Following their concert in Dallas, Texas on 18 September 1964, The Beatles were flown to a ranch in Missouri for a rest day.
The aeroplane belonged to Reed Pigman, who also owned a ranch in Alton, Missouri. The Beatles used the ranch as a hideaway prior to a trip to New York for the final concert of their first US tour.
En route to Alton, they stopped briefly at Walnut Ridge to change planes. The secluded airport was ideal for avoiding the attention of fans.
We flew from Dallas to an intermediate airport where Pigman met us in a little plane with the one wing, on top, and with one or maybe two engines. It was so like Buddy Holly, that one; that was probably the closest we came to that sort of musicians’ death. I don’t mean it nearly crashed because it didn’t, but the guy had a little map on his knee, with a light, as we were flying along and he was saying, ‘Oh, I don’t know where we are,’ and it’s pitch black and there are mountains all around and he’s rubbing the windscreen trying to get the mist off. Finally he found where we were and we landed in a field with tin cans on fire to guide us in.
Their efforts weren’t entirely undetected by the fans. Night-time arrivals at the airstrip were rare in 1964, and three teenage boys ran to the airport to see who the unexpected visitors were. News of The Beatles’ arrival quickly spread throughout Walnut Ridge throughout the weekend.
The second aeroplane was a seven-seater. After boarding just after midnight on 19 September they were taken to the ranch in the Ozark Mountains, where they spent 36 hours relaxing, swimming, hiking, horse riding, go-karting, shooting and fishing.
For me – apart from the natural pride I felt in seeing the Beatles perform in such places as the Hollywood Bowl, the vast Red Rock Stadium in the Colorado mountains, and the wonderful State Fair Coliseum in Indianapolis – my happiest time was spent on a ranch in the Ozark Hills in South Missouri. This was on September 19, my 30th birthday, and the day before our final American concert in New York.From Dallas we flew in our chartered Electra jet to a deserted airfield 70 miles from the ranch in the small hours of the 19th and our host, the millionaire owner of the airline, met us – the Beatles, Neil Aspinall, Derek Taylor and myself. He piloted us in his own seven-seater, twin-engined aircraft to his private air strip at the ranch.
We spent that night, the whole of Saturday and the following night at the ranch, fishing, horse riding, and lazing about in the warm autumn sunshine, and it was a tremendous tonic for the Beatles, who though they had stood up to the tour very well, were very tired young men.
On the flight from Dallas at one minute past midnight Paul took over the aircraft intercom and announced that it was my birthday and the Beatles sang Happy Birthday, presenting me with an antique telephone and a set of water glasses.
The Beatles, though not devoted to sport, took readily to the saddle, however, and fought majestically for three hours with four high-spirited farm horses, fording the river, climbing steep rocky banks, and emerging without a fall but with several bruises. So much did Paul enjoy riding that he awoke at 7am on Sunday for a further attempt which proved even more painful than the first.
Mersey Beat magazine, 1 October 1964
No musical instruments were taken to the Pigman ranch, and The Beatles held no rehearsals or performances while there.
Also on this day...
- 2024: George Harrison’s remixed Living In The Material World to be released in November
- 2023: Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band live: Linda Ronstadt Music Hall, Tucson
- 2022: Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band live: Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center, Atlanta
- 2018: Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band live: Heinz Hall, Pittsburgh
- 2017: Paul McCartney live: Barclays Center, New York City
- 2010: English Heritage plaque to be unveiled at Lennon’s former London home
- 1993: Paul McCartney live: Westfalenhalle, Dortmund
- 1976: Wings live: Wiener Stadthalle, Vienna
- 1969: Paul McCartney is interviewed for the BBC’s Scene And Heard
- 1969: The Beatles lose control of Northern Songs
- 1968: Recording: Piggies
- 1967: Filming: Magical Mystery Tour
- 1966: George and Pattie Harrison hold a press conference in India
- 1966: John Lennon films How I Won The War in Spain
- 1962: The Beatles live: Cavern Club, Liverpool (evening)
- 1961: The Beatles live: Cavern Club, Liverpool (lunchtime)
- 1960: The Beatles live: Indra Club, Hamburg
- 1959: The Quarrymen live: Casbah Coffee Club, Liverpool
- 1934: Brian Epstein is born
Want more? Visit the Beatles history section.
The Beatles arrived at the Pigman Ranch on my Birthday weekend! My father was the ranch foreman and we were allowed to mingle among the Beatles. I was a shadow of Ringo Starr and enthralled by his toy six shooters and red shirt. I changed my clothes to match him as close as I could! It is a treasured memory and my community celebrates the 50th anniversary of their visit.
Sheila, do you remember a guy named Tom Thrasher? My Dad said he was there too. He would’ve been 16 or 17 at the time.
Absolutely fascinating….’cause my Dad’s uncle was the ranch manager….Ray Dethrow, wife Mary, daughter Brenda, son Alro…my dad’s cousins. McCartney came to their house to borrow fishing gear to try his hand at fishing. Mary was so flustered she couldn’t remember where they kept fishing gear. Paul rummaged through the house…every closet…with Mary looking for the gear. Another relative….everyone south of Hwy60 between Hwys 67 and 63 are related….telephone pole family tree….Ralph Johnson worked at JB Gum Motor Co on the square in Alton, loaned a Ford pickup to the Beatles.George had little accident, knocked door off, used to driving on other side, maybe??? 🙂 🙂 Mary’s daughter Brenda got three of their autographs on her clarinet case. Why, who, didn’t sign, whereabouts of case, forgotten with time. Ringo acted like a little kid wearing a gun belt given to him by Elvis Presley, with gun/holster Ringo had bought. George enjoyed the go-cart. John just hung out with the cats around a barn. all went horse riding….not much at cowboying…..
