44th Anniversary of 1st US Beatles Show in Washington DC

I was over at the former Washington Coliseum in DC for a piece of art I'm making, which is where the Beatles played their first concert in the United States, on Februrary 11, 1964. Since today was the 44th anniversary, I listened to the CD of the concert while I drove over. The place is now a parking garage. I came back to the car and filmed a little video of the room while the music was playing on the CD player. I cued it to the fourth song they played at the concert, "I Saw Her Standing There." If you want to see the artwork it is on my gallery's website - www.hemphillfinearts.com (go to "Artists - Franz Jantzen").

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Beatles
• Washington
• Coliseum
• Uline
• Arena
• First
• US
• Concert
• 1964
• DC

[Candlestickpark1966]

Franzjantzen, when you went there, did you have any idea where the stage might have been? Are there any seats remaining? VERY EERIE. Amazing the toll time can take. What was one the center of the universe is now a graveyard.

[franzjantzen]

Hi Candlestick - I could not tell where the stage was. I assumed it was in the middle, but if you watch the video of the concert, it's really quite impossible to tell! I've looked in local historical societies and can't find photographs of the inside, tho there were certainly quite a few photographers on hand. If you ever find out, let me know! I'll go and take a picture of the spot.

[Amazingsound]

The passage of time...very powerful on this video. Thank you.

[jttxyz]

Very cool!

[DO40memberpeg]

My father was the emcee of the show and escorted The Beatles from the Ed Sullivan Show. Due to a snowstorm they had to take a train and they came into

Union Station in D.C. My dad is a DJ and was a famous DJ at the time in DC.

He was interviewed today with the release of the box set.

[wilhelm1974]

what is it now? a parking garage?

[KellyAnn2390]

This is amazing.

I'm definintely going there next time I'm in DC.

[WhiteCamry]

Good little doc but those upside down shots just aren't necessary.

[preserveit08]

I heard the DC Preservation League the group that advocated to landmark the building was going to host some kind of Beatles event in February on the 45th anniversary. It's set to be redeveloped for office space so it's propabably the last opportunity to see the space used for something exciting.

[August8th1969]

It's too bad they couldn't refurbish the inside of this (I don't know anything about construction) and make this into a Beatle museum. Something along the lines of what they have in Liverpool with the "Beatle Exhibition."

Of course, with all the room, they would need a few more artifacts than the one in Liverpool. It would be cool to have a United States Beatle museum that was also home to the Beatles' first United States concert.

[djboomer31]

My dad worked at one of the parking lots.After the show started he was able to go in and watch the show. When I was 9 he took me to see the wrestling matches (1959). The arena managertook me up some stairs and ladders outside of the building and through a doorand acrross some boards. I looked down and between the cracks I could see the wrestling ring. We were in the ceiling. I also remember how cold my feet were because the seats were sitting on top of boards over hockey ice.

[thevidiotkid]

Some more stuff on this place, it has a unique concrete roof construction which has historic significance.Builder/owner Uline Ice Co.ran the arena as a segregated facility.

Years of city wide GARBAGE storage inside the building is what gives it today the unique "patina" you see in the video.

I have posted elsewhere that the original concert venue was to have been a firehouse hall about 15 min. away in Maryland.

Irwin Feld,the eventual promoter, realized something larger was needed.

[thevidiotkid]

The stage was plywood placed over a boxing ring roughly in the center of the floor.Some seats remain today in the upper sections near what were the bathrooms. The building is located at Third and M Streets N.E, a "dicey" section of WDC. Known as Washington Coliesum in '64, the structure was originally called Uline Arena.Built in 1941 it hosted ice shows ,circuses and boxing/wrestling by 1964 It sat about 8600.Was later a church c.'70 and then became a waste transfer station.