Young George (16 Magazine)

 

This story comes from the pages of 16 Magazine.  They had an ongoing column known as "Young Beatles" where they gave information about each Beatle during their childhood.   I know 16 Magazine isn't always a reliable source (Unlike Teen Screen and Datebook) but this is a good article. 

    George is often reported as being the Beatle who is less photographed and talked about than the others. This may well appear to be true when one first meets him, but it bears very little relation to the George family and friends know.

     According to his mother, he hasn't changed much since he was a boy. She recalls, "George was always full of fun when he was a child. He never caused any big trouble, and even the neighbors liked him a lot, which is unusual with little boys. 

    "He loved animals, and I was very proud of the way he'd like to help old people. I remember one day when I took him to the pictures with me. He was only eight years old at the time. When we came out of the cinema, there was an old tramp sitting on a wall. George immediately suggested that we give him half a crown. Money meant nothing at all to him then, and he could not see why I shouldn't give money to every old person we met. 

    "He has always been fond of entertaining other people. When he was 10 years old, his dad gave him some hand puppets for Christmas. From then on, whenever we had visitors, he always insisted on giving a little show, kneeling behind the couch.

     "The first time he got a big urge to play the guitar was when he was 13 years old. His brother Peter bought one, and George promptly tried to learn to play it. Eventually, he formed a small group with some friends, and they went to an audition at the Speke British Legion Hall. The main act did not turn up, so George's group played instead. He only knew two songs, and once they had done both of them, they started again with the first and went on playing the same two over and over again. To their amazement, the audience loved it, and they were given the regular artist's feet. I remember noticing when they walked into our house afterwards that the bassist's fingers were bleeding, he had played so hard."

     George's father is very proud of his son's achievements, and he and his wife spend a lot of time answering fan mail and writing thank-you letters to people who send presents to George's home. He remembers that when he and his wife used to emcee local old-time dances, George used to have a big laugh at the wide-bottom trousers the dancers wore. "He decided to do something about his own trousers because he did not want to be old-fashioned," George's father said.  "So one day, when I bought him a new pair of flannels for school, he sat up till late at night and altered them on his mother's sewing machine until they were narrowed to his satisfaction. 

    "He was very fond of cycling. I never knew where he used to get to, but I suppose he traveled all over the place. He also loved hitchhiking. And I remember one day he turned up with Paul McCartney and announced that they were going to hitchhike to the south of England. That night, they packed their bags, and the next day, they disappeared. We didn't see them again for three weeks, but all during the time they were away, we kept getting postcards from places like Southampton and Torquay."

     Singer Shane Fenton's wife, Iris, knew George very well when he was 15. She says, "I met George through Rory Storm. George used to rehearse in the cellar of a house near where we lived at the time. He started inviting friends of his to come down and use his rehearsal room. I remember that one of the groups that took advantage of his offer was the Quarry Men, John Lennon's original outfit. Later on, Rory needed another guitarist and asked George if he would join him. Everyone thought George was a very good guitarist. He was one of the very few people in Liverpool who could play "Guitar Boogie Shuffle" all the way through. Anyway, George decided he would stick with the Quarry Men. "

    Iris. Mother remembers George as the boy who used to come around and watch the telly three nights a week. He and Iris used to sit there holding hands. "As far as I remembered, it was the first time that either of them had ever taken any interest in someone of the opposite sex.

     "At Iris' 14th birthday party, I remember that George turned up in a brand new Indian style suit with covered buttons; he looked very grown up. "

    George's style of humor is and always has been the sort of deadpan, tweak your right toe while he is looking you sensibly in the left eye kind. When the Beatles were in Hamburg in 1962, he sent this card to Iris' mother:

 Darling V,

 We are all missing you very much. To caress your teeth once more would be just heaven. Also, to hold your lungs in mine and drink T, B. John sends you his lunch, and Paul and Ringworm greet you too. Love George.

