Beatles fans couldn’t hide their love away Sunday, as the city celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Fab Four’s introduction to America.
A steady stream of Beatlemaniacs stopped by Broadway’s Ed Sullivan Theater to snap photos of the marquee, which was made up to look just like it did when the mop-topped musicians played there for some 700 screaming fans — and about 73 million TV viewers.
Joan Moore, 61, of Staten Island, said she skipped school to wait for the group outside The Plaza hotel, then joined other frenzied teens who packed the theater for the band’s historic debut on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in what was then called Studio 50.
“The second before they came on, it was like right before a storm — the air changed, the energy changed,” Moore said. “I look back at it and think, ‘I don’t think I was really alive before then.’ ”
Joe Diorio, 60, of Floral Park, Queens, pulled up to the theater Sunday in a burnt- orange 1963 Chevy Impala blasting “Love Me Do” from the stereo — the same car in which he got a ride to the show from a neighbor five decades earlier.
“It was all girls here. I felt out of place. I was the only guy. I wished I was a Beatle!” he said.
Katie Dolan, 22, of Midtown, called herself a “huge fan” who felt compelled to stop by the theater, which is now home to the “Late Show with David Letterman.”
“I would have been one of the screaming, passing-out girls with stuff written all over her,” Dolan said.
They also recalled watching the Sullivan show at their family home in Bensonhurst, with Gladys noting: “We sat on the floor right in front of the screen.”
“There was so much joy. And they were so cute!” added Lucille.