Here is another interesting article written by a Teenage movie magazine after the Beatles first visit to L.A. I like this one because it helps narrow down the dates of what happened on what days when the Beatles were in L.A. (something I am still trying to do!). And you can totally tell which parts Peggy Lipton help write!
The Fabulous Four Sweep through America Winning new Praise and Stealing Girls’ hearts
By Earl Leaf
(From 1964 Movie Magazine)
The Beatles came, saw and conquered all. Mostwheres on their great American concert tour they were hopping about like fleas on a hot stove. By the end of the journey they were four beat boys, ready to unwind and relax.
They had three days in Hollywood, including two days of nothing to do but have fun. They schedule: Sunday afternoon press conference at the Cinnamon Cinder, popular young adult night club. Sunday night concert at the Hollywood Bowl and a party afterwards. Monday afternoon a garden party at the home of Alan Livingston, prexy of Capitol Records. Stars and their sprouts paid $25 each to meet the Beatles, raising $13,000 for the Hemophilia Foundation. Monday evening to Wednesday ahem-free days with an almost continuous round of gassy parties in their rented Bel Air hideaway not far from Elvis Presley’s dark, quiet, tomb-like house. All roads leading to the Beatles pad were blocked off by the Bel Air patrols and the Beverly Hills police. Hundreds of Beatlemaniacs swarmed about the barricades to get a glimpse of their heroes. Many slunk through the underbrush and leaped from limb to limb in trees to reach their idols.
A few did elude the fuzz and sneak past the guards to reach the house. The Beatle boys themselves kicked nobody out. One cute charmer flew through the Beatles front door with the yelling cops in hot pursuit. Laughing, Paul rescued her from the lawmen, inviting her to share a bottle of pop, gave her an autograph and let her go. The happiest dolly in dollville!
There were almost 50 girls at the first party on Monday night—all invited by the Beatles, their friends, or members of their staff. Neil Aspinall, their road manager, “played the heavy” and ushered most of the girls out at midnight, explaining the boys had to get their rest. The Beatles are night people who can’t sleep until daybreak anyhow.
I met the Beatles once over-lightly in Las Vegas and the friendship thickened during their happy Hollywood holiday. The following personality sketches are based on my own meets and talks with the fab four plus observations of one of my closest and dearest friends, young actress, Peggy Lipton, who was their personal guest afternoons and evenings from Sunday until their departure on Wednesday.
John Lennon
Although not the oldest Beatle, John seems the most mature probably because he looks it. Also he’s a happy husband and proud papa and is the brain trust of the fabulous four.
Yet when he let his hair down at the two Hollywood parties, John was far over on the wild side – the loudest, noisiest, funniest cutup on them all. The more excited he became the harder it was to understand a word he said. His accent came on so thick you couldn’t cut it with a meat cleaver.
One of the screamiest sights of the bash was John dancing with Jill Banner who was teaching him the current American dance rages. When Jill flaked out after one non-stop hour, John kept soloing on, tossing his torso, flailing his arms, shaking his hairy head, shimmying his shoulders, agitating his hips and hurling his feet around until his backbone came unraveled and his glasses hung by one ear.
John is near-sighted as the turtle who fell in love with an army helmet. He won’t’ wear his shades during performances which make the vast screaming audience one blurry blog to him. He can hear them but not see them. He is never without his dark prescription lenses offstage.
John’s press conference contributions:
Q: Are you going to write another book?
A: Yes, I think I’ll call it “Snow White and the 70 Warts”
Q: Where’s the most exciting place you’ve ever been?
A: Liverpool
Q: Do the fans really scare you fellows?
A: We love our fans. They bother the cops more than they bother us. All the precautions are taken by the police, not by us.
Q: Don’t you really mind the invasion of your privacy?
A: That only tie we get annoyed is when the fans wrestle us to the floor and mangle us.
Paul McCartney
Paul has the most expressive eyes I’ve ever seen. Usually they sparkle with humor and laughter but they can cloud over quickly when he’s angry or hurt. You can read Paul’s eyes as easily as a first grade primer. During a performance his eyes are always roving over the audience; he has a way of making each girl think he’s looking directly at her as his smiling eyes gaze in her direction.
Paul is the most outgoing of the four, without any doubt. He has a memory like a blotter, likes to meet people and is the easiest to know. He concentrates on the person he’s with at any moment.
Even during the pandemonium of the Hollywood press conference while reporters were jabbing questions at him from all sides, Paul took time out to tell me that he thought my original Beatle Books one and Two were the best written and most accurate of all the books published about them. The picture of me (in shades and a Beatle wig) in the books, he said made me “look like a thin John Lennon.” Paul’s hair is something else. He uses no creams, sprays or greasy kid stuff on his rich, thick, luxurious, dark brown locks. The natural oil in his hair is fragrant. His beard is heavy, thick wiry and scratchy to tender skin. Shaving is a twice a day bore. Paul’s body is not that of an athlete, yet he is extremely well built. Though he doesn’t have to diet (much) yet, he could easily pick up plenty of poundage if he won’t watch out.
Paul makes everyone around him feel at ease. Even if he doesn’t like someone he’ll smile and say a pleasant word. That’s his way. He can’t hurt anyone’s feelings. He can be sarcastic about things and ideas but not about people. He leaves a lively bull session and has strong opinions about life and love, philosophy and religion.
The greatest surprise the press has had with the Beatles is discovering how intelligent each of them is. Their serious minds seek out answers to all the important issues of today and come up with amazing opinions concerning those problems.