The Beatles and Me (1965)

 

The Beatles and Me

By Neil Aspinall

1965

All the way through the Beatles' most recent tour of Great Britain, I kept a special diary of everything that happened. All told, there were 18 concerts in towns all over England, Scotland and Wales. This tour replaced the usual London stage show, which the boys have been in the habit of putting on in London over Christmas and New Year's. They felt that they would rather rest over the holidays, but they asked Brian Epstein to arrange the tour so that they could see something of their fans in different parts of the U.K. It goes without saying that every single concert was a complete sellout -- in fact, most of the tickets were snapped up on the day each theatre's book office opened. 

I know there is plenty of news on any Beatles' tour, but I wanted to jot down all the behind-the scenes' incidents the papers never heard about...

Monday, 6 December-  Today is the only free day of the tour. Conveniently, the boys can stay with relatives in Merseyside instead of checking into a hotel. George is with his parents in their new home located close to the town of Warrington, about ten miles out of Liverpool. Pattie Boyd traveled up from London to see last night's show at the Liverpool Empire. She arrived at the theatre with George's mother and father, and the press photographers spotted those three familiar faces on the sidewalk outside the theater even before fans recognized the party. 

Ringo is staying with his folks in the Liverpool suburb of Gateacre. Last year, John's Aunt Mimi moved away from Liverpool (she's living in Bournemouth, a pleasant seaside resort on England's south coast). So John is staying with Paul.  They are at the McCartney home on the South side of the Mersey in Wirral. 

Ringo made it a quiet family day at home. So did George. John and Paul were more active. They got up very early (for them), at around 10 o'clock. Straight after breakfast, Paul fetched his two Moped bicycles and he and John went off for a ride round the picturesque Wirral countryside. The Mopeds are bikes with small motors fitted to them - cost around $100 each, and Paul has had this pair since last summer. 

One afternoon last July, I remember Paul and a friend trying out his Mopeds for the first time.  They decided to spend the warm summer afternoon exploring the countryside near Paul's father's new home. 

"You'll be recognized right away," joked Paul's dad. 

"That's what you think!" replied Paul. And he put on a shabby old raincoat, a little beret with his hair pulled back beneath it, and a false mustache. Of all the Beatles, Paul has always been the biggest believer in theatrical-type disguises!

"Got an old pair of specs?" Paul asked his father.  The glasses completed his camouflage. 

"How on earth will you be able to see through those?" asked his father, looking at the thick lenses in the spectacles. 

"I needn't wear these all the time, " Paul replied, slipping them into this pocket. "I'll shove them on if I have to stop for petrol or anything." (Petrol is the word the English use for gasoline). 

Inevitably, the Moped ran low on petrol, and Paul had to pull in at a service station. The problem was that he couldn't find the right pump for the special Moped two-stroke fuel mixture because the lenses of his glasses blurred his view. At last, he found the right pump. A girl attendant came over. At once, Paul put on one of his special accents. 

"Fill 'er up, please," he said in a mock American accent. 

"Sure, Paul," the girl replied at once. 

"How did you recognize me?" asked Paul, surprised. 

"I'd know that voice anywhere, luv!" she told him. 

If Paul had used his natural accent and not worn such a fantastic set of old clothes, I guess he would have fooled any service station attendant. He will overdo the disguise bit to such an extent that he sticks out in any crowd and is a suspicioius character from the start. You'd be amazed how different a Beatle looks with his hair brushed back. That's as far as Paul should have gone -- just worn the beret to keep his long hair pulled back from his face. 

As I have said, John and Paul made the most of their day off. In the afternoon, they piled into a car with Paul's dad and drove to Chester, a historic, walled city about thirty miles south of Liverpool. Here, Paul and John invaded an antique shop. The visit was completely unplanned and took the owners by surprised. In no time, schoolgirls crowded the streets outside, and scores of excited Beatle People pressed their noses against the shop window to watch John and Paul hunting through the dealer's fascinating stock. John bought a 16th-century Bible, a beautiful work of art with superb hand-lettering. He also bought books on magic and proverbs, plus three volumes of an old steamship logbook.

