The Beatles Boxed Set (46 page)

            Two
days later, the Beatles performed on
The Ed Sullivan Show
and was told
that 73 million viewers, or more than a third of the population of the United
States at that time, were tuned in on them. Almost 800 lucky fans, the majority
of them teenage girls, were able to secure their seats in the theater and
screamed and howled and tore their hair as George, Paul, John and Ringo
performed.

            Interestingly,
the Beatles were still largely unknown in the US in October 1963 and Ed
Sullivan had his first glimpse of Beatlemania in November of that year. His
plane at Heathrow Airport was delayed due to throngs of screaming Beatles fans
welcoming the Fab Four from an overseas concert. When he was told of the delay,
he said, “Who the hell are the Beatles?”

            He
was intrigued enough that he booked the band on his show in 1964, and that was
why the Beatles flew to America for the first time.

            The
Beatles also performed live at the Washington Coliseum in Washington, DC on
February 11, at Carnegie Hall in New York City on February 12, and back on
The
Ed Sullivan Show
on February 16 with an estimate of 70 million viewers. The
Beatles appeared on the show for the third time on February 23 with a taped
performance of three songs.          

The Beatles in their first film,
A Hard Day’s
Night

            More
success came when the group was offered a three-motion-picture deal by the film
division of United Artists Records, competitor of Capitol Records which lacked
interest in the band.
A Hard Day’s Night
was filmed and completed in 8
weeks where the boys played as themselves in a mock-documentary.

There were a few things that George was thankful for in this
film. First, it was an international success, and the accompanying soundtrack
album, Allmusic editor Stepehen Erlewine said, saw them “truly coming into
their own as a band. All of the disparate influences on their first two albums
had coalesced into a bright, joyous, original sound, filled with ringing
guitars and irresistible melodies.”

As it turned out, that “ringing guitar” sound came from
George’s 12-string electric Rickenbacker, a prototype that the manufacturer had
given him.

Second, it was during the filming that George met his future
wife.

George
spotted 19-year-old actress Pattie Boyd at the set who was cast as a schoolgirl
fan. She was a blonde beauty with long legs and blue eyes. She asked George for
an autograph; he was so flustered and at a loss for words that he drew hearts
under his name.

George met his future wife, Pattie Boyd,
on the set of
A Hard Day’s Night

            George
quickly noticed how Pattie resembled his favorite star, Brigitte Bardot, and
came to realize that he had found a compatible partner in her. At a young age,
Patricia Anne Boyd had established a successful career in modeling and
frequently graced the covers of popular publications such as
Vogue
and
Seventeen.
Her appearance in television commercials had landed her part in the Beatles’
film
A Hard Day’s Night.

            George
was so infatuated with her that he asked, “Will you marry me?” When she
laughed, he added, “Well, if you won’t marry me, will you have dinner with me
tonight?” Pattie politely declined George’s invitation for a date as she had a
boyfriend during that time.

            A
few days later, Pattie was recalled for another day’s work on the film, and she
agreed when George asked her out for the second time, having ended her
relationship with her boyfriend. For their first date, George took her to the
Garrick Club in Convent Garden, with Brian Epstein coming along.

            In
1965, Pattie moved in with George in his Kinfauns home. She had been a
significant force in George’s life, accompanying him to recording sessions, meeting
with friends and record industry executives, having meals with fellow
entertainers and sometimes vacationing to in Hawaii or Tahiti.

            The
couple was driving through London in December 1965 to Brian Epstein’s party
when George proposed. Pattie recalled, “We were just motoring along, listening
to the radio when suddenly he very calmly told me he loved me and wanted us to
get married. I think I just said yes or some such nonsense. But believe me,
inside I was doing cartwheels. We really were very much in love.”

            George
and Pattie were married on January 21, 1966, with Paul and Epstein in
attendance. They honeymooned in Barbados and later on went on holiday with
Epstein in the south of France.

