On August 22nd, 1966, 17 year-old Carol Hopkins and 15 year-old Susan Richmond of Staten Island climbed onto the roof of the Americana Hotel and threatened to jump "unless we get to see The Beatles." The Beatles were in NYC to perform at Shea Stadium for the second time and were staying in the Warwick Hotel on 54th street. The girls had tried to go to their hotel to deliver a letter to Paul but were unsuccessful so they went farther down 54th street and up to the 21st floor of the Americana. From a news clipping the next day:
Police tried for 30 minutes to talk the girls into leaving the ledge, where they sat with their legs dangling over 54th Street. One of the policemen finally got on his knees and begged. One of the teen-age girls with tears in her eyes, crawled under the railing and onto the roof. The girl said something to her friend then helped her from the ledge.
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As you can see in the photo above, the police then grabbed the girls to bring them to safety. Paul was asked about the incident at a press conference later that day:
Q: I have a question for Paul. I don't know if you know about it yet, but two young ladies threatened to jump to their death from the 22nd floor of the hotel here in Manhattan if they could see you. How do you feel about young girls acting this way?
McCartney: If they could see me?
Q: They wanted to see you – If you would come over they wouldn't jump. The police finally rescued them. They threatened to jump unless you came over.
McCartney: Good God, you know. Phew! I don't understand it. I don't know. Erm, silly, that. I'll see 'em, you know.
This was at the time of The Beatles second appearance at Shea.
The concert did not sell out, with 11,000 of the 55,600 tickets still available. Nonetheless, The Beatles made more money from their appearance than they had in 1965, receiving $189,000 – 65 per cent of the gross takings of $292,000.
Curiously enough the second Shea Stadium concert had about 11,000 seats unsold. So it was a pretty unsettling time. And it was against this background that they said, 'Right, we definitely won't do any more. We are going to have a break and then we are going into the studio to make a record.' George Martin Anthology
During the performance of Day Tripper hundreds of fans broke through barriers and attempted to reach the stage. They were held back by security guards and none managed to get close to The Beatles.
Neil Aspinall had his own woes on the day:
When they played Shea Stadium again, for me it blended in with the first one, though it was said there were slightly fewer people there than the year before. For some reason I missed the police van that was taking us. I had gone back for something, and before I could get in the van, they slammed the doors and of it went. I was left at the hotel, so I got a cab, but that broke down in Harlem. Another cab took me to the stadium, but there were thousands of people, and I thought: 'Oh God, they're really going to let me in! I'm going to just knock on the door and say, "I'm with The Beatles?"' Then I saw the four of them banging out of a window, and they saw me wandering round the car park. It was like magic; they were shouting, 'There he is! Let him in!'
1965 Shea concert but hey, Who Cares!! https://vimeo.com/113130502
