NOW YOU CAN
BE CLOSER TO THE BEATLES THAN EVER BEFORE!
ONLY A FEW lucky people can be close to the Beatles and share their lives - their gayety and charm, their way-out sense of humor and the multitude of the unexpected incidents that seem to flower about them wherever they go and whatever they do. But all of us can cozy a little closer to the Fabulous Foursome simply by joining the Beetle People! All you have to do is to get with the Beatles as you've never done before— dig the Beatle way of doing things and do likewise! To help you become a Beatle People 16 brings you this exclusive intimate x-ray which shows what the Beatles are really like!
WHERE BEATLE PEOPLE COME FROM
You don't necessarily have to be anyone special to be a Beatle People—certainly not to have come from a Wealthy Family!
Ringo's folks still live in Dingle, one of Liverpool's humblest parts. Inside, home has changed a bit—new furniture, new radio, lots of stuffed animals! But his mom, once a barmaid, and his house-painter dad agree: "Our neighbors are too nice to leave."
George's dad has been a bus driver. Now he's just back with George's mom from a holiday in Jamaica—paid for by George to a new house in Liverpool's Woolton—paid for likewise.
George's brother Pete, a mechanic, has swapped his motor-cycle for a brand-new Hillman convertible, while brother Harold has taken on George's old Jaguar.
Paul's father is a 61-year-old cotton salesman. Once he ran a dance band. Now he gets 200 fan-mail letters a week. "People send me pipes and tobacco and hope to get Paul's autograph in return," he explains.
Jim McCartney is a widower—and his living-room shows it. Friends pop in and get a cup of coffee amid piles of laundry.
Neither do Beatle People have to have had any special education.
John may be a writer, lover of poetry and art, and he may look like a thinker, but Astrid Kirchner (who fell in love with Beatle Stuart Sutcliffe before he died) explains: "He looks that way because he's short-sighted and hates wearing glasses!"
But John's math teacher once reported: "He'll be on the road to failure if he carries on like this!"
And Ringo's 13 childhood operations kept him away from school almost continually.
Other Beatle people had humble beginnings.
Cilla Black's mom still lives in a rowhouse… Lionel ("Fings") Bart came up from London's toughest East End district… Bob ("Cavern") Wooler, once the Beatles' manager, was a railway booking clerk.
WHERE BEATLE PEOPLE HANG OUT
John and Cyn, looking for a house in the country now, live in a Kensington, London, flat with baby John, Jr. It's usually littered with fan mail. Where is it? Not even other Beatle people are allowed to know!
TV producer Jack Good says: "John's phone number was denied to me. When I went to meet him at home, I was taken in a black car by a man I didn't know, to a street in an area I didn't recognize.
"I was told to ring five times on the bell of a certain house. This wouldn't ring in John's flat—it'd just create a noise on his TV set!
"Actually, the bell didn't work—so I had to shout myself hoarse!"
The others share a spacious and elegant apartment else- where in Knightsbridge. Paul is hardly ever there. He's round at the Asher home in Wimpole Street, with Jane.
HIT THE TOWN — BUT KEEP IT SIMPLE
Beatle People have their favorite night-spots—but they seldom plan an "evening out" or anything "special." The gang just gets an idea and gets-up-and-goes to some bright spot!
Beating eating-places in London include La Dolce Vita in Soho, the Mayfair Hotel for a bit of living-it-up, and for a bit of show-biz company the Ad Lib and the Pickwick.
Beating eating preferences are simple and cheap Chicken with salad, chips with anything—or just a sandwich. John likes curries, smoked salmon, pancakes—and steak-and-chip butties. OUT are onions and spicy foods.
For drinks (always referred to as "Bevvies"), they prefer Cokes in large amounts from very tall glasses. Or milk.
Eating out, the bill for two Beatle People seldom passes $3—cheap for the West End. Often as not they drift into a friend's house and sit around to talk and play records.
Beatles most favorite drop-in hang-out is the Asher's. Jane says: "We sit around, drink coffee, munch crisps and biscuits and talk about every subject under the sun."
Adds brother Peter: "Maybe we strum guitars. Then John or Paul will hit on a phrase that reminds us of a song. Before you know it, we're joining in, singing and playing until the early hours."
HAVE FUN – EVEN WHEN YOU'RE BROKE
In their early days, the Beatles may have been broke—but they still lived it up like fury! Astrid, German girl photographer, first met them when they were playing in Hamburg's Kaiserkeller for $45 a week.
"One day I combed Stuart's hair forward into famous Beatle haircut. The others laughed, but a• few days later George tried it and the others quickly followed." Astrid notices that now Cynthia cuts John's hair and the rest cut each other's."
"They behaved like a gang, but a harmless one. They were always up to some nonsense. John once appeared on stage in bathing trunks with a toilet seat 'round his neck!"
BE A SWINGIN' DANCER
Ringo dances as readily as he breathes. Like most drummers, rhythm is in his make-up. As soon as there is music or a rhythm, he's. Off. It can be in his apartment, it can be in an office, or anywhere. It doesn't have to be in a club.
This is typical of the way that success has helped Ringo relax. He used to be the quietest Beetle. Now that he feels more sure of himself, he is the wittiest—and swingingest.
