Tag: Pattie Boyd

She’s a Prunette


George Harrison, Pattie Boyd, Prue Bury, Wilfrid Brambell, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney

Prue Bury was joking this week about something that I’ll be featuring later, and she said, “Spike Milligan had “I told them I was ill” put on his tombstone. Mine will be “I told them I was not a blond!” (Prue has kept her hair lightened for some years now.) Spike Milligan, along with Peter Sellers, was one of the Goon Show goons, a BBC radio program that was a favorite of the Beatles, and was one of the inspirations for the Monty Python troupe.

[audio:http://www.thegoonshow.net/downloads/mp3/54-09-28~s05e01~the_whistling_spy_enigma.mp3|titles=The Goon Show: The Whistling Spy]

As someone else on the Net says, commenting on Prue, “Real class tells. And this brunette is REAL class.” Indeed she is.


Prue Bury, George Harrison, Pattie Boyd

The pictures are courtesy of Lynn at Pattie Boyd’s Sixties Style on Yahoo!

The true Prue revealed

A few days ago, I said of Prue Bury in a particular photo, “Prue is contemplative, almost pensive.” I’ve long wondered about her expression in this snapshot, but now I know it was a put-on, and she was only pretending to be serious. Place your mouse pointer over the image to see for yourself.

“Between scenes we relaxed but didn’t stop laughing. Ringo pretended he didn’t think Prue was being very funny!” said Pattie. From the UK magazine, Woman’s Own, May 30, 1964.

My thanks go to Lynn, who runs the Yahoo! Group Pattie Boyd’s Sixties Style.

Prue-viewing prints


Pattie Boyd, Isla Blair and, from the Royal School of Ballet, Prue Bury

My idea for a Beatles book that doesn’t exist is, “The Complete Hard Day’s Night Photo Collection.” It would be an expensive, large-format hardcover edition, in a slipcase, along the lines of what Genesis Publications puts out. Many photos from various sources would have to be pulled together, including a large collection that Miramax Films made available in thumbnail-size when playing its DVD release of the movie on a computer.

Genesis has a book by Astrid Kirschherr and Max Scheler, called Golden Dreams, with photos taken during the filming of A Hard Day’s Night, but my dream volume would contain every available still photo that was snapped on the set and behind the scenes of the movie, from the original negatives. The best shots would be full-page, and printed landscape or portrait as required, so you’d have to turn the book around for some of them. For practicality, the second half of the book would have smaller images.

Of particular interest for me are the photos with Prudence Bury-Fuchs, who I am proud and flattered to call my friend. Recently, I was very pleased when a girlfriend of Prue’s from the Royal School of Ballet found Prue through my site. This bit of happiness is the sort of thing that makes me want to keep the web log going. Prue says Ringo took quite a few pictures himself during filming on the train, and as far as I know they have never been published.

With that bit of background out of the way, let’s look at some pictures. These can all be clicked to see larger versions.

There are many different takes from this famous photo session at Twickenham Film Studio with (l-r) Pattie Boyd, Tina Williams, Prue Bury, and Sue Whitman. Here are some I haven’t featured before now.

Prue is so poised and expressive in her photos. She’s always doing something interesting, and that’s still true today.

A pose taken from the left…

… and a different angle of the same pose.

Oops! This one should have also been taken from the other side.

Be sure to click on this next one. It’s an image that I posted some time ago, that has since appeared all over the Net, except you’ll see it’s higher-resolution here, and it isn’t cropped. I’m sure this one will likewise soon appear elsewhere, which is great — the more people seeing Prue, the better! Shortly before the filming of A Hard Day’s Night began, John Lennon had started wearing contact lenses, and I wonder if they accounted for the peculiar expression he has here.

As you can see from this proof copy, the print I have crops the sides of the original negative.

And here is another shot from the same sitting. Notice how Pattie appears identical to other photo, but Prue is doing something completely different? I’m hoping to soon have a high-quality copy of this picture…

…but for now this is all I have that isn’t obscured. I love the hair clips!

