People complain about "fake news" today as if it is something new. Nope. Take a look at this story from 1966. Brian was NOT in the United States on May 18-19.
Beatles Will Slip in a Few Years
No Writer Listed
Star Telegraph (Richmond, Indiana)
May 19, 1966
"I would rather you didn't take a picture, because I'm promoting the Beatles," said Brian Epstein in an interview here Wednesday night. Epstein, manager of the mop-haired singing group, is in the United States making final plans for a nationwide tour by the Beatles in August. He was staying in the Leland Motor Inn.
He said he prefers not to have his picture taken because he wants to stay in the background. Even so, the London businessman with no prior experience in show business is well known and was being asked for autographs.
Epstein's quiet manner contrasts with the four singers, noted for their long hair, wild gyrations, and loud beat. Of the Beatles, he admits they will fade from the top in perhaps two years. He said, "People will say the Beatles, 'oh yes, they are good', but they will not be the tops in the popular singing groups." He said that one reason the Beatles have slipped from the top is because there are so many other groups using the same style.
Epstein said that before meeting the Beatles in August of 1963, he had made some money and lost some on the stock market. "It was a gamble," he said of putting his money into the Beatles when he first saw the group in Liverpool, England. The four - Ringo-Star, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, and John Lennon - were making $56 per night. When they appear at Crosley Field in Cincinnati, Ohio, this August, they will make $200,000. "Quite a difference", Epstein said.
He said Paul McCartney is the most serious of the group, and Ringo Starr is the least serious. Paul owns the firm, which makes all the group's records in England, and licenses US firms to make them. "Ringo spends all his money," he said.
Epstein said Paul McCartney is the jokester of the group, and one of his favorite stunts is to stop at a hotel desk as the group is going out to dinner and tell the clerk that "If a call comes through from Defense Secretary McNamara, to tell him I had to step out."
Epstein said the Beatles owe all their success in America to Ed Sullivan, the New York television personality who first introduced them to American audiences. They will do another Sullivan Show during the upcoming tour. Epstein said tickets for the tour are all sold, but they did not sell as fast as the tour did last year. When asked if he gets tired of the Beatles music, Epstein said, "I'm 42 years old."
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