Comiskey Park, Chicago: Where the Beatles Played in 1965

The Beatles played two concerts at Comiskey Park, the Chicago White Sox ballpark at 35th Street and Shields Avenue, on 20 August 1965, to more than 50,000 people in total. The park was demolished in 1991. Its site is now a White Sox car park, where a marble home plate remembers baseball and nothing remembers the band.

A diverted landing and a sleepless motel

Houston had just seen crowd trouble, and the band flew in from there overnight. Chicago police, wary of a repeat, refused to let them land at O'Hare, so the plane came down at Midway Airport at about 3am on 20 August 1965. The band then drove back out to the O'Hare Sahara motel. Its management had announced the booking, and the fans who gathered outside kept the other guests awake; press officer Tony Barrow later wrote that the party got little sleep.

Two shows from a stage at second base

The concerts were at 3pm and 8pm at Comiskey Park, also known at the time as White Sox Park. Tickets cost $2.50, $4.50 or $5.50. Brenda Holloway, the King Curtis Band, the Discotheque Dancers, Cannibal & the Headhunters and Sounds Incorporated played first. The Beatles came on to a plywood stage built over second base, with police officers sitting shoulder to shoulder across the infield, backs to the band, watching the stands.

Fan chronologies such as The Beatles Bible list a twelve-song set, opening with a short "Twist and Shout" and closing with "I'm Down". Whatever the order, the screaming covered most of it. Between the shows the band held a press conference and talked to Larry Kane, the reporter who followed the whole tour. The Chicago Daily News sent Betty Flynn to cover the crowd, and she found fans who had queued since 4am. After the shows the four stopped at Margie's Candies, at Armitage and Western, on the way back to the Sahara.

What the day drew and earned

Press reports give the day's total as more than 50,000, or 56,000 in some accounts. The split between the shows, about 25,000 in the afternoon and 37,000 in the evening, comes only from fan chronologies, and it adds up to more than either press figure. The Beatles were paid about $155,000 for the two shows, with receipts given at $150,000 to $160,000. Their single Chicago concert the year before, at the International Amphitheatre, had taken about $30,000.

A home plate among the parked cars

Comiskey Park opened in 1910 and was the White Sox's home until the end of the 1990 season. It was demolished in 1991 after the club moved into its new park across 35th Street, opened as new Comiskey Park and now called Rate Field. The old ground became that park's car park.

The one marker is a marble home plate set into the pavement beside South Shields Avenue, just south of Parking Lot B and near the Gate 5 ramp, inscribed "Comiskey Park 1910-1990 Home plate", with the batter's boxes and foul lines painted around it. It honours the ballpark. Nothing on the lot mentions the concerts, and the 1965 stage at second base would have stood out beyond the plate, among today's parked cars. Measured on a map, the old plate lies about 153 metres almost due north of home plate at Rate Field.