Tuesday - 7 December - The second leg of our nationwide tour kicked off today with shows at the ABC Theatre in Andwich, a district of Manchester. As you know, London is renowned for its pea-soup fogs.  Even if you haven't been in one and seen the real thing, you must know what they're like from Doris Day's films. To tell you the truth, London doesn't have many really thick fogs. But today, in Manchester, we were stuck for five hours in the worst smog I've ever seen -- the sort where your handkerchief is covered with black soot every time you blow your nose!

At lunchtime, Alf Bicknell got the big Austin Princess out of its garage in Liverpool, picked me up, and started calling for each of the boys.  There didn't seem to be any reason to hurry because the journey from Liverpool to Manchester is less than forty miles, and George, our last pick-up, was in Warrington, which was right on our route some miles east of Merseyside. In Liverpool, it was a wonderfully clear day, cold, crisp, cloudless, and sunny. When we reached George's, he was ready - a pleasant surprise. 

"Tony Barrow has been on the phone from Manchester," George told us. "According to him, there's thick fog there."  It was hard to believe because the weather was so lovely where we were, so we didn't worry too much about the fog warning.  Suddenly, on the outskirts of Manchester, we drove into a wall of smog.  In seconds, we were plunged into the dark grey mass, and our speed was reduced to less than five miles an hour.  To add to the chaos, it was rush hour in Manchester. Everyone was trying to get home and traffic jams were increasing the confusion. At the ABC in Ardwick, the added ten minutes to the regular intermission to give us extra time. Then, when the Beatles were due to stage, the emcee announced an extra intermission because the Princess was still crawling slowly through fog-bound Manchester. Fifteen minutes later, the boys rushed on stage as the cries of "WE WANT THE BEATLES!" reached an ear-piercing peak!

But for the bad weather, the boys would have driven back to Merseyside, after the Manchester shows.  As it was, the journey would have been hopeless. They had no baggage - not even a toothbrush between them -- but we booked into Manchester's Midland Hotel for the night. The boys posed for press photographers in a set of special smog masks brought along by the London Daily Express. Plans for a proper press conference fell through because of our late arrival, but the boys spent some time chatting with Kathy Fleet, who represented radio station WDRC and the Harford Times.  Kathy had flown all the way from Hartford, Connecticut, for her interview!

The boys stayed up at the Midland until well after three in the morning.  They spent four hours with producer Walter Shenson, discussing plans for their next movie. It was at this meeting that the boys made their final decision not to use the existing script based on the story of "A Talent for Loving." They admitted that they were not totally against the idea of a comedy-type Western, but they wanted something with a less complicated plot. Paul was enthusiastic about trying something involving a big robbery of some sort. In any event, all four Beatles agreed with Walter Shenson that they wanted to lay four individual personalities. They didn't mind keeping the names John, Paul, George, and Ringo, but they were all for finding a script that would let them play four entirely different parts instead of playing themselves. By two o'clock in the morning, everyone was hungry. George called room service and tried to get cornflakes. 

"They can't do it," he reported. "They say the food is all locked up."

"I'll have a go," said Paul, and he asked for fruit salad. They couldn't do that, either. So all of us finished up with jugs of hot chocolate and plates of butties. 

Tonight we are staying some miles out of Sheffield at a quiet little country club situated in the village of Spinkhill. With us are the Moody Blues, and together, our two parties seem to have taken over the place! As I write, it is nearly three o'clock in the morning, and everyone has just gone off to bed. I have just watched and taken part in the craziest game of billiards in the world! I'm not clear who actually started the game, but in no time, all four Beatles and four Moody Blues were involved. 

