Photo courtesy of the Nicholas Topping family
Nick Topping
Nick Topping
Nick Topping presided over a shop called Topping & Co.: The International House. He sold books, newspapers, international food and music from around the world—not “world music” as a marketing category, but authentic sounds from Africa, Asia and Latin America. He did tax returns and translations for his customers and notarized their documents. A smile was seldom absent from his face.
During the 1950s Red Scare, Topping bravely brought left-leaning folk artists such as Pete Seeger and Miriam Makeba to Milwaukee. He had an honest reputation in an industry that wasn’t known for honesty. On September 4, 1964, he presented the biggest concert of his side career in music promotion, The Beatles at the Milwaukee Arena (now the UWM Panther Arena).
“Music was our father’s passion, along with internationalism, world cultures and working for many causes for social justice,” says Nick’s daughter, Alexandra Topping. She was 12 at the time, sitting in the fourth row with her six-year-old sister Adele, who adds, “The concert went smoothly. After The Beatles’ press conference at the Coach House Inn (now a Marquette University residence hall) on Wisconsin Avenue where they were staying, the group was escorted by limo to the Arena under tight security since the crazed fans wouldn’t get out of their way.” The same frenzy occurred on their way back to the hotel, but there were no incidents and no arrests.
Tickets for the concert were $3.50 and $5.50, sold by mail order or at the International House (736 N. Second St.). Lines of ticket buyers stretched down the block. Some 13,000 of them crowded the Arena for a half-hour show. Alexandra and Adele hardly heard a note of The Beatles’ music, drowned out by the clamor of screaming fans. “Our mother covered her ears through the whole concert, and a picture of her covering her ears appeared in the Milwaukee Journal the next day,” Alexandra recalls.
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The Beatles never returned to Milwaukee, and their Arena show would be one of Topping’s last concerts. At Topping’s October 1964 Bob Dylan concert at the Oriental Theater, Dylan complained about the sound system and stormed offstage. Topping was forced to refund everyone’s money. In 1965 he booked the Dave Clark Five but exited the concert business with mostly good memories and continued to run the International House through his death in 2007. Topping was a true believer in the immanent possibility of a better world, a good struggle with music as a peaceful weapon. According to Alexanddra, he continued to follow The Beatles’ career and was happy to learn that they represented progressive values. Some say his favorite Beatles’ song was “All You Need is Love.”
