It was a chaotic scene at DC’s Shoreham Hotel when the Beatles stayed there in February 1964. The band was in town for its first public American concert, and thousands of fans flocked to the hotel, clogging Calvert Street. The Beatles had rented an entire floor, with guards stationed at the stairwells to prevent anyone from sneaking in. They stayed in a presidential suite, as general manager Phil Hollywood later recalled in an interview with the Washington Post. “They were very polite, down-to-earth boys,” he said, “but I think they were overwhelmed by what was happening.” Hollywood had to think fast to get the band out of the hotel: He ordered up some diversionary limos to distract fans while the musicians snuck through the kitchen and onto a bus.

Today, the presidential suite is still t

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