Category: Beatles

Beat up by The Beatles

A couple of years ago I featured comedian Morty Gunty’s lead-in to The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show from February 23, 1964. This week’s This American Life on NPR has a fascinating segment about the comedy act that preceded The Beatles, before the second set on their first Ed Sullivan Show appearance, February 9, ’64. Click here to listen to it, then watch this video, through the commercial and on to the fab boys. I’m one of those who feels what happened that evening cannot be overstated. And it wasn’t only the kids getting caught up in the excitement. Look for the grown woman in the audience.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2009/JAN/McCallBrill.flv 480 360]

There are two Star Trek connections in that video. When I tell you what they are I’ll show you Davy Jones, later of the Monkees, who was also on the bill that night.

P.S. According to WordPress this is post #1500, but I actually passed that number a while ago. Unfortunately, nearly 100 posts were lost in the great database debacle in June ’07.

Paul and Mary Poppins

Barely treading water here with the blog, I’m sorry to say. Unavoidable, with Boston Marathon training underway, so I’ll do another quickie post.

Motown Records just had its 50th anniversary. Label founder Berry Gordy made a point of catching up with the Beatles in 1964 before they returned to England to film “A Hard Day’s Night.”

George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Berry Gordy, John Lennon

At the movie studio there was some overlap between the filming of “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Mary Poppins”. Here’s Paul with Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke.

Dick Van Dyke, Julie Andrews, Paul McCartney

A Tale of Two Transfers

Many YouTube videos have such low technical quality as to be barely watchable, so my sister Jean was impressed by an OK copy, despite being a vertically cropped version with the wrong aspect ratio, of the Beatles in A Hard Day’s Night doing “If I Fell.” Here’s how it appears and sounds on YouTube…

… and here’s my own transfer, from LaserDisc, captured on a Pinnacle 500 PCI. Better?

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2009/JAN/IfIFell.flv 480 360]

Bingo rhymes with Ringo

As promised last week, here is Terry Hooper, the future husband of Prudence Bury, as the croupier in A Hard Day’s Night. When I was a kid I thought Wilfrid Brambell was an unnecessary extra bit of comic relief, but now I think he was essential to the overall success of the movie.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2009/JAN/TerryHooper.flv 480 360]

Is Astrid in AHDN?

It’s long been the assertion of D.F. Rogers that Astrid Kirchherr makes a brief appearance in A Hard Day’s Night with John Lennon during the discotheque scene. I’ve spliced it together, omitting the parallel sequence with Paul’s grandfather gambling, in a James Bond parody, with Prue Bury’s future husband, Terry Hooper, playing the croupier. I’ll post that later.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2009/JAN/Astrid.flv 480 360]

Mirrorview

We just got back from my sister’s house (not Jean, but the local sister) and I’ve got to get some wallpaper stripping done quick so our contractor can resize a closet door frame in the morning. So I’ll do something quick here and post an uncropped copy of Astrid’s famous self-portrait, showing the mirror frame.

Astrid Kirschherr