In 1964, when modeling, Pattie and Prue spelled their names Patti and Pru. Here is Pattie talking about meeting George.
Pattie mentions the lunch she had with George. This is one of the photos taken at that lunch and, Prue, no more ciggies for you, dear!
Richard Lester, who directed the two truly great Beatle films, A Hard Day’s Night and HELP!, has received a Fellowship from the British Film Institute. With the recent death of Davy Jones, I’ve been hearing the old assertion that the Monkees TV show was based on AHDN, but I just don’t see it. HELP! was clearly the model for the series, with producers Raphelson and Schneider drawing inspiration from the fantasy of the boys living together in a quirky, colorful pad, full of groovy stuff.
I have high praise and thanks for author Ray Morton, and his book about the making of A Hard Day’s Night. Besides being a solid and thorough telling of the background and production of the movie, in A Hard Days Night: Music on Film Series, Morton did something no other writer on the subject has done — he gets the facts right about Prue Bury, and for that I am sincerely grateful. Ray Morton can be heard on Reject Radio talking about the movie and his book at this link. He comes in at 40:30 into the podcast.
Back in 2002, Rolling Stone had a piece about the Miramax DVD release of A Hard Day’s Night, and it has one of the classic promotional photos of the Beatles with (l-r) Pattie Boyd, Tina Williams, Prue Bury, and Sue Whitman.
By coincidence, and to my great amusement, that issue also had this item:
So the first time that Doug Pratt had a connection to Prue Bury, it was a different Doug Pratt!
It’s always a treat seeing pictures of Prue Bury for the first time. This one came from The Gilly on Tumblr. Prue was waiting for hairdresser Betty Glasow to take the pins out of her hair, and John pretended to cut it himself.
It’s interesting that John did that, in light of these comments by Prue:
John threw me by saying, “I hear you don’t like our singing!” Oops, what do I say to that? It is true that in one of the newspaper interviews I had said that I was impressed by their sharp repartee more than their singing! On reflection, a dumb thing to say. I plead nerves! Naturally I denied it and said the obvious, that one could never believe what one read in the press and wiggled out of it.
The boys were great fun on the train and kept Pattie and I laughing with their jokes. They were easy to get on with and natural in their behaviour, although John was the most reserved, and so when we were not shooting we sat and joked and smoked a lot… just cigarettes!! !! Ringo was mad about taking photos and snapped everything in sight, including me.
So even though John was the most reserved Beatle on that occasion, he was comfortable enough with Prue to play with her hair. But he didn’t get as silly as George did, wearing one of the hats the girls had — I assume it was Pattie’s. This picture is from the Yahoo group, Pattie Boyd’s Sixties Style.
All of these pictures were taken by Astrid Kirchherr, who signed this gallery print.
And here’s one of the snapshots that was taken by Ringo. I used it on Prue’s birthday last year. Lynn at Pattie Boyd’s Sixties Style did a great job of image editing to hide the page seam.
Note: Starting today, A Hard Day’s Night is available on Netflix Watch Instantly.
It’s Easter, and a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the lovely and wonderful Prudence Bury. As promised, here is a very special picture of Prue. It was taken by Ringo Starr on the set of A Hard Day’s Night.
The caption reads, “This gorgeous girl is Pru Berry. She plays my girlfriend in our movie. Too bad it’s only make believe!” Amen to that! Ringo was actually paired with Tina Williams for the famous hair-combing publicity photos, and Prue was with Paul. She was 22 at the time, and Prue says of this portrait, “I love it, I look grown up!!” (Oh, the lure of evil ciggies to make one appear grown up!)
Prue had told me that Ringo was “snap-happy” with his camera during the filming of A Hard Day’s Night, and she said that he had taken some snapshots of her. (The sequence where Ringo went “parading” around town was built around him taking pictures.) Prue and I have been wondering if Ringo’s pictures had appeared anywhere, and the answer is yes. They’re in Ringo’s Photo-Album, published in 1964. Hover over the image below to see the back cover.
I have scanned the entire magazine and it’ll be featured later. My thanks go to noted Rock journalist Marcus Gray, for finding this treasure. I’ve seen many Beatles-related items, but I’d never spotted this one before. Marcus is the leading expert on The Clash, having written two books on the legendary British Punk Rock band — one a comprehensive and authoritative biography, the other a definitive study of their landmark album London Calling. Having been a Clash fan myself, I have both tomes and they are in my must-read stack. Marcus is also, to his credit, a Prue fan.
This Easter Sunday is Prue Bury’s birthday, and for it I’ll be posting a very special photograph of her, taken by a Beatle on the set of A Hard Day’s Night. Prue’s on the right in this photo, age 17, at the Royal School of Ballet in London.
In 1958, Antony Armstrong-Jones, later titled the First Earl of Snowdon, was appointed the court photographer for the Royal Family. That same eventful year, Armstrong-Jones took this portrait of Prue.
Soon afterwards, Prue would meet Mary Quant and Vidal Sassoon, and be a witness to, and a part of, the start of what later came to be known as Swinging London.
http://youtu.be/uyIZtrvzGEM