Paul's a great dancer, too. He and Jane were first spotted dancing a cool Blue Beat at a show-biz party.
SHARPEN UP YOUR WIT!
Beatle People are great gagsters. When still unknown, the Beatles used to write poems and articles for Mersey Beat. And strange advertisements appeared in the paper, too, like "WHERE ARE YOU, RED NOSE? —WHISTLING JOCK LENNON" and "HOT LIPS LENNON SEEKS RED NOSE."
Ringo is often asked why he wears so many rings (he has been sent 3,000). He stares straight at you, seriously, and says: "I have them balanced to keep my shoulders straight."
One night last summer the Beatles armed themselves with a tape recorder and set off 'round Southend as a fake Candid Camera team.
Gerry Marsden remembers: "Paul kept stopping people and asking the way in pidgin English, refusing to believe and directions they gave him. It was a great laugh."
One evening on tour the Beatles were visited in their dressing room by a local Mayor and his wife. On the table was a tin of Carnation condensed milk. Said the Mayor's wife "What's that for?"
Said John, without a trace of a smile: "To wash our hair. She believed him, so he went on to explain how shampooing in condensed milk helped them get their famous shiny mops Beetle People still wonder if the Mayor's wife is washing her hair in condensed milk.
After the Beatles cut Please Please Me, they had a night out in a London restaurant—posing as the Shadows! John, in heavy-rimmed glasses, looked just like Hank Marvin, and the others called each other Bruce, Brian and Liquorice.
They noticed a man at a nearby table eyeing them with admiration. At last, the man could stand it no longer. Over he came. "I say," he said excitedly, "are you really the Tornados?"
Once the Beatles were on the same bill as Kingsize Taylor a giant of a man. As Kingsize left the stage one night Jobs pulled the canvas cover from a huge grand piano and shouted "Hey, Kingsize, you've forgotten your topcoat!"
HAVE TALENT, BUT BE MODEST
Beatle People are clever—but hate to show it. Paul is keen pianist and drummer in the jazz style and, always restless likes to putter around with musical instruments. He winces though, if people show they're impressed. Other Beatle People feel the same way about their talents—they never show that they take them seriously.
Beatle People are courageous, but hate to show it. Spence: Mason, manager of the Mojos, remembers when he left Liverpool's Blue Angel Club to see a gang damaging his car.
"I dashed back into the club for help—and three figures in black leaped for the door to be the first to tackle the gang. It wasn't until afterwards that he discovered they were Ringo, George and Paul.
Beatle People are up-to-date, but hate to show off about it. The Beatles don't tell Elephant Jokes. They've heard most of them already. But they'll still laugh (politely) at yours. Beatle People never talk about "Merseybeat" That word's old hat.
Beatle People are loyal, but don't let on about it. George visited a sick Mersey friend recently in a hospital in Liverpool. Beetle People don't listen to gossip. When people ring Jane Asher to ask about Paul, she often pretends to be her own sister, saying: "Sorry, Jane isn't around."
THE THINGS THEY ADORE
RECORDS: This is George's favorite talking point. He's an expert. In fact, all Beatle People admire experts on record and the recording industry.
They all admire the Miracles, the Marvellettes, Mary Welli Chuck Berry and Carl Perkins. New favorites: Jimmy Reec Chuck Jackson and James Brown. They came back from America wild about Tommy Tucker's High-Heel Sneakers.
TELEVISION: John and Cyn spend a lot of time together watching TV. Tops in TV for all Beetle People are the Telegoons (a top-rated English show).
READING: John and Paul are great book people. Al Beetle People read the popular dailies, all trade papers and 16 Magazine.
CLOTHES: Beatle Boy-People go for short jackets with two or four pleats behind, preferably a polo-neck sweats beneath—then plain drainpipe trousers, with suede-boot side-zipped.
Beatle Girl-People like separates for a day, but enjoy.dressing up for evening. Jane Asher went for long dresses and "granny shoes. "I'm having copied some of the clothes I wear in my new film, Masque Of The Red Death. They're all clingy and medieval—terrific!" she says.
Color? Anything as long as it's black!
THIS AND THAT: They all use Signal toothpaste, Tabac after-shave . . . John and George smoke Stuyvesant ciggies but will pinch the others' Marlboros ... Paul's a compulsive mint-cream sucker!
THEIR INTIMATE FRIENDS
Beatle People don't arrange their lives. Neither do they parade them to gain publicity. They just let things happen— and pile in to enjoy them.
For their parties, they like a few friends, lots of laughs, lots of dances, no reporters, no photographers, no disappearing into quiet corners, nothing "serious."
For their holidays, the gang likes to laze around in the sun (they dug Miami!).
For their dates, Paul, George and Ringo go for girls who are cute and who tend to dress hip, but not so very way-out. Usually slender, too. John's Cynthia has the best figure. Cynthia is the perfect foil for John's dynamic power to succeed in everything he does—music-making, song-writing, books, poetry, drawings, now acting. She's warm, sincere, affectionate, tends to spoil John and baby John Julian, and helps him to relax.
This fab example of vintage Beatlemania is © 16 magazine 1964
COMING SOON: Are YOU a Beatle People? Check your rating with our quiz!
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