Life With the Beatles
Just One More Show?
By George Harrison
Liverpool Echo
February 29, 1964
Hoping to ride on the crest of the fantastic Beatles wave, the boss of the Miami Beach associated hotels chain, Mr. Morris Landsburg, came along with a juicy last-minute offer. A proposition that the boys should give one more show at the Deauville Hotel in Miami, where they were staying. "Just one performance", he urged, "to give another chance of seeing the Beatles to some of the 1000s who had been unable to obtain free tickets for the Ed Sullivan Show."
And for that one extra chance, Mr. Landsburg said he would pay them £3000 or 50% of the box office receipts, whichever was the greater. It sounded good, but the boys' manager, Brian Epstein, the 29-year-old behind-the-scenes genius, who was making our Beatles rich, turned down the offer.
He told Mr. Landsburg, gently, "They really need rest now, more than money." Disappointed, but still a staunch Beatles fan, wealthy Morris Landsburg, who was a prominent owner and breeder of racehorses, consoled himself by choosing a name for a foal which was born to his fine mare Papoose, during the previous Sunday's Ed Sullivan TV show. He called the colt "Beatles" and said, "I only hope he earns the same kind of money as those boys do."
During our last week in Miami Beach, concert offers showered in on the Liverpool quartet from all over America. Handsome young Brian Epstein refused them all in the most courteous and charming fashion, but nonetheless firmly for that. One interesting trait about Brian was that he would never discuss money matters or the earnings of the boys with anyone outside the inner circle. Newspapers were making the most gaudy guesses at what the Beatles would eventually take out of the United States from their tour, the royalties on their records, and on the marketing of Beatles products such as wigs, shirts, slacks, pajamas, wallpaper, and the rest. But Brian kept mum.
A few financial facts emerged, however, despite his reticence. Nikki Byrne, president of the New York company called Seltaeb, Beatles spell backwards, which is licensed by Brian Epstein's Liverpool firm, NEMS Ltd, to control the sales of Beatles wear in America, told me that he estimated they would sell about $50 million worth, more than £16,000,000 of Beatles articles this year. Capitol Records announced that The Beatles had earned more than £80,000 in royalties on their staggering sales of nearly 3 million albums and single discs during the month of January alone. February figures, they declare, would exceed that because of the huge profit given by the Beatles' American tour.
Don't forget that Paul McCartney and John Lennon are the composers of most of the hits, including the 3,000,000-plus top seller, "I Want to Hold Your Hand," come in for a tidy bonus on top, as the songwriters. Their extra cash could be £ 10,000 each.
My own estimate of the last two months, Beatles wages, American wages of the Beatles, not reckoning sales of Beatle products is likely to be nearer than most. For is based on information from sound sources. I put down royalties as £180,000, another £ 10,000 for three television shows, £ 4,000 for the Carnegie Hall concerts, and £ 5,000 for the wonderful night in Washington, making a grand total of nearly £ 200,000. Not bad for eight weeks' income.
Yet the boys treat the mention of money with complete indifference. George Harrison shrugs his shoulders when the matter is brought up. "Well, we can now afford a few more ciggies and suits, I suppose," he grins. Paul says, "What's money? We never see any. All they give us is spens." For the uninitiated, "spens". Is Liverpool for spending money.
The reporter asked what they thought of the Prime Minister's comment that they were his secret weapon for foreign trade and one of Britain's biggest dollar earners. Ringo exclaimed, "What's all this about us earning dollars for Britain? Are we supposed to share them out or something? "
When I gave John Lennon the tip off that "I Want to Hold Your Hand " was certain to top 3 million sales, all he did was screw up his face, as if working out a difficult sum, and shout across to Paul. "Hey, what's free million fardings faddah?"
For the last few days in Miami, the boys made the most of the glorious sunshine. They swam, went out water skiing and fishing, or just lazed around a swimming pool at the home of a few newfound friends. "This water skiing lark is fabulous, George," Paul enthused to me. "I've done a bit of it on holiday in Greece last year, so I was a way ahead of these peasants at it," he added, waving a lordly hand in the direction of the other three. "He's good", admitted George Harrison, "but he isn't all that good, even if he can do it one handed like, he still falls over as often as us."
They were guests one day aboard a 93-foot yacht owned by a millionaire furniture maker whom they met. The object was to bob around the Gulf Stream for a few hours in the sun and maybe catch some fish, even a shark or two. It had all been kept very hush hush by their publicity man who insisted that the boys required peace and quiet to pursue their pleasures untrammeled by such beings as cameramen and reporters.
What he didn't know, and neither did the Beatles, was that the boat's owner had also invited aboard for the trip a Miami news reporter and photographer as his guests. Things went fine for a while. John prepared corned beef "sarnies" -- Liverpool for sandwiches -- for his wife, Cynthia, and himself in the galley, while George and Paul lounged on deck with cans of iced beer and coke.
Nobody thought for some time to inquire into the identity of the two strangers aboard. When they did, the lads set up shouts of "Aha! Still always on board about you lovers!" and other odd nautical sounds. The publicity man got angry and demanded that the boat be turned around and head for shore, so that the newsmen could be dumped off, and that's what happened, despite the protestations of the pair that they had been asked to board by the owner.
Incidents on similar lines occurred frequently throughout the whole tour as enterprising news or camera hawks tried to break through the tight security ring around the Beatles to obtain exclusive pictures or stories. I was on a different footing from the others, having come all the way from the boys' home city of Liverpool, and I was able to see them pretty well, and when I wished.
But there were lots of angry scenes involving some of my press colleagues. But if the newspaper people tried every ruse they knew to get close to the boys, just imagine the tricks that the hundreds of faithful fans, aged 12 and 13, at the Deauville hotel every daylight hour hoping for a glimpse of their idols. Scores of eagle-eyed police were on Beatle duty inside and outside the hotel and basement lobby, lounges on every corridor on the sandy beach, by fire escapes, and in the kitchens. You'd think that with such on guard, it would be impossible for any unauthorized visitor to get through to the Beatles. Yet some of these youngsters did it.
A police sergeant told me, "This job is giving me white hairs, but I gotta hand it to our Florida kids. They sure are clever. It's taking us all our time to catch them. One boy fooled us this morning," He chuckled. "He borrowed a telegraph messenger's uniform from a pal, and with the hotel tray in his hand, he walked along to the 12th floor corridor to the Beatles' suite, pretending he had a cable for them. Another boy got through dressed as a waiter, and we've had a couple of cases where girls wearing maids' uniforms were able to get by the guards." Even so, these are the rare exceptions. Hundreds of kids have tried, but only a few have succeeded outside the hotel. "They've even staged fake fights to draw off the guards for a few moments and let their pals in the door," he added, I'd like to go on record as saying that the Miami Beach Police, who were saddled with this difficult and sometimes near heartbreaking job of Beatle duty, did it with tact, kindness and above all wonderful understanding. They were a great bunch.
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