Aug. 20, 1965: A day in the life: Beatles, looking rather waxy, make brief stop in Edmonton
OK, so the real Fab Four never performed in Edmonton.
However, wax versions of John, Paul, George and Ringo did briefly touch down at the airport.
“The Beatles! Travelling second class?” read the headline on a story about the Beatles arriving at 11:55 p.m. aboard an Air Canada flight from Vancouver to Toronto.
“The mop-topped singers claimed row five, economy section of the flight. What’s more, there were no screaming, crying masses to greet them — only a handful of newsmen and photographers. They were the Beatles from Victoria’s London Wax Museum — John, Paul, George and Ringo in life-size wax images.”
The wax figures were en route to the Montreal Ville Marie Wax Museum, where they were to be displayed for an indefinite period.
The real Beatles were in Toronto, where they had picked up $100,000 for two brief shows for 36,000 wildly cheering teenagers.
How did the other passengers take to travelling with the fake Fab Four? “It’s all right,” quipped one, “as long as they do not start talking back.” Edmonton was swept up in Beatlemania that summer.
“You could tell by the hair,” the Journal reported.
By: Chris Zdeb
Source: Edmonton Journal
