On June 20, 1964, four months after the Beatles made
their much-heralded Carnegie Hall debut, their bad boy counterparts in the
British Invasion, the Rolling Stones, took the stage at Carnegie Hall before a
packed audience made up of mostly teenaged girls. Their two shows that day reached a state of
near-pandemonium, with girls “swinging their arms and shrieking and standing on
their chairs and gyrating,” according to Meet the Rolling Stones—a fanzine about their 1964 tour. Keith Richards
later said of the tour, “America was still very much into Frankie Avalon. There
wasn't any thought of long-haired kids, we were just entertainment-business
freaks, with long hair, just like a circus show.” These photos from Meet the Rolling Stones
help show some of the circus show atmosphere that prevailed at Carnegie Hall on
June 20, 1964.
Click image to view slideshow.