Two teams were formed, with four people at each end of the table. One white billiard ball was put in the center of the table. The billiard cues were turned round, and, using the flat end of the cues, the ball was belted up and down the table at high speed. The object was to shoot the ball past the opposing team so that it hit the end of the table. This counted as a goal. The game became fast and furious, with the ball hurtling up and down the table at a while speed, eight cues knocking it to and fro as hard as possible. 

The boys made up extra rules for their new game as they went along. Each game was concluded when one team or the other scored 21 goals. Then the teams switched ends and changed one or two players while exhausted. Beatles or Moodies dropped into chairs to watch the next bout. 

"This is gear," commented John. "We must always stay in country clubs, Nel! You can't do this sort of thing in hotels."

I have seldom seen the Beatles get so much pleasure out of a game around a billiard table. I'm sure the boys will remember tonight for a long time. They thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Incidentally, this version of billiards turned out to be a little rougher than the regular one. Most of us skinned our knuckles in the excitement of the game, and everyone went off to bed nursing at least one bloody hand. 

Friday 10 December -- Today it was raining and very cold. We drove from Sheffield to Birmingham. The Birmingham police had conducted a special plan whereby we'd meet a pair of escorted vehicles outside the city. We reached the rendezvous ahead of schedule and found ourselves sitting in the Princess with nothing to do but wait. After a while, Ringo suggested that we drive about for a while. We stopped at a shop and the boys suggested that I buy something such as pocket solitaire to pass the time. The shop had all sorts of novelty items, too, and I spotted some brass hand-warmers. Each one worked like a cigarette lighter and was wrapped in a little velvet bag. 

"Give me four of those, please," I said to the salesman.

"These are the last two in the shop," he told me. 

I took them and wondered who would manage to take possession of them once I was back in the car. John and Paul won, but they let Ringo and George have a go every now and again. 

In the dressing room at Birmingham, I found John sitting in one corner with a small, old-fashioned banjo. Propped on the back of a chair in front of him was a book called "Amateur Banjo Tutor."

"It's not mine," replied John, as he picked out the yug-a-dug chords just like it said in the book. 

"You remember, we got Mal to collect some of the stuff we bought in Chester?" He bought this while he was there. It's a sort of antique, I think."

Mal Evans joined us and pointed out the signature on the banjo.

"It's autographed -- if it's genuine," he said proudly. 

The banjo was signed "George Formby" - the name of a great English music hall star who died a few years ago. Formby certainly played the banjo, but we'll never know whether Mal's "find" was really an authentic souvenir or not. In the meantime, it seems to be keeping John happy. You see, what I mean when I say that the Beatles find a lot of pleasure in small things you'd never dream would interest them?

The Beatles and Me -- How I won the War

Let's take a trip back to 1966 and grab an issue of 16 Magazine.   It was there that you would find interesting feature stories by Pattie Boyd or Neil Aspinall.    This one from Neil about John Lennon and How I won the War is really good.  I think it gives information that you can't find anywhere else.   I really wish Neil had written a book.  But at least we have articles like this one!

The Beatles and Me

By Neil Aspinall

16 Magazine 1966

On the evening of October 8, 1966, John Lennon celebrated his 26^th birthday in an apartment in Almeria, Spain.  Officially, he was 26 on Sunday, October 9^th, but the party took place the night before because John was about to move to a new location.   At the time, we had been in Spain just over three weeks for location work on the Richard Lester movie, How I won the War, in which John plays the part of Corporal Gripweed – a faithful, slovenly and slightly cowardly servant/batman on Lieutenant Goodbody (Michael Crawford) of the British Army.

The entire production unit for the movie got an open invitation to the birthday shindig and believe me, it was quite a wild night!  Almeria is a pretty remote spot – minus most forms of conventional night life, so that party was one of the few really successful social occasions of the month.

John and Cyn had become very friendly with Michael Crawford and his wife, who were renting an apartment nearby.  Already the Crawfords were finding themselves a bit cramped, because they had their lovely little six-month-old baby with them and a nanny.  And Ringo arrived with Maureen for a holiday three days before the birthday party!