I remember my father coming in from the barber shop in Alton, Mo saying the Beatles were on Pigman Ranch. Excitement was beating in my heart as my cousin and I drove onto the ranch at 5:00 in the morning and headed to our uncle’s home.
My uncle worked for the ranch and asked the foreman to let us stay. He agreed we took pictures which later burned in a house fire and somewhere I have misplaced my two autographs, but we saw them and drove right out behind them as they left the ranch that day. I do have news articles from the Alton paper during that time which will be displayed with one of the vendors in September. What a great time in my younger life.
Kay,
Do you happen to remember a guy named Tom Thrasher? He lived in Alton at the time and he told me the story that he was actually at the ranch today. I think he was friends with one of the Pigman boys, but he told me this story over the years that he hung out with the Beatles for awhile one day and I never believed him. When I was in college, I had a subscription to Rolling Stone, and was flipping through pages one day and there was a picture of George riding a go-kart at Pigman Ranch in Alton, MO. I freaked out and immediately called him and said, “I told you so!” … anyway, today marks 2 years since my Dad passed and I just shared this story on my Facebook page. Just curious if you knew my Dad. He would’ve been 16.
In Kentucky I remember when the Beatles were on tour in 1964. I was only 14 but the excitement of their performances was incredible. The mystery of where the Beatles were for a couple of days was very interesting. People were just freaking out because no one could find them!
Now we know!
four of us teens from nearby Hardy, Arkansas had seen the film about the group landing in Walnut Ridge that morning. We wound up driving up to Alton late that Saturday afternoon…I will never forget it the sun was so warm that day…almost like mid summer. We were turned away at the farm gate by a guard and there were several other kids milling around. We drove on the back side of the farm, parked the old 59 Ford and jumped the bobbed wire fence….there was no one in sight. We walked up the hill which was in pasture, with cattle and came to a large tall hedge fence. We scaled that and, to our amazement, about 150 feet in front and to our left was a large swimming pool, with a chained link fence. Inside were several men, in pool chairs. We were soon spotted and a large man can running out of the pool toward us an yelling..STOP! About that time on of the other men told him to halt and motioned to us to come over the the side of the pool close to us. As we approached, we could tell it was Lennon….he was in swim suite with a sheer white ruffled long sleved shirt….one of those worn by the English groups of that ear. It was wild. The other men, just set in their chairs and continued their business. We could tell one was Ringo and one was Paul, and we found out from Lennon that one was their manager. He spend a considerable amount of time talking with us as he could see we were strictly harmless and no one else had came with us. Lennon was so nice and interesting to talk with…..we mainly talked about music and how they wound up at the Pigman Ranch and where they were going on Sunday. We left by the main road down the hill as opposed to the fence. The guard at the bottom gare tried to give us a hard time but we told him John Lennon said we could leave by the gate. Several other kids were at the gate by that time….it was getting darker in the day as the shadows drew in that heavily wooded area..at first these kids thought we four were the Beatles and they began to scream…then they realied we were not and bombarded us with questions….one girl even took my hand and kissed it…it was so unreal. We would up at the Club 19 in Alton that night…a local night spot where we knew the band…Richard Manning and the Sattelites, from Jonesboro. We four were also members of a local rock and roll band and Richard let us set in for a couple of numbers. I tired to announce to the people there that we had just seen the Beatles at the nearby Pigman Ranch….but by that time most people were half tanked and all they wanted to do is dance….no one believed me and they kept yelling “play the Arkansas Twins”…a song RIchard had helped record for Bobby Lee Trammell. This was one chance in a million for us kids and we took it. I knew we were going to be arrested or at least detained….but thanks to Lennon…magic did happen to four kids that day. Three of us are still living…..one has departed but I will never forget that day. I wrote a piece about this experience for Bill Harry…on the Mercy Beat web site a few years ago and he said the part about the rednecks wanting to dance was hilarious. I was filmed at the Walnut Ridge Beatles day festival a few years back by a gentleman named Jerry Mitchell from the Jackson Clarion Newspaper who was preparing a documentary on the Walnut Ridge landing….but he had never heard from anyone who had been at Alton. The Mayor of Walnut Ridge knew about my story and arranged for this filming interview for me and several others. One of these was a lady in Walnut Ridge who filmed the original Beatles landing in WR and still retains the film today.
John Lennon….a man of the world…he loved to talk and engage with all sorts of people and was interested
in how we played American Rock a Billy and how we got those special sounds no others could ever duplicate. I enjoyed so much meeting him…none of the others seemed to care much about us being at the Pigman ranch that Saturday and acted indifferent to us. For that, I have little good to say about Paul or Ringo…in all fairness Harrison was down in the Pigman farmhouse at the time so I could not comment on him (Lennon told us Harrison would not fly up to Alton on the small plane so he had been driven there by Mr. Snapp in his red chevy van. Charles Snapp, a friend of mine, and mayor of Walnut Ridge, sent me a picture of it which i cherish and I did see the old original home movie camera film taken by a young girl at the Walnut Ridge airport in 64 when they landed to catch the small plane to the Pigman ranch.
Thank you for sharing your memories!