Did you know? — On this day in 1964 The Beatles arrived in New York.
Photographer Mike Mitchell, then 18 years old, shot the Beatles performing their iconic first concert in the United States at the Washington Coliseum. The concert occured just two days after the band’s momentous performance on The Ed Sullivan Show, a debut which drew over 74 million television viewers.
Looking back, Mitchell recalls,
“to me, this concert was an opportunity to do portraits, and to get an up close look, to really see who these guys were! Many Americans emerging from the sleep-walking fifties saw the Beatles as very strange creatures indeed. Most of the establishment press treated them as mere novelty. My generation however felt an immediate connection with them and still do.”
(see more — Beatlemania Revisited)