It has been more than 60 years since what some people call the world’s first boy band appeared on a Sunday night TV show and changed everything. And this month marks exactly 60 years since the Beatles first came to Texas.
The British pop band’s first U.S. tour brought them to Dallas Memorial Auditorium on September 18, 1964. The band touched down at Love Field just after midnight that day, greeted by thousands of screaming fans. North Texas was abuzz with anticipation, including 10-year-old Pud (short for Puddin’) Kearns of suburban Greenville.
In early 1964, Kearns was a fourth grader when word spread that the Beatles would be on the Ed Sullivan Show on February 9. That night, she was watching.
“I was just blown away,” she remembers. “I’d never heard anything like that before. And I immediately fell in love.”
Kearns and her friends acquired the band’s records and read about them in fan magazines. Later that year, North Texas Beatles fans got some thrilling news: John, Paul, George and Ringo were coming to Dallas for one of 32 shows in 25 cities over 33 days.
“There was a lot of excitement when it was announced,” Kearns says. “At that time, I didn’t think there was any possibility that I would get to go.”
But Eliza, the 10-year-old granddaughter of a family friend, had tickets and invited Kearns.
“I couldn’t believe my luck!” Kearns says. The girls had no idea that a big surprise awaited them before the concert. They showed up early to have a picnic behind the auditorium (now part of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center).
“All of a sudden, an ambulance drives down the ramp past us towards the auditorium. This was an old-fashioned station wagon,” Kearns says. “The Beatles were in it! They looked out of the window and waved, and then they were gone. I remember seeing Paul and Ringo. They were only 20 or 30 feet from us.”
A sellout crowd of 10,000 fans packed the venue and waited through three opening acts—Clarence “Frogman” Henry, the Exciters and Jackie DeShannon, all backed by Bill Black’s Combo. Pud and Eliza’s $5.50 tickets earned them balcony seats, where they eagerly waited for Dallas DJ Irving Harrigan (aka Ron Chapman) to introduce the main act.
“All the girls were screaming. Eliza and I did, too,” Kearns says with a laugh. “George was my favorite. I remember All My Loving and the first chord of A Hard Day’s Night. You could hear opening notes but not much more because of the screaming.”
The Beatles’ 30-minute set list included 12 songs. The band returned to Texas in August 1965 for two sold-out shows at Houston’s Sam Houston Coliseum.
An editorial in The Dallas Times Herald that day in Dallas took a dim view of the band: “While some others may be able to recall who or what they were in … five years, most people will not.”
Kearns knew better.
“I was a rock star in fifth grade for a while before and after the concert. I knew that I had seen something very, very special,” she says. “And 60 years later, it’s still a big deal.”
