Category: Prue Bury and Swinging London

One of the first Mary Quant models, Prudence Bury was part of Swinging London at its beginning. Prue appeared with the Beatles in “A Hard Day’s Night” before Mary sent her to New York to introduce the miniskirt to America.

‘A Hard Day’s Night’ on CD-ROM

Way back in January 1994, I ordered my first “serious” desktop computer. It was MS-DOS 5 with Windows 3.1, on a 40 MHz AMD processor with 4 MB of memory, a 160 MB drive, generic Tseng ET4000 video card, and a 14″ SVGA CRT. I installed a Soundblaster 16 card with a proprietary SCSI interface for a Panasonic CD-ROM drive that used caddies.

One of the first CD-ROM’s I had (which, come to think of it, might have been a gift from Denro), was “The Beatles in A Hard Day’s Night, the complete uncut movie”. It was put out by the Voyager Company, known for its high quality Criterion label of LaserDisc videos. My LD copies of “A Hard Day’s Night” and “HELP!” are both from Criterion.

I was thrilled with this new technology! I could actually watch the movie on my computer, albeit in extremely compromised quality, with the script automatically following along. Here are some sample screens.

A Hard Day\'s Night CD-ROMA Hard Day\'s Night CD-ROM

A Hard Day\'s Night CD-ROMA Hard Day\'s Night CD-ROM

A Hard Day\'s Night CD-ROMA Hard Day\'s Night CD-ROM

Enlarged, the screen caps show the actual video image size. I’ve scaled up one of the MOV files from the CD to 320×240. It runs at a measly 16 fps, but this was hot stuff in 1993, with online streaming video still a long way off. Note that even here, in this limited presentation, “I Should Have Known Better” sounds better than on the Miramax DVD!

[MEDIA=67]

A Hard Disc’s Night

There is supposed to be yet another video release coming of the Beatles movie, A Hard Day’s Night. That’s good, because the DVD is excessively cropped for widescreen format, it pushes the contrast too hard and, for the songs, the sound is terrible compared to the 1987 release on the defunct LaserDisc format. Here’s the comparison.

Prue Bury with Pattie Boyd on the AHDN LD…
[media id=63 width=512 height=408]

…and on the Miramax AHDN DVD.
[media id=64 width=512 height=312]

Here’s something you may not know. The scene in the baggage car wasn’t filmed on the train. Prue Bury told me…

All the singing on the train was shot in the studio,with someone shaking a carriage about!!

According to Mark Lewisohn in “The Complete Beatles Chronicles”…

Wednesday, March 11, 1964:

On this day, working from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm, the group filmed on a set resembling a train guard’s van, where they played cards and also mimed to ‘I Should Have Known Better’, later edited into the film’s train sequences.

Here is “I Should Have Known Better” as presented on LD…
[media id=65 width=512 height=408]

… and on DVD.
[media id=66 width=512 height=312]

Addendum: It seems the “new” AHDN DVD is only on Blu-Ray, and only in Canada, and it’s the same questionable video transfer from the Miramax DVD. But the sound is supposedly greatly improved.

http://www.beatlesnews.com/blog/the-beatles/200909070938/a-hard-days-night-to-be-released-on-bluray-dvd.html

I suppose the best all-around video version of “A Hard Day’s Night” is the original DVD release, which explains why it’s going for a premium on Amazon Marketplace.

http://www.amazon.com/Beatles-Hard-Days-Night/dp/B000LCF3HM/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1254061928&sr=8-4

Special! Beatles’ Movie Preview

From the July, 1964 issue of Modern Screen magazine, a preview of “A Hard Day’s Night.”

Prue Bury, George Harrison, Pattie Boyd

My all-time favorite Beatles lady is the lovely and delightful Prudence Bury. Actually, I don’t think of Prue as being a Beatles girl, per se, because she’s so interesting in her own right.

Modern Screen, July, 1964

Here is Prue with George and Pattie, but the article incorrectly identifies her as Tina Williams.

Modern Screen, July, 1964

Prue and Pattie are mentioned again, but the pictures show neither of them, and Sue Whitman is incorrectly identified as Pattie.

Modern Screen, July, 1964

And I don’t recall John Lennon ever saying he loved to dress like an English gentleman.

Modern Screen, July, 1964

Prue-fection

Here is something very special indeed. This is a portrait of Prudence Bury at age seventeen, while she attended the Royal School of Ballet. It was taken by Antony Armstrong-Jones, before he married Princess Margaret and was named the 1st Earl of Snowdon. Lord Snowdon is known for many things, among them his numerous portraits of Lady Diana, Princess of Wales.

Prudence Bury, age 17
© Lord Snowdon (Antony Armstrong-Jones)

This is a photo of a framed photo. In the reflection you can see one of Prue’s sons taking the picture, and some bookcases behind him.

Thank you, Prue! 🙂