A crowd of 300,000 – roughly half the city – welcomed the Beatles to Adelaide on 12 June. This figure was the largest recorded gathering of Australians in one place, and twice the number of people that had greeted Queen Elizabeth II on her royal visit in 1963. They were given a similar welcome in Melbourne on 14 June. Fans lined the city streets and then lay siege outside the Beatles' hotel; cars were crushed and 50 people were hospitalised, some having fallen from trees in an attempt to gain a vantage point of their heroes. The Beatles were asked to make an appearance on their hotel balcony in the hope of placating the crowd. The mass of people and sound was reminiscent of film footage of 1930s Nuremberg rallies. According to author Keith Badman, this prompted Lennon to give a Nazi salute "and shout 'Sieg Heil!', even holding his finger to his upper lip as a Hitler-style moustache". Lennon also took to giving crowds an open-palmed benediction in the style of the Pope.
