Let it be about the Beatles and us
Sir Paul McCartney got by with a little help from Jewish friends
Spotted wearing a kippah, Sir Paul McCartney set the Jewish world alight on Yom Kippur when he appeared alongside his Jewish wife Nancy Shevell at the Círculo Israelita de Santiago, a synagogue and community center in Chile capital. McCartney, who is not Jewish, was in South America as part of his Got Back tour and had performed a concert in Santiago on Friday night, but his timing was perfect as a biopic about the other significant Jewish presence in his life is released on October 30.
Midas Man tells the story of Brian Epstein’s first encounter with The Beatles and follows their journey together as band and manager until his death on August 27, 1967. Having a Jewish manager led to John, Paul, George and Ringo meeting many others of the faith, some of whom were key to their success.
David Stark was 10 when he first heard The Beatles and remains a fan as detailed in his book, It’s All Too Much, which is full of serendipitous ‘fan’ moments such as the time David, then 15, gatecrashed the Yellow Submarine premiere in July 1968 and sat in the seats of no-shows Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithful right behind John, Paul, George and Ringo. “Another occasion that sticks out was introducing George Harrison to my mum at the Royal Albert Hall during a Ravi Shankar concert in ’74,”says David. “They got on great together.”
Now a Companion of LIPA (Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts), David presents the song-writing prizes on Graduation Day alongside Sir Paul. Spotted at every fan event, often with Beatles tour guide Richard Porter, in 2014 David organised a Blue Plaque for Brian Epstein at his old NEMS offices in Argyll Street next to the London Palladium.“I never met Brian but wish I had because, without his vision, total dedication and perseverance it would never have happened for The Beatles in quite the same way.”
Growing up, David’s family were members of Edgware Reform Synagogue, so he can rattle off a fair few of Jewish people who either worked – or were closely associated – with the Fab Four back in the day. “They had many personal and professional Jewish connections together as solo artists and romantically, so it’s a long list, but here are a few…”
Linda Eastman: Brian would have smiled when Paul McCartney married Linda in March 1969 as her mother Louisa came from a German-Jewish family and her father, Lee Eastman (Leopold Vail Epstein) was the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants.
Nancy Shevell: She married Paul on 9 October 2011, and there was also a blessing at St John’s Wood Liberal Synagogue, where the couple have attended Yom Kippur services and this Yom Kippur they were together praying in Chile.
Barbara Bach: Howard Goldbach was the Jewish father of the actress who married Ringo Starr in 1981, although she was raised in her mother’s Catholic faith. Ringo’s step-father Harry Graves, whom his mother Elsie married in 1953, was Jewish and a big band fan.
Alma Cogan: Born in Whitechapel to a Romanian mother and Russian father, the popular late 50s/early 60s British singer was nick-named “the girl with the giggle in her voice” and allegedly had a secret affair with John Lennon. Introduced to Alma by Lionel Bart, Brian often visited her Kensington flat, as did Danny Kaye, Noel Coward and Laurence Olivier.
Dick James: Reginald Leon Isaac Vapnick (his real name) sang the 1955 Robin Hood TV theme and established the Beatles’ publishing company Northern Songs Ltd with Brian in 1963. Mostly amicable, the relationship between James and The Beatles disintegrated by ’69 when the group felt he took advantage of them by selling Northern Songs to Lew Grade of ATV without giving them the option to buy. James later signed Elton John and lyricist Bernie Taupin.
Dick Lester: In 1964, Philadelphia-born Richard Lester Liebman was hired to make the band’s first feature film A Hard Day’s Night, followed by Help! in 1965. In 1967, he directed the surreal How I Won the War in which John Lennon co-starred. In 2012, the BFI awarded him a Fellowship, the film industry’s highest honour.
Allen Klein: In 1964, the American businessman who had managed The Rolling Stones offered Brian $2million for the Beatles to sign with RCA Records, but he refused out of loyalty to EMI. Five years after Brian died, Allen was given a three-year contract as business manager of the Beatles and Apple Corps.
Bob Dylan: Robert Allen Zimmerman first met the Fab Four in August 1964 at New York’s Delmonico Hotel, where he (allegedly) introduced them and Brian to marijuana. Closest to George Harrison, they later co-wrote I’d Have You Anytime for Harrison’s triple album, but it was as bandmates in The Traveling Wilburys that their friendship and musical partnership went to new heights and two albums.
Leslie Cavendish: The Beatles’ hairdresser was born in East London and grew up in Burnt Oak, north London. An apprentice to Vidal Sassoon in 1962, he became Paul McCartney’s private hairdresser in 1966 and was even invited along as a friend on the Magical Mystery Tour coach trip in 1967.
David Jacobs CBE: The TV and radio broadcaster presented BBC’s Juke Box Jury in the 60s and taped the most celebrated episode at the Liverpool Empire on 7 December 1963 with The Beatles.
Sid Bernstein: Sid was an American music promoter who famously put the Beatles on at New York’s Shea Stadium in 1965 with an audience of more than 55,000, the largest for any pop concert at that time.
Nat Weiss: American lawyer Nat represented Brian and The Beatles’ merchandising rights in the USA and, like Brian, was Jewish and gay. Brian trusted Nat so much they formed the firm Nemperor together in 1966 to manage artists other than the Beatles, which was cut short by Brian’s tragic death. Brian’s last letter to him was signed: “Love, flowers, bells, be happy and look forward to the future.”
Ivor Davis: Ivor was the only British newspaper correspondent to cover the Beatles’ first US tour in 1964 and ghost a regular newspaper column for George Harrison. He tells the stories in his book The Beatles and Me on Tour. Now living in California, he recently visited the
UK to give a Beatles talk at St Albans Synagogue.
Helen Shapiro: Born in Bethnal Green in 1946, the granddaughter of Russian-Jewish immigrants, Helen was 10 when she sang in the school band with Marc Bolan (born Mark Feld) on guitar. Still a teen, she became one of Britain’s most successful female singers in the early 60s, with chart toppersYou Don’t Know and Walkin’ Back to Happiness. The Beatles were one of Helen’s support acts on their first British tour, during which Lennon and McCartney wrote the song Misery for her, but producer Norrie Paramor at EMI turned it down.
Mike and Bernie Winters: Islington-born, Mike and Bernie were one of the UK’s most successful comedy double acts in the 1960s and The Beatles did guest spots on their shows Big Night Out (1964) and Blackpool Night Out (1965).
Rabbi Dr Louis Jacobs: The Beatles did not attend Brian’s funeral in Liverpool at the request of his mother Queenie, who did not want crowds of fans but, on 17 October 1967, they attended the memorial service for their manager at New London Synagogue on Abbey Road with Rabbi Dr. Louis Jacobs officiating. He praised Brian for “encouraging young people to sing of love and peace rather than war and hatred.”
It’s All Too Much by David Stark is available on Amazon and Abbey Road Studio’s shop. Midas Man is on Amazon October 30th
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