INDIANAPOLIS — 60 years to the day of the last time Beatlemania put a stranglehold on Indianapolis, thousands of Beatles fans returned to the Indiana Farmers Coliseum to listen to their favorite band.
The Fab Four performed at the Indiana State Fair on Sept. 3, 1964, to a sold-out crowd of 10,000 screaming fans. On Sept. 3, 2024, some of those same fans, along with droves of other Beatles faithful, returned to the coliseum to listen to a recording of that show and see a performance by a Beatles tribute band.
Of all the stories from the Beatles’ short stint in Indianapolis, the best might be in the hours after the concert when State Police Officer Jack Marks, assigned to the Beatles’ security detail, spotted a sleepless Ringo Starr by the pool at the Speedway motel the band was staying at.
“My dad and two other state policemen saw him and went over and were talking to him,” said Karen Balach, “And said, ‘Since you can’t sleep, would you like to drive around and see part of the city?'”
At the time, Karen’s last name was Marks and she was just 11 years old — too young for her parents to even let her go to the concert. Her dad had the coolest job around, trailing the Beatles everywhere and making sure the most famous band in the world was safe during their Indy stay.
Picture courtesy of the Indiana State Archives, Indiana State Fair collection
The trooper on the far left with his head turned toward the Beatles is Karen’s dad Jack.
Jack took Ringo around town to see the highlights like the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Monument Circle, and he ultimately ended up back at his family farmhouse in Noblesville for a cup of coffee.
”When they stopped in the driveway, I remember looking out the window and telling my two brothers, ‘I think dad brought home a Beatle,'” she said.
To 11-year-old Karen’s shock, it was indeed a Beatle heading for her barn and then the front door. She said Ringo stayed for about 15 minutes sipping coffee and talking to her mother and father.
“I was just shocked that Ringo was in my house,” Karen said. “I don’t think I even said anything to him.”
The real surprise came when Ringo got up to leave.
”Before he left he gave me his autograph and kissed me on the right cheek and I’ve had the fun of saying ever since then that Ringo Starr was the first boy to ever kiss me,” she said.
It’s a possible one-of-one story, but Karen was sworn to secrecy by her mother for years.
“She told me I couldn’t tell anybody, because people would be out there digging up the ground he walked on because he was that famous,” Karen said with a laugh.
When she eventually did decide to tell her friends, the story was too crazy to believe.
”The older I got I realized how really big that was,” Karen said. “Rock stars like that don’t go to average people’s houses.”
Karen has kept a scrapbook filled with newspaper articles from the Beatles’ visit and stories from years past when her dad was interviewed about Ringo’s ride around Indy and a quick stop in Noblesville. Karen even still has the coffee mug the drummer drank out of and the two cigarettes he smoked at her house.