Paul loves to write songs though he can’t read music During the two nights here, Paul often sat at the piano and played old and new songs. One of his improvisations, “I Fancy My chances with you,” sung in lilting Liverpoolese, was a larf and a harf.
The others joined Paul around the piano. Ringo especially enjoys singing funny songs with Paul, some rather risqué. Pauls’ speaking voice is soft and melodious; his singing voice has a wide range. He can hit those high notes with no strain.
Press conference Q’s and A’s by Paul:
Q: who do you hate the most? Fans who chase you, reporters who ask you stupid questions or photographers who always demand just one more picture?
A: We don’t hate anyone.
Q: Do you regard yourselves as musicians?
A: Well, they let us join the musicians union so I suppose you could say we are. But not really, I guess. We don’t’ think much about it.
Q: Are you married to Jane Asher?
A: I am tired of that question. The answer is no. She’s just my closest girl friend but we aren’t engaged or anything like that.
Q: Will you be dating Jill Hayworth again?
A: I don’t want to see her again after all the stories she wrote in the fan magazies after oru last visit to America.
Q: Do you note any differences between British and American girls?
A: Bascially they are the same, aren’t they?
Q: Have you moved into your new house?
A: We bought a home but it’s standing there empty. Lots of work has to be done to it before it’s ready to be lived in.
George Harrison
A listener rather than a talker, George Harrison is the quietest Beatle of them all. “That cat’s got his tongue” complained one girl who was trying to make him talk.
A few hour later at Burt Lancaster’s house, George started talking like there’s no tomorrow. He raved about the house, played with Burt’s kids and fanned plenty of conversational breeze. He changes his moods without warning.
George’s grin can light up a room like a 500w lamp yet he appears to smile only when he’s tickled or amused which isn’t every minute. Hanging from the balcony in the Las Vegas Convention Hall was a huge sign in big black letters which read, “SMILE GEORGE!” He smiled when he saw the sign.
George is the hardest to know. His quiet reserve is a direct challenge to girls who like a deep guy who isn’t’ easy to figure out. He is more handsome than you’d guess from his pictures. His face is thin, his body small-boned and he has almost no hips.The most arresting feature is his eyes, fringed with thick eyebrows.
George loves to wear sport shirts and tight blue jeans slung low on his narrow hips. He digs cloths that are different. When he and the other Beatles went shopping on Vine Street, George returned in a gold shirt with a big open collar and full sleeves which he raved about and showed everybody. Paul and John kidding him like crazy about the shirt but George took the kidding with a grin and wouldn’t stop wearing the way-out garment.
The three other Beatles treat George like a younger brother.
His A’s to the Q’s asked him at the press powwow:
Q: What do you do with your money?
A: Haul it away to the bank.
Q: What were your favorite scenes your movie?
A: John’s bathtub scene and the outdoor field. These were outlined in the script but John ad-libbed all his action in the tub and the field scene was spontaneous from beginning to end.
Q: did you ever dream you’d become this big?
A: I’m still five feet eleven, no bigger than before.
Q: How about that Seattle psychologist who said the Beatles were a menace to American youth?
A: We think that psychologist are a menace to youth.
Ringo Starr
When Ringo looks at you with those big sad Basset hound eyes you think he must be unhappy or bored. It ain’t necessarily so. He has many moods and a hot temper too, but he’s always ready for a bit of horseplay with the other Beatles or any convenient victim. Friends say Ringo is a born comedian.
Though he is the prime fave of the feminine fans, he is not always at ease with them. His shyness takes different forms like either being bashful and tongue-tied in his approach or too abrupt. He isn’t a smooth operator like Paul or George.
His photographs do him justice. Close-up details: his hair is extremely fine and long with a flip in the back. When a girl mussed his hair at a party, his bangs stuck out like wire. He has a scar over his left eye and the eyebrow is nearly white.
For his three days in Hollywood, Ringo wore the same style blue shirt with a dozen white buttons down the front. Once he slid into a cowboy shirt with poncho and made like Deadeye Dick, the terror of the Wild West, with two six-shooters given to him by Colonel Parker, Elvis Presley’s manager who visited the Beatles pad bearing gifts for all. Parker gave Paul, John and George table lamps shaped like covered wagons and Ringo the guns which shoot caps. Ringo went wild. He ran around aiming the guns at people, shouting, “Hands up!” and shooting them down like dogs.
Ringo was missing when the party adjourned to Burt Lancaster’s home to see a film. When the others settled down to the screening, Ringo arrived with whoops and hollars. “I’m here, I’m here! Stick ‘em up,” he shouted, cracking up the whole show.
When they returned to their own pad, Ringo peeled off this cowboy rig and wriggled into tight slacks and the old wrinkled blue shirt again.
No one has been able to come up with the answer to Ringo’s way out infront popularity with most girls, but many believe it’s the fact he’s the smallest and seems the shyest. Gals go for the underdog in many cases. Ringo’s name and his habit of wearing the rings may also be a reason.
Ringo’s answers culled from the press conference:
Q: have you ever dated Ann Margret?
A: I never even met her. All the dates and telephone conversations happened only in the over-active imagination of her press agent.
Q: Why don’t you like Donald Duck?
A: Because I can’t understand his quacky talk.
Q: What’s the story about your jewelry?
A: I’ve been wearing the same four rings for the past three years. I wear the St. Christopher’s medal not because I’m religious but because it was a gift from a dear friend.
Q: What will you do when the Beatle fad is over?
A: Ask me 20 years from now. I don’t think about the future. I just keep rolling along like Old Man River singing my songs.