained: 'The jelly-baby craze began in a Bournemouth cinema. Someone shouted, "George likes jelly-babies" and soon everyone was pelting him.'" - The Daily Mirror

"Girl Bites Steward At Leeds Dance" - the headline about the Beatles' performance in June 1963, Yorkshire Evening News

300,000 fans greeted them in Adelaide, Australia - reportedly half the population of the city at the time.

The Army had to be called in to help the police quell the Beatlemaniac masses in Melbourne, Australia.

Charging the stage to cling to a Beatle was commonplace as well.

Aside from throwing jelly babies at the band, the stage would be littered with letters, stuffed toys, shoes, cigarette lighters and an assortment of other objects... somewhere on tour, Paul for example had to dodge a steak that (for whatever reason) was tossed on stage.

Arriving in San Francisco on 18 August 1964, The Beatles were greeted by 9,000 hysterical fans. "The plan was for them to make a brief appearance at 'Beatlesville'... a small platform about a mile northwest of the main airport buildings, surrounded by a cyclone fence and guarded by 180 San Mateo County Sherrifs... Ringo was the first in but his presence caused mass hysteria: thousands of girls pushed forward, some trying to scale the fence as other fans charged a barrier of parked cars but were driven back by counter-attacking deputies. No sooner had Paul, George and John mounted the stage than the deputies herded them all back to their limousine and rushed them away from the hysterical scene. The link fence was being pushed over by the sheer weight of fans, those in front crushed against the links, with only the burly police straining with all their weight to keep the fence upright." - The Beatles A Diary by Barry Miles

In Las Vegas, NV in August 1964, fans attempted to reach the band's suite on the 18th floor of the hotel by scaling the walls, climbing through the garbage shoot and using the freight elevator... Scaling the walls was something fans tried all around the world while The Beatles were on tour.
It's no wonder then that the band was trapped in hotel rooms, unable to see anything of the cities they toured through. (In fact, some photographer mentioned that Ringo once pointed out the window of the hotel room at a car park and told him that that's what they were seeing of America....)

On 21 August 1964, the car that was to take the band back to the hotel from the performance was so damaged by fans that The Beatles had to wait half an hour until they were eventually sneaked away in an ambulance. At the performance prior to this, a girl managed to climb high above the stage and fell, right in front of Ringo's drum riser.

In Cincinnati, Ohio on 27 August 1964, "a technician from a television station was trying to measure the sound [of the screaming Beatlemaniacs] with an instrument. He gave up when the instrument recorded its maximum reading and broke." (The Beatles A Diary)

In Baltimore, Maryland on 13 September 1964, two girls had themselves delivered to the Civic Arena in a large cardboard box marked "Beatles Fan Mail"; however, they were discovered by a guard who was checking all deliveries. (The Beatles A Diary)

At the New Orleans performance on 16 September 1964, "some 700 teenagers... attempted to crash through the barriers keeping them from the stage. It took 225 police more than 20 minutes to restore order. Mounted police patrolled the area around the stage while the fans who broke through were roped off to one side. More than 200 fans collapsed and had to be revived... and one girl had her arm broken but refused to go to hospital until after the show." (The Beatles A Diary)

Remember how Mick and Keith were in the audience at Shea Stadium on 15 August 1965, and called the hysteria "terrifying"? Plus, that particular show was the first time any musical act had performed a stadium show (at the time, it was the record for the biggest-ever crowd).

The Lockhead Electra plane chartered for the U.S. tour was, according to the captain who met George again in the '70s: "He said that when we had finished the tour, the plane, it's tail, it's wings were full of bullet holes, and he said, 'these crazy guys... they were at the end of the runway trying to pot us off.' Jealous boyfriends had come down with pistols and rifles trying to kill us." - George (I Me Mine)

In Houston, TX, on 28 August 1965, "fans swarmed out onto the runway as the plane taxied in to the terminal. Fans began climbing over the plane before it had even stopped moving, some of them smoking cigarettes next to the plane's fuel tanks. The group and Brian Epstein were unable to leave the plane until a forklift truck arrived for them." (The Beatles A Diary)

Armored trucks, or more bizarre things like delivery trucks etc., had to regularly be used to shuttle The Beatles to and from venues/hotels.

In San Francisco on 31 August 1965, fans climbed on top of The Beatles' limousine, crushing it - thankfully without anyone in it. At the show, the crowd got so wild that the show was interrupted, the band had to leave the stage and wait until things calmed down a little before continuing their performance.