            George
and Pattie shared a stormy but passionate marriage for more than 10 years and
inspired one of the greatest love songs ever written,
Something.

While
George enjoyed the success he had with the Beatles, he soon realized the price
he had to pay. He found out that he didn’t like all the attention that the
press and the people gave him. He now found it hard to keep a space of his own,
away from the limelight and the prying eyes of those who idolized them.

            Although
he had to admit, the fame and the money that were his childhood dreams were now
within his reach. One reporter asked him whether wealth made a difference in
the way he and his family lived, to which he replied, “No, not so far, anyway.
Except for holidays and things like that. You know, we can just get the money
out of the bank and go wherever we want!” Just as well, as in those days, bank
accounts were for businesses and the rich.

            George’s
family dealt better with his rising fame. His mother, particularly, looked
after his fans. Each week she would travel to Beatles Fan Club headquarters in
Liverpool and pick up batches of promotional photos. Then she’d go back home
and stay late answering fan mail, sometimes writing two thousand letters every
month.

            The
gifts that fans from around the world sent for George were displayed in shelves
along one wall of their new home. On another displayed a gold plaque from the
United Beatles Fans of Pomona California which engraved this message:
“Presented to Harold and Louise Harrison for the time and effort they have
shown to Beatle People everywhere.”

Baskets of fan mail for George

            And
on George’s 21
^st
birthday, almost a million cards, letters and gifts
arrived at their home in Wavertree. There were seven truckloads of mail that
filled the entry of their house for weeks. The postal department said that it
was the most mail delivered to one address outside of the royal family. Aside
from all the mail, screaming fans surrounded the Harrison house, and they even
kissed the doorknob.

George received birthday cards from fans
(the woman beside him was from the Beatles’ management company, NEMS, who was
there to help the family with all the mail)

            George
loved his family even more. And now that he was making money, he wanted to pay
them back for all that they’d done for him. By then, his father was still a bus
driver and earned ten pounds, two shillings a week even after 31 years of
service. George asked him to retire and Harold readily agreed.

            Now,
George could live like a rock royalty. He moved to an apartment in London with Ringo
with private bathrooms. They had an amazing time. Jazz clubs and nightclubs and
all kinds of restaurants were just walking distance. He and Ringo would wear
outrageous clothes and stay up all night in clubs.

            To
top it off, George bought himself expensive shoes and tailored suits and fancy
cars. One of his early purchases was a dark green Jaguar XK140 with a
190-horsepower engine and a top speed of 210 miles per hour. He also bought an
Aston Martin DB5, an Aston Mini, and a black Mercedes.

            Even
with all these material things, George claimed he still remained who he was,
telling
Daily Mail
in 1964, “I’m still an eggs and chips man. I’ve had
caviar and I like it. But I’d still rather have an egg sandwich. The only
difference now is that when I say things like that, the Egg Marketing Board
sends me a dozen for free.”

            With
all these money and things that he could buy for himself and his family,
George’s career continued to rise as their fans increased. In August 1964, more
than a hundred thousand people lined the streets as they tried to catch a
glimpse of the boys as they were driven from the airport to the hotel. In
Australia, the number was bigger: three hundred thousand fans, which was half
the population of the city, lined the route of the Beatles caravan. And when
their film
A Hard Day’s Night
debuted, so many people jammed into
Picadilly Circus that central London came to a standstill.

            Amidst
all the adulation, George always reminded himself that he wasn’t a god. He once
told his sister Louise, “We’re not great musicians, you know. We’re still just
learning. And none of us knows how to read music. None of us is particularly
good-looking, and none of us has a fantastic personality. We’re just ordinary
kinds of guys.”

             But
George was also beginning to feel constrained by his popularity. Movies and
articles may have painted his life as fun, but as George wrote in his
autobiography,
I, Me, Mine
, “A good romp? That was fair in the films,
but in the real world … we didn’t have any space … like monkeys in a zoo.”