They were invited to dinner by the master and dons of Brasenose College, Oxford, where they asked for jam butties. A Roman Catholic bishop called them a ‘menace’, but Prince Philip met them and thought them good chaps. He had a chat with John about books. They met Mr Wilson at last, at a Variety Club presentation, and called him Mr Dobson.
John’s first book came out in March. It was called In His Own Write, a title suggested by Paul. They discarded another idea, In His Own Write and Draw, as the pun (right-hand drawer) was too complicated. Most literary experts and most publishers said it was a stunt that would fail — how could a beat-group player write anything that was any good? It went to the top of the best-seller list, beating James Bond. The Times Literary Supplement said: ‘It is worth the attention of anyone who fears for the impoverishment of the English language and the British imagination.’ John was invited to be guest of honour at a Foyles literary lunch. He didn’t speak, except to mutter ‘Thank you, you’ve got a lucky face,’ and got a few boos for not doing so. But Brian Epstein made a very nice speech.
On 24 March, their sixth single, ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’, came out. It went straight to number one. It also went immediately to number one in America. In Britain and America, before it had come out, the advance sales were three million, a world record. Not long after, they had the top six records on the United States hit parade.
Ringo was elected a Vice-President of Leeds University in preference to a former Lord Chief Justice. Madame Tussauds put wax effigies of all four Beatles on show. Paul Johnson, in the New Statesman, did an article headed ‘The Menace of Beatlism’. A writer in the Sunday Telegraph said that the group would break up, because eventually they would all get married and ‘the chance of four random women liking one another or even being able to get on with one another will be small indeed.’
In March they started shooting their first film. The title, A Hard Day’s Night, wasn’t decided until it was almost finished and Ringo came out with the phrase, though John had used it earlier in a poem.
Paul was by this time going out with Jane Asher, daughter of a Wimpole Street doctor. On the first day of the film, George met Pattie Boyd. Like Jane Asher, she has a a south of England background, completely different from the background of the girls in the other two Beatles’ lives.
Pattie was working as a model, mainly in magazines, and did a TV commercial for Smiths Crisps, which was very successful. This was directed by Dick Lester, which was how she came to be auditioned for a part in the Beatles’ film.
‘I met them and they said hello. I couldn’t believe it. They were so like how I’d imagined them to be. They were just like pictures of themselves coming to life. George hardly said hello. But the others came and chatted to us.
‘When we started filming, I could feel George looking at me and I was a bit embarrassed. Ringo seemed the nicest and easiest to talk to, and so did Paul. But I was terrified of John. After that first day’s shooting, I asked them all for their autograph, except John. I was too scared.
‘When I was asking George for his, I said could he sign it for my two sisters as well. He signed his name and put two kisses each for them, but under mine he put seven kisses. I thought he must like me a little.’
He did and they started going out. ‘I took him to Mummy’s, then he took me to see this house in Esher he was interested in. I thought it was lovely. The next weekend was Easter. I went with George and John and Cynthia to Ireland for the weekend on a private plane. It was a dead secret, but it got out and there were hordes of pressmen at the hotel.
‘This was my first experience of that sort of thing. The manager tapped their phones and we could hear them sending back the most awful things to Fleet Street. When we went out, they all followed us with cameras.
‘It was impossible to get out. In the end Cyn and I had to dress as maids. They took us out a back way, put us in a laundry basket, and we were driven to the airport in a laundry van.’
Naturally, with all the publicity and gossip interest in her, she was offered even more modelling jobs. ‘I took a lot, the ones I fancied, but George said I shouldn’t. He didn’t like it. They were just wanting me for the wrong reasons.’
She was very worried by the threatening letters and even physical attacks all the girlfriends and wives were getting from girl fans. ‘The letters upset me a lot. They were really nasty and said awful things, especially from the States. I used to worry that perhaps I was nasty. They always said they were really George’s girlfriend, I’d better leave him alone or they’d get me.’
They moved into George’s new house in Esher. ‘We lived together for about a year before we got married. My mother knew, but she never mentioned it.’
In the summer of 1964, the tours started again. They went to Europe first of all, starting with Denmark. In Amsterdam a crowd of 100,000 turned up in the streets to see them. Girls were diving into canals to get near them. Then they went to Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand.
The American tours had, and always will have, the most publicity associated with them, simply because they were beating the Americans at what the Americans had always been leading the world in. But, surprisingly, the biggest ever crowd to turn out to watch the Beatles was in Adelaide. This was simply to watch the Beatles arrive. Every newspaper that day put the figure at over 300,000. Numbers like this never turned out to see them in New York, or even in Liverpool.
Back in London, on 6 July, A Hard Day’s Night had its premiere, in front of Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon. The LP of the film came out the following month.
On 19 August 1964 they left for their first major American tour. The trip in February had been a short, two-week trip, with only a couple of concerts and TV shows.
This tour, in August and September, covered in all 32 days. It was the longest, biggest and most exhausting tour they ever did. They travelled in all 22,441 miles, spending a total of 60 hours, 25 minutes flying. They visited 24 cities in the United States and Canada. They gave a total of 30 performances, plus one charity show. ‘During that American tour,’ says Mal, the road manager, ‘each of us lost one and a half stone in sweat.’
Norman Weiss of GAC, their American agent, spent six months planning this tour. ‘It took about as much planning as the invasion of Normandy. Millions and millions of dollars must have changed hands. It would be impossible to work out what it all cost, from the Beatles’ fees down to all the hot dogs sold and films used up.
‘We could easily have charged three times the price and still sold out, but Brian said it was unfair to the fans. We had it written into all contracts, stating what the prices had to be. We dictated all the contracts, set the terms ourselves. Every promoter agreed, thankful to be putting them on.
‘The Beatles and Elvis are both in show business. After that, any comparison is just a joke. No one, before or since, has had the crowds the Beatles had.’
Records were broken everywhere, but to the Beatles themselves, it all became meaningless. It was just like it had been yesterday. Even the questions were always the same — what did they think had caused their success and when did they think the bubble would burst. They almost got to screaming point, with the endless repetition.
They fled to a remote country town for a day’s rest and the locals very kindly kept out of the way. But as they were boarding their plane to take off again, the sheriff and other town dignitaries could be