In December 1963, over one-third of the British population tuned in to watch The Beatles on "Juke Box Jury."

The studio in which the Ed Sullivan Show was filmed (now the Ed Sullivan Theatre) seats 728 people. When The Beatles were due to make their debut on the show, 50,000 tickets were requested.

More than one-quarter of Liverpool's population lined the streets to greet The Beatles on 10 July 1964 for the civil reception of the Northern premiere of "A Hard Day's Night".

George received 2 van-loads of cards and presents for his 21st birthday, all delivered to his parents' home.

Beatlemaniacs "seem to have no fear of injury or even death in the cause of Beatle worship... It is the girls clinging on to the door handles [of the car] who worry me. If I drive away too slowly they will try to climb into the car or on to the roof. If I put my foot down and speed away they will still cling on desperately and be dragged dangerously along the road." - Former Beatles chauffeur Bill Corbett, cited in The Beatles Files

Thousands of fans waited for 24 hours at Heathrow Airport to greet The Beatles upon their return from the U.S. in February 1964.

"One boy [at a school that forbade Beatle haircuts], faced with an order to change his hair-style or leave, left." (Love Me Do! The Beatles' Progress)

Outside the Plaza in NYC: "Several times the crowd waving banners and autograph books crashed the restraining police barriers and mounted an attack on the hotel. At the doors, police reinforced by special guards stemmed the onslaught and drove the attackers back to the barriers. At one point police lines were broken, and the flag they had used to mark their command post at the fountain was snapped in two. During one assault a seventeen-year-old girl from Queens was knocked unconscious. Police carried her into the hotel. Her first words upon reviving were, 'Where are the Beatles?'" (Love Me Do! The Beatles' Progress)

In the U.S., hotels would find their doorknobs stolen - after all, perhaps The Beatles touched them. Whenever The Beatles stayed at hotels, there would inevitably be fans who tried to sneak in (dressed for example as staff), or steal room keys, or book into the hotel.

In the U.S., one fan screamed so loud she burst a blood vessel in her neck, requiring first aid.

In Sydney, at least 20,000 fans waited for over 24 hours in pouring rain at the airport to greet The Beatles as they arrived.

On 31 October 1963, The Beatles arrived back at Heathrow Airport from their Swedish tour, greeted by 20,000 hysterical fans - apparently delaying the departure of both the Queen and the Prime Minister.

On the flight to Australia in June 1964, there were several refueling stops required. One such stop was in Pakistan, at around two in the morning. Paul decided to exit the plane in search of something to buy - only to be chased back aboard by a horde of screaming girls.

"Don't wave or smile, the fans can barely contain themselves just looking at you." - 'Instructions' to The Beatles as they arrived at JFK on 7 February 1964.

"Normally, noise reaching the ground from a Boeing jet plane 2,000 feet up is between 90 and 100 decibels. When the Beatles appeared, the pure screams alone showed 112 decibels on the recording apparatus. For the next half-hour the needle never feel below 100 and many times leapt higher. The decibel meter showed Paul McCartney the most popular of the Beatles. Whenever he bobbed his head and grinned the needle shot up as high as 114 decibels..." - an article in a Sydney newspaper, June 1964

"If you've never heard [the screams of Beatlemaniacs] you should hire a Boeing 707 and ask the pilot to gun up its engines in your living room. The volume of the sound may not be as great as the stadium but the quality will be smiliar." - again from a Sydney newspaper, June 1964

"The world used us an excuse to go mad." - George Harrison

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 Valerie: A very bad quality photo of The Beatles @ Olympia Stadium in Detroit in 1966..   I circled the area in which I sat..if you can see it..at least I had a floor seat and near the end of the concert I managed to sneak myself up to about the 6th row..most of the floor audience were pushing themselves towards the stage and there were plenty of seats available..it was no use for the security guards & police officers..they had so much trouble trying to keep the young girls off the stage they barely noticed who was edging their way towards a close seat! It was total pandemonium..we did not care about the music..it appeared..we wanted to see "them" and perhaps even..dare I say.."touch them"..just to be able to touch..oh heavens me..it was total mania..I loved every moment of it..I was 15 years old..and I had the honor of attending both concerts...1964 when I was 13 and 1966! Nothing can ever take this memory away..and it still feels surreal every time I recall the memory of it ALL!