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.”
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.
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]
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]
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]
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.
There’s a documentary DVD called “Stuart Sutcliffe: The Lost Beatle” that doesn’t sit right with me, because of assertions made by Stuart’s sister, regarding Stu and John. But one part that rings true is about Astrid. In an interview with Terry Gross on NPR, Astrid gives Stuart all credit, claiming that he was an original, and a visionary. But I think what’s said about Astrid in this video clip gives a more complete and accurate characterization.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2008/DEC/Astrid.flv 640 360]
