<\/p>\n
When it comes to the Beatles<\/a>\u2019 remarkable story, there is no shortage of highwater marks. Their history is pocked with career-making highlights: the band\u2019s bravura February 9, 1964, appearance on \u201cThe Ed Sullivan Show<\/a>\u201d that netted some 73 million viewers. The group\u2019s June 25, 1967, performance of \u201cAll You Need Is Love\u201d on the \u201cOur World\u201d satellite broadcast that was relayed across the globe with an estimated viewership of some half a billion people. Or somewhat more quaintly but no less impactful: the Beatles\u2019<\/a> final public performance as a working rock \u2018n\u2019 roll band on the rooftop of their office building on January 30, 1969, scant months ahead of the release of their \u201cAbbey Road\u201d swan song.<\/p>\n Perhaps no event looms larger than the Beatles\u2019 August 15, 1965, performance at Shea Stadium in front of 55,600 fans. The concert ushered in a new era<\/a> in rock music in which superstardom was defined by a band\u2019s ability to sell out massive stadiums in contrast with the arenas <\/a>and ballrooms that had previously defined the genre\u2019s pinnacles of success.<\/p>\n Even the Beatles\u2019 arrival at the stadium that fateful day was bathed in big-time celebrity, with the group majestically traveling by helicopter from Manhattan across the East River to Flushing Meadows, where Shea Stadium had opened in April 1964. The robust, concrete stadium had opened in time for the New York Mets\u2019 third Major League Baseball season. The club had joined the league as an expansion team in 1962 in the company of the Houston Astros.<\/p>\n The Beatles\u2019 Shea Stadium gig was the brainchild of Sid Bernstein, who had previously scored headlines with the band in the form of their sold-out Carnegie Hall shows in February 1964. But as the promoter soon discovered, selling out a stadium was a far cry from the 2,900-seat Midtown venue. As author Dave Schwensen observes in \u201cThe Beatles at Shea Stadium: The Story Behind Their Greatest Concert<\/a>,\u201d filling nearly 56,000 seat was a daunting proposition: \u201cEven though the Beatles had been breaking records for concert attendance and sales, there was no precedence or guarantee they would sell that many tickets for one show. The only other rock \u2018n\u2019 roll artist with enough star power to headline an outdoor stadium show had been Elvis Presley<\/a> almost a decade earlier.\u201d<\/p>\n On October 11, 1956, the King had set an attendance record with 26,500 fans at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas. But there were plenty of empty seats that day. The stadium\u2019s capacity at the time was 75,000 patrons, a staggering figure that was well beyond Presley\u2019s reach at the height of his fame.<\/p>\n For manager Brian Epstein, the very notion of the Beatles performing in any venue with slews of empty seats was a non-starter. Epstein feared that even the mighty Beatles couldn\u2019t fill a stadium. As Bernstein later recalled, negotiating with Epstein wasn\u2019t easy, but \u201cI ad-libbed and told him I\u2019d give him 10 dollars for every empty seat. I\u2019d won his confidence and friendship during the Carnegie Hall concerts and he said, \u2018That\u2019s a deal.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n For Bernstein, it was an incredible boast. The brutal truth was that the promoter simply didn\u2019t have the money to back the event, and Epstein was demanding an advance fee of $100,000 \u2014 a cool million bucks in today\u2019s dollars \u2014 which accounted for 60% of the gross receipts. Complicating matters even further, Epstein refused to allow Bernstein to advertise the event until he provided the Beatles with a $50,000 deposit. \u201cAnd that was $50,000 I didn\u2019t have,\u201d Bernstein later admitted. \u201cNowhere near that. So I asked for a little time to get that money together.\u201d<\/p>\n