“You know what we ought to do?”  John suggested one evening , just after we’d heard that Ringo and Maureen were coming to Spain.  “We should all get together and rent one of those fantastic old villas outside the town.”

The Crawfords loved the idea and the move was organized without delay.  The apartments were very attractive and comfortable – with a wonderful view looking out over the sea.  But everyone wanted more space to move around in and larger “get-togethers” rooms for entertaining.  So, on the Sunday of John’s birthday, we moved into the Villa Corjo-Romera, a magnificent rambling old Spanish villa standing on a hill outside the town.

“It’ll take days just to explore this place,” John declared, as we walked from room to room on the initial four of the villa.  We admired all the heavy woodwork, the superbly decorated ceilings and the majestic main hall.

“That’s it,” replied John.  “A party!  It’s my birthday.  We should have one.”

“We did that last night,” I put in weakly.

“Well, we’ll do it again tonight,” John said.  “It can be called a villa warming, if you like.”

“Hey—you’ve got a game room,” Ringo said.  “Let’s have a go at table tennis later.”

That night’s “villa warming” party coincided with one of the worst storms Almeria had ever experienced in living memory.  Normally, the locals expect no more than about five days of rain each year.  This storm took everybody by surprise.  The rain was torrential and it was accompanied by a fierce wind.  The party was just getting underway, when all the lights went out, so we rushed around trying to find where the fuses were located.    We needn’t have bothered.  The electricity supply cables for the entire area had been damaged by the storm.  And the telephone lines were down too.  Finally, we found enough candles to light the place.  And in the end, the candlelight added a definitely romantic atmosphere to the party, and the power cut turned out to be a novel advantage rather than a disaster.

It goes without saying that there was no film work done on Monday.  The location set had been washed away by the rain.  (After all, this was a desert sequence – and floods just don’t happen in the desert!)  The water supply for the villa came from a well, but the pump was worked by electricity.  It wasn’t until late Tuesday afternoon that the electric power was restored.  So we spent Monday devising ways of eating and existing comfortably without the use of water or electricity. 

The restoration of the power coincided with the arrival of our cook.  So at about three o’clock Tuesday afternoon we all settled down to a late breakfast of sausages and eggs.

“This, I am really looking forward to,” said John and the girls put on a look of mock annoyance.  “Not that I’m saying a word against your cooking, but even you two can’t work wonders without water.”

 John and I had left for Germany to being work on How I won the War less than a week after the Beatles’ American tour.  By  now it must be a matter of well-known historical fact that John’s ceremonial hair-cutting took place at the unearthly hour of 7:30am on the morning of Tuesday, September 6, 1966!  The “operation” was supervised by the film’s producer/director, Richard Lester, and carried out by 28-year-old German hairdresser, Klaus Baruch, of Hamburg.   He came to our small vacation type hotel in the forest of Luneburg Heath to perform his grave task.   John’s familiar fringe was swept back and greased down a bit to transform him into Corporal Gripweed.  The addition of a grubby old army greatcoat plus a pair of very pain specs completed the change from Beatle to “batman.”

Don’t believe any claims people might make about possessing some of John’s clipped-off hair.   I watched the famous locks of hair burning away to nothing while we were at Luneburg!

No true Neil---this lock of John's hair sold at Heritage Auctions in 2016

We got one completely free day in Germany and John took the opportunity of re-visiting some of his favorite haunts in Hamburg.  We couldn’t make the rounds of the Hamburg club scene because we had to be up so early the following morning.  Instead, John went on a shopping spree and picked up an assortment of shirts, shoes, jeans and other accessories from stores he knew well from the Beatles’ days in Hamburg five and six years ago.  It was a fascinating day for John since so many of the places familiar to him had greatly changed since 1960.