Finally, another photo I scanned that has also shown up in lots of other places, but this one isn’t cropped. It’s a fascinating character study, because while Pattie looks like Pattie, Ringo’s expression is very atypical for him, and Prue is contemplative, almost pensive.

Prudence Berry Bury

Here is another take of Prue Bury’s ex-husband, Terry Hooper, from the DVD of “A Hard Day’s Night.” There are a few seconds of the familiar scene with Prue, Pattie Boyd and Paul McCartney, along with a tantalizing, all-too-brief 5-second candid clip of Prue having her hair fussed over by Betty Glasow.

[media id= 41 width=512 height=408]

As you can see, Prue’s name is misspelled, but at least it was done phonetically.

I pronounce it Berry! A curious name as my father was Belgien !!

A friend from Belgium tells me that “Bury” is indeed not a typical Belgian name. The spelling error occurs in two other places that I know of. First, elsewhere in the “Making of ‘A Hard Day’s Night'” documentary…

Isla Blair, Prudence Bury, Pattie Boyd

… and also in the book, “A Hard Day’s Night: The British Film Guide“.

AHDN cast list

I wonder if Prue’s name was originally penciled in as “Berry” when she gave it on the set back in ’64, and that’s why the error has been repeated? Today she is Prudence Bury-Fuchs, and she lives in France. Prue enjoys putting on stage shows, and in fact she did one called “Daisy Daisy” (if I have the date right) just this past week.

Prue Bury in \

And here is lovely Prue, performing! As Prue’s fan Lia Pamina says, she’s “so cool!”

Prue Bury and friends

Prudence is tentatively scheduled to appear at a Beatles weekend in Ouistreham Normandie (Normandy), France, this coming November 5-8.

Prue was a model for designer Mary Quant, who popularized the miniskirt. I’d like to ask Prue what she thought of the way that the Sixties youth culture went from high fashion on Carnaby Street in Swinging London, to being grungy Hippies in torn jeans and t-shirts?

I am delighted to have found gorgeous and gracious Prudence Bury-Fuchs, and to get to know her a tiny bit. Here’s to you, Prue! (With a little luck I should soon be seeing you in that other movie you told me about.)

Prue sets her Beatles record true

Prudence Bury attended the Royal Ballet School in London, and she would have continued as a dancer, if her breathtaking beauty had not led her to become a fashion model.

Prue’s Classical background is evident in every way in “A Hard Day’s Night”. Prue has beauty, poise, and refinement that set her apart from the other girls on the train — including, in my opinion, her friend Pattie Boyd.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2009/JUN/AHDN.flv 440 330]

It is Prue who leads Pattie when walking to their seats into the dining car. It is Prue who Paul McCartney refers to when he says, “Excuse me Madam” — gesturing to Pattie only when he says “two of us” — and it is Prue who is closest to the camera. Pattie had a word of dialog, but it seems to me that from the point of view of director Dick Lester, visually it is Prudence Bury who was his focus.

So how did Prue come to be in “A Hard Day’s Night”? Her former husband, Terry Hooper, tells his version of the story in this excerpt from a supplementary feature on the AHDN DVD.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2008/OCT/TerryHooper.flv 440 330]

Prue takes exception with pretty much every point made by Hooper, and she would like to set the record straight. The following was taken from a message sent to me by Prudence Bury, and with Prue’s approval I put her comments in a ‘bullet’ list.

  • We were not married [during the making of “A Hard Day’s Night”]. This took place in 1965.
  • Terry was a croupier. He had been since I met him in 1958.
  • I attended an audition for the film and met Dick Lester and Walter Shenson.
  • I was chosen along with Pattie to play the part of a school girl on the train, not a screaming teenager.
  • Terry had never met (nor even heard of) the aformentioned men.
  • When during the making of the film Dick said they were looking for a croupier, it was I that suggested Terry, as that was his job.

And there you have it, from the lady herself. I’ll have a more of Prue Bury, including a new photo, in my next post.