08.21.66, crosley field  cincinnati, ohio

i lived my first 20 years in cincinnati. my dad, fred straub, worked at the 'cincinnati enquirer' as long as i could remember. he eventually aspired to 'chief photographer', until his retirement in 1995. as such, he had access to virtually any news worthy activity in the tri-state area. he travelled with the cincinnati reds to spring training and knew 'the big red machine' personally. we couldn't walk anywhere downtown without someone saying "hey, fred!".    i wasn't a rabid music fan until the beatles. i got swept up in the beatlemania like so many others at that time. i was 12 in '66 and across the street was my 10 year old girlfriend. we couldn't get enough of the beatles. my dad, however, wasn't all that impressed with them, but when they returned to cincy in 1966, dad took covering the concert and decided to let me and her tag along. sadly for her, her mother said, "absolutely not!". maybe is was the 'long hair', but i suspect it had more to do with lennon's fairly recent 'jesus' mess. to this day, my once was girl friend has a strong resentment for her mom's choice.    we got to crosley and hung out in the third base dugout. being as the stage was out in the field on 2nd base, there was no 'backstage'. some guy came by and said, "fred, you going to the press conference?", to which he replied, "no". you can imagine how bummed i was. he realized later that was a mistake. other groups came on stage and dad went out to cover them, while i waited in the dugout for the fabs. when the time came, we walked out onto field and to the stage. the noise was tremendous. so much screaming for the duration of the 25 minute show. luckily, i was close enough to actually hear their voices directly. i nodded/waved to them and they responded with a smile/nod. pretty cool, yet wildly surreal.    i did record the show on a small cassette recorder, which were fairly new at the time, but it was haphazard and sounded like crap. i have no idea what happened to the cassette, as i never saw it again after awhile. dad probably recorded jazz over it.    dad was busy snapping shots and eventually, the show was over and the beatles literally ran off to st. louis. we went to the enquirer to develop the film and make prints. his photos were instantly in high demand. he offered a set of three 8x10 black and white photos, depicting the four fabs. i now have all the negatives.

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the cover sheet that my father produced, to accompany the many requests for photos that he received, after his photos appeared in the newspaper.

 

dad, dashing around, burning through film. 20s from The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years, a 2016 documentary film directed by Ron Howard, about their touring years from 1962 to 1966.

 

there he is, just to the right of paul. screenshot from the above video.

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a shot of the beatles running out onto the field. there's dad again.

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the beatles at crosley field. 2m12s

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original concert picture available on ebay. there i am! only $99.95! plus shipping!

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another shot from the stands.