We finished filming in Germany on Wednesday September 14^th.  By coincidence, that was the day that a “Mr. and Mrs. Sam Wells” flew from London, Airport on a BOAC plane bound for Bombay.  At Bombay’s Taj Mahal Hotel, it wasn’t long before Mr. and Mrs. Wells alias George Harrison, let himself be pressured into admitting his true identity and explain to the local press his motives for that extended Indian vacation trip:  to study the sitar and everything to do with Asian music.

Meanwhile, back at How I won the War, John and I left Hamburg by the night train to Paris in the small hours of Friday September 16^th.  And at the same time (or a few hours later), Brian Epstein left London for Paris—accompanied by Paul McCartney.  We all met in Paris—just for the weekend, because filming in Spain was due to start early the following week.  The flight from Paris to Spain was fast and the longest and most tedious part of our journey was yet to come.  From the airport at Malaga, we faced a five-hour car dive to Almeria, which is, as I said earlier, a bit of a remote spot.  We drove along what the Spanish fondly imagine are highways but are, in fact, more like dirt tracks with superficial tarmac coating.  For most of the way, the “road “runs alongside the sea – I mean ALONGSIDE, because I reckoned we would plunge straight down into the waves at any second.

The living in Spain was a bit rough, but  nobody minded.  By now, most of the cast had become firm friends.  Although John and I had made a particular mate of Michael Crawford, we were equally close with all the other actors.  Like Ronald Lacy, who is Spool in the picture; Lee Montague, who is Transom (Corporal of Musket and Troop Sergeant); Roy Kinnear, who is Clapper; and Michael Hardern, who plays Lt. Col. Grapple.  Each morning we would be up by 7:30 to leave no later than 8am.  John had his own driver and Rolls with him.  The Almeria inhabitants were thoroughly impressed with this vehicle, and John caused a great stir each day as we drove out of the town.  The local people described the Rolls as the “Royal Hearse.”

Once we left the town each morning, that was it for the whole day.  At the actual film location, we spent most of our spare time watching what was happening or sitting around on the floor of an old bus (no seats) which was used as the company wardrobe and the cast’s dressing room. Between 8:30am and 9, John went through the make-up process of becoming Corporal Gripweed, and the next four hours were spent in front of the cameras.  The lunch break was from twelve to one.  We were well looked after, despite the lack of facilities on the location.  We all sat around in a big and very hot tent eating excellent lunches, with things like melon, filet steak and fruit.

Most of our evenings were spent quietly.  Sometimes, John would go through his lines for the following day, with me correcting him and filling in all the other parts.  Just for laughs, we would rewrite whole scenes for ourselves, which got a bit confusing.  So sooner or later, we’d call each other to order and get back to the script-learning bit.  I’m not sure exactly where Corporal Gripweed was born and raised, but John has given him a definitely Liverpool origin.

When Ringo and Maurren joined us at Almeria on Wednesday, October 5^th, only one of the boys remained in England.  That was Paul, who was still in the process of putting the final interior finishing touches to his new house at St. John’s Wood in North London. In any case, he wasn’t ready to take an overseas vcacation at that stage because he had started work on the soundtrack musical score for the Hayley Mills’ film, “All in good time.”

So, by the final week of October, the all round situation on the Beatle front was this:  George with yoga experience, sitar lessons and mustache, was located in a picturesque house beside a loe not too far from Bombay, India; Paul was in London, watching different bits of the Boulting Brothers’ film and writing the background music for each scene; and Ringo was taking it easy in Spain and watching John work on the final segments of How I won the War.  Now there was an interesting dispersal of talents and occupations, if ever there was one!

My Three days with the Beatles

Tina Williams was one of the school girls in "A Hard Day's Night."   This is a story that she wrote for "16" magazine about her experience working with the Beatles on the film.    I do not always think that the things in "16" in the 1960's were true because they sugar-coated a lot of the stories and told just false information, but this seems like a pretty good telling.  

My 3 Days with the Beatles

By Tina Williams

September 1964 16 Magazine

It was almost like a dream come true – in fact it was – the morning I heard that I was one of the girls chosen to make a film with those fabulous Beatles!

How did it all start?

Well, as a student of the Aida Foster School, I was asked to attend an audition with the producer, director and cast director of the film.  But when I saw the number of girls on a list who were also to be auditioned, I gave up all hopes of getting the job.  Nevertheless, I put on my best bib and tucker and sallied forth.  

At the film company’s plush Mayfair headquarters, I was shown into the producer’s office.  I was asked all sorts of questions -- “What work have you done before?”  “Do you like the Beatles?”  Just ordinary questions.  And that was that!  To be honest, I didn’t give the matter another thought.  That was until the morning I heard that I had been give the role.  I couldn’t believe it!  I was even more pleased when I heard that my friend, Susan (who attends the same acting school I do), had also been selected.  We had both waited three weeks to hear that we were in.   But it didn’t seem that long because we didn’t worry about it.  It’s no good biting your fingernails all the time.  What was the point?

Then we were told, very casually, to report for filming in three days’ time!  Those three days seemed like three weeks!   I was so excited; I couldn’t wait to get started.  Then we heard that we were all to be crowded on a train which had been hired for the filming – destination unknown!   All we were told was to report to the Paddington Station and that we would return about seven in the evening. 

Came the big day, I’d hardly slept all the night before!   Later, I discovered that in my colossal rush to get ready, I had left my purse, with my money inside, at home – which led to several embarrassments!

I said goodbye to my parents and joked, “Well, I’m off now.  Gotta date with the Beatles!”  I felt nine feet tall and actually I’m only five feet five!

So there I was on my way to Paddington.  Then I realized I had no money with me!  It was getting late and I just dared not miss that train.   Can you imagine keeping the Beatles and everyone else waiting just for me?  Luckily , I had some small change in my coat pocket which was enough to get me to Paddington Station.  

Naturally, the first thing I looked for when I arrived were those four fabulous fringes.  But they weren’t to be seen anywhere.  I joined up with the other girls and we boarded the train.  But still no sign of a Beatle anywhere.  Hello, I thought to myself, you’re not even going to meet them.  You know how films are made!  All in little bits and pieces and all over the place.  But then I thought, well, we must meet them sometime, because we are playing the parts of fans who discover in the film that they are on the train and we run up and down the corridors looking for them, until finally we corner them in a carriage.

The train started on its journey.  “When are we going to meet the Beatles?”  We asked someone.  “Don’t worry, girls, you will!”  He said.  The train stopped at Westbourne Park, just outside Paddington, and at last we heard that the boys had boarded the train.  It was all so secret.  No one apart from a handful of people were to know of their movements that day.  It was, of course, very necessary to keep things quiet.  Can you imagine what might have happened if the Beatles had suddenly turned up at Paddington Station?  British Railways would have been thrown into complete chaos!

But we still had to wait three hours before seeing the boys!   Then all at once they burst into our compartment.  “Hello girls!”  They all shouted.  I was dumb-struck for a second.  I couldn’t say anything.

They all looked great, especially Paul.  He’s so handsome when you meet him face to face.  Almost immediately, I found myself talking to Paul, George John and Ringo as though I’d known them for a long, long time.  It’s the way they make you feel.  They’re all so warm and friendly.  I thought that perhaps they wouldn’t talk to us, except in the scenes we play with them, but this wasn’t so.  They have no “big star” temperament at all.  They are just four ordinary fellas who enjoy life.   And they proved to be so much fun!

We were to spend a whole day with tem and another two days at Twickenham studios.   We had lunch and tea with them on the train and both meals were quite a riot.  You know it’s almost impossible not to roar your head off when you’re in their company.  The jokes seem to flow all the time.  Those three days were really the craziest I have ever spent.  I thought Ringo was the funniest and the most friendly.  He says such funny things.  

“I can do things for you, kid.” He said to me in an American accent.

