"1, 2, 3, 4" were
the first words heard by The Beatles; words that have been a part of my life
since I was born. Too young to truly appreciate the incredible Beatles melee of
the early 60s, I was still a part of the 73,000,000 who watched The Beatles on
Ed Sullivan (I would not be allowed to stay up for The Stones or The Doors). My
first true memories of The Beatles, though, were through Al Brodax's Saturday
morning Beatles cartoon series in 1965. The Beatles cartoons were a smash hit,
especially in Apartment 22 on Hazelhurst Avenue in North Hollywood, where I
lived for the 4th, 5th and 6th grades. Brodax, by the end of the year, was in the
process of creating a full-length animated feature film "starring"
the Beatles themselves. It would feature Beatles songs with the Beatles doing
voice-overs and playing themselves. The Fab Four, unable to face actually
"acting" and "going in front of the cameras" again, agreed
to a compromise, and, most likely due to the hectic recording schedule
and the death of Brian Epstein, would not
supply the cartoon’s voices as originally conceived, effectively taking it out of their hands with the
exception for the original songs, four of them, created for the film ("Hey, Bulldog," "All Together Now," "Only a Northern Song" and "It's All Too Much").
After it's completion, the Beatles were given a private screening of Yellow Submarine and were surprised and delighted with the results. They loved the film and even agreed to personally film a one-minute cameo to be shown at the end of the film. That session took place 50 years ago today.
John and Paul were both to later regret not having more to do with Yellow Submarine. John would claim, however, throughout the remainder of his life, that the Yellow Submarine people stole many of his ideas, without giving him any formal screen credit. According to John: "They used to come to the studio and and chat: 'Hi John, old bean, got any ideas for the film?' and I'd just spout out all this stuff, and they went off and did it." Lennon could exaggerate and "play the victim" in countless Beatle-related anecdotes over the years, but this claim does seem justified from available evidence; still, the only publicly agreed-upon story is that one night at 3:00 in the morning, John called up the producer and said "Wouldn't it be great if Ringo was walking down the street being followed by a yellow submarine?" This exact scene is shown at the beginning of the film.
George, though disagreed with John's claims regarding involvement, stating unequivocally, "The best thing about Yellow Submarine was that we had nothing to do with it."
When all was said and done, The Beatles attended its official premiere in July 1968 (Lennon escorting his new live-in girlfriend, Yoko Ono, although he was still married to his wife, Cynthia, at the time). George Harrison, always a man hard to please, said: "I liked the film. I think it's a classic. The film works for every generation."
After it's completion, the Beatles were given a private screening of Yellow Submarine and were surprised and delighted with the results. They loved the film and even agreed to personally film a one-minute cameo to be shown at the end of the film. That session took place 50 years ago today.
John and Paul were both to later regret not having more to do with Yellow Submarine. John would claim, however, throughout the remainder of his life, that the Yellow Submarine people stole many of his ideas, without giving him any formal screen credit. According to John: "They used to come to the studio and and chat: 'Hi John, old bean, got any ideas for the film?' and I'd just spout out all this stuff, and they went off and did it." Lennon could exaggerate and "play the victim" in countless Beatle-related anecdotes over the years, but this claim does seem justified from available evidence; still, the only publicly agreed-upon story is that one night at 3:00 in the morning, John called up the producer and said "Wouldn't it be great if Ringo was walking down the street being followed by a yellow submarine?" This exact scene is shown at the beginning of the film.
George, though disagreed with John's claims regarding involvement, stating unequivocally, "The best thing about Yellow Submarine was that we had nothing to do with it."
When all was said and done, The Beatles attended its official premiere in July 1968 (Lennon escorting his new live-in girlfriend, Yoko Ono, although he was still married to his wife, Cynthia, at the time). George Harrison, always a man hard to please, said: "I liked the film. I think it's a classic. The film works for every generation."
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Yellow Submarine Pepperland by Strongstuff |