A Day with the Beatles by Dezo Hoffman (and one by Freeman)

Phot by Robert Freeman 

Dezo Hoffman photographs 

 July 2, 1963

Classic Fab Four

Photos by Dezo Hoffman

 The exact date is unknown, but June 20, 1963 has been guessed as the date 

Dezo and John

 

Radio Show

Photo by Dezo Hoffman

 

Dezo and John

 

He's signed this photograph more times than anyone can count....

 

The Beatles with Bananas

Don Rickles insulted the Beatles

When I heard that Don Rickles had passed away today, my first thought was "Oh now Mr. Potato Head from the Toy Story movies!"   But then I remembered that the Beatles had an encounter with him when they were in Miami Beach in February 1964.  

Photos taken by Dezo Hoffman 

Story found in the book The Beatles are coming! by  Bruce Spizer page 198

After returning to the Deuville at approximately 11:00pm, the group headed to one of the hotel's night clubs to see comedian Don Rickles, whose routine consisted of launching insults at members of the audience.  Everyone was fair game, including little old ladies and, of course, the Beatles and Sgt. Dresner.  "Look at this.  A police sergeant guarding four Zulus when all over the city there's fighting and burglary going on."   Although the Beatles laughed along with the audience each time Rickles took aim at them, they were not amused.  The group was trying to keep a low profile and resented being publicly embarrassed by the comedian.  George thought it unfair that only Rickles had a microphone.  "If we'd had him on our own terms we could have made mincemeat out of him."  

A normal day in London

Photo taken by Dezo Hoffman 

Mic check

Photo by Dezo Hoffman

Meet the Beatles: a book review

So, I have decided to make Wednesday a "review day" so that I can review all of the books and other things that come my way.  Right now, there just seem to be a lot of great Beatle items out there, but then again, it is the season for Beatle goodies.

Today, I have a really fun book to talk to you all about. I bet many of you have already read it and might even have a version in your collections. It is called "Meet the Beatles," and it was written and edited by Tony Barrow. Souvenir Press released it as a magazine in 1963, and if your old copy is anything like mine, the front cover is coming off, and the pages have yellowed.

This is what your old vintage copy looked like

Souvenir Press did an ingenious thing: They took the magazine you remember, reprinted it, and bound it into a hardback book. This is actually a great idea, and I am surprised that more classic Beatles magazines from the 1960s haven't been packaged the same way.

So what makes this magazine so special in comparison to the hundreds of other teen mags of the day?  Well, "Meet the Beatles" was the first book to be published with the Beatle's own involvement.  The guys wrote the introduction at the beginning of the book. It is one of the few places where you get to read the Beatles talk about themselves in their own words (I guess the next time that really happened was the Anthology book?).  The rest of the book was written by the Beatles press officer, Tony Barrow, and when it was released, it had Brian Epstein's approval.  Brian must have liked Souvenir Press a lot because he used them a year later to publish his book, "A Cellarful of Noise."  

In this book, you get to read all sorts of fun little things, like George hates haircuts, John adores jelly and cornflakes, Paul has a strong liking for Kraft cheese slices, and Ringo dislikes Chinese food.

The photos in the book were rare at the time but have now been seen many times. However, they are photos taken by Dezzo Hoffman, and the book isn't totally full of the same old same old. The photos of the Beatle's "A Day in London" are such classics, and they deserve to be in a bound book instead of a yellowing magazine.  

To me, this book was a breath of fresh air.  I read a lot of "heavy" Beatles books.   (in weight and in reading).  It was such a refreshing change of pace to read something that was fun and made me smile.   By taking me back to 1963, "Meet the Beatles" reminded me of a time when Beatlemania was something new, and the Beatles were having fun being the four cheeky lads from Liverpool.


The link below is the affiliate link to Amazon, where you can purchase this book.  I get a small percentage of anything purchased through this link.  Money made from the Amazon Afflication is used to pay the annual fee to keep this site online.  Thank you for your support.  Sara

https://amzn.to/49IGjEq

Pre-Fab Day s

Those young kids behind John in this photo have no idea, do they?   In a few months these kids might turn into Beatles-crazed youngsters.   However, on this day in the summer of 1963, they seriously are clueless about who is riding that go-cart.   Although John had to stand out in the summertime with the "long" hair and wearing all black. 

Go-Karting

The young man who isn't a Beatle sure is hogging this photo, isn't he?  Ummm....kid don't you realize that all four of the Beatles are right behind you.   John is right there looking amazing and you are just looking at the camera?  

Everyone and his wife...

Photo:  Dezo Hoffman

Caption:  Everyone and his wife wanted to be photographed with a Beatle.  This shot was taken at the end of the Plaza press conference.

Beatles with the kids

Photo:  Dezo Hoffman

Meeting fans in Miami

Photo by Dezo Hoffman

Miami party

With the headlining star of the Ed Sullivan show that night, Mitzi Gainer.

These photos were taken at a party held in Miami right after the Beatles performance on the Ed Sullivan show from that city. They are Dezo Hoffman photos. I wanted to share them because I thought they were neat and showed how everyone just wanted to get a photo with the Fab 4...

Welcome to Miami

So these aren't really "new" photos to any Beatle fan. But I didn't know the information about the fans in the photo until I read about it in Dezo Hoffman's book. I find this interesting. Here is what he said,

Even in the sea the Beatles couldn't escape from their admirers, but sometimes fans could be fun. Here they are frolicking with some girls form Miami Beach High School who were working as part-time models at a car show. Ringo with fans Barbara Turchin and Carol Olesky; he later dated Barbara, taking her to a drive-in movie. When the Beatles left Miami, as a parting gift Ringo gave her a ring.

So let me get this straight. Ringo, the 23 year old, went on a date to a drive in movie with a girl that he met on the beach who is a student at the local high school and models on the side? I guess that is something I don't really want to think about too much. Anyhow....I wonder if Barbara still has that ring? Maybe Ringo just has a thing for girls named Barbara

Dedication

This photo was taken on the train from Washington D.C. back to New York City in February 1964. Here is what the photographer, Dezo Hoffman has to say about the photo:

These girls followed the boys from New York t Washington in the hope of meeting
them, finally tracking down their idols on the train back to New York

And all I can think is "way to go!!" So they traveled in the snow from New York to Washington D.C. with a slight chance they could meet the Beatles. But they did it! And I bet the girls in this photograph talk about that meeting even to this very day!

Fan mail

Today I got a book that I won off ebay called The Beatles Conquer America. It is full of photographs of the Beatles in early 1964 taken by the famous Dezo Hoffman. It has photos from France, New York, Washington D.C. and Miami. It is a really beautiful book with many photos that were new to me. I plan on scanning a lot out of it for my files.

First I wanted to focus on the photos that feature the Beatles with fans. The first two were taken by Dezo in New York City. Fan Club presidents from the area were chosen to go to the Beatles hotel room and help with the fan mail. Can you even imagine that? And by the looks of these photographs, the girls took the job seriously. They aren't screaming or crying but appear to be working! It seems like I read a story written by one of these girls about her experience. I will have to see if I can find it.