“Like what?” I asked.

“Get you into films, make you a big movie star and all that jazz!”

So I said in return, “O.K., then I’ll get you onto a Beatles record.  I know them, you know.”  They we’d burst out laughing together.

One time, when Sue and I were leaving the carriage after completing one of the scenes, there was a sudden jolt of the train and we both fell over on top of the boys, catching our new nylons in the process.  And you know how awful your skin looks when it comes poking out of the little holes in your stockings.  Ringo took one look and said, “You ought to do something about them warts!”

John offered to buy us some new stockings and he even wrote down our sizes!  Wonder if he’ll remember.

Came the time (on that first day) when I wanted to buy myself a coffee, and as I had left my money at home, I asked one of the girls if she would lend me a couple of bob.   Ringo overheard.  He called his personal assistant-secretary-casher and mall of all work over and told him to lend me some money.

That when I found out that the boys never carry money around with them!  Mal carries it.  He does everything to see that the boys are organized and well looked after.  Mal is their road manager and a real sweetie.  He took a whole wad of five-pound notes from his pocked!  Actually I felt a bit of a Charlie—I only wanted five shillings, but I paid him back later.  I hate ever to be in debt to the Beatles!

The film is going to be quite a riot.  We watched several very amusing scenes being filmed on the train.  For instance, John is involved in a very funny scene with us in a railway carriage, where he is mistaken for an escaped convict – and he’s even handcuffed.

Ringo also has some very amusing scenes, where he goes into  a pub and everything goes wrong for him.  He wants so much to join in on the fun that everyone else is having, but things don’t work out that way.  At one point he joins in a game of darts and one of the darts lands up in somebody’s sandwich!

Actually, it’s been hilarious watching them during takes.  In the middle of one scene, in the studios, John suddenly looked up at the hole in the roof and cried out, “There’s a man up there holding a mike,” in a goonish voice.  On another occasion we had a dog on the set that wouldn’t do as it was told.  The boys were  very patient until the dog finally played the scene the way it was required.  Then John turned to the dog, patted it and said, “Now the dog will sip sinc to my next number!”  Everyone was in stitches.

Haven’t said much about George, have I?  Well, George is a deeper character than the other three.  He’s the quiet one.  Poor fella can’t get a word in edgeways with Paul, John and Ringo around, anyway!

He’s so rugged looking, is George—even more so in person than in his pictures.  He and Ringo share a Mayfair flat, but they were talking of moving soon.  The other night a group of girls started signing outside their place.  They sang “Glad all over” and whistled “Bits and Pieces” – you know Dave Clark’s hits.   George said jokingly, “I rang up the police so Ringo could get a good night’s sleep.  Of course, if they had been singing our songs, we wouldn’t have sent for bobbies.  But Dave Clark?  Well…”

You know it was quite flattering, leaving the studios after a day’s shooting.  There were always a crowd of Beatle fans waiting outside.  The girls would ask me all sorts of questions about the boys, and soon I got to know them quite well.

My father came down to the stuidios to pick me up by car at night, and ti was amusing on one occasion when the fans started talking to him while he waited.  One of them went up to him and said, “The Beatles will be out soon.”

“How do you know?” asked my father.

“Tina says so,” she replied.  

Dad smiled and said, “Tina who?”

Then the girls chorused, “Tina Williams, of course!”  Can that be fame, at last?

Seriously, though, I really did have the time of my life working with them.  They are, and I really do mean this, a fabulous bunch of boys when you get to know them as I did.  On my last day’s filming, we were having pictures taken and I was asked, along with three other girls, to pose combing the boys’ hair.  Ringo was my man.  Afterwards, they offered us girls a job as their hairdressers.  But again they were joking.  At least I think so.  That’s the uncertain thing about the Beatles.  You can’t tell when they are joking or when they’re being serious.

The film is an experience I’ll never forget.  I can’t wait to see it and neither, I except can you!