Inside story on Beatles — No outside fun

Little Japanese girls in middy blouses stood in parking lots a the rear of the hotel (but the Beatles' sumptuous suite faced the other way), peering through binoculars, jumping up and down and screaming whenever a male guest happened to appear at a window.

Before it was over the four Beatles, sporting hats and sunglasses, made at least one abortive attempt to escape their 10th-floor cell and see Tokyo. (One of them reportedly made it, but there are conflicting reports as to whether he did or didn't,) Japanese police insisted the Beatles remain in the hotel rather than risk teen-age rioting over them in the streets.

The only time they were allowed out of the Hilton was when they roared away daily in a pink Cadillac to do their shows at Tokyo's Budokan Hall. Then police-car sirens and the screams of fans who had waited for hours just to get a glimpse of them rang in their ears.

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Source: Stars and Stripes By: Al Ricketts

A sketch by John Lennon, retrieved from a trash can at the Tokyo Hilton during the Beatles' 1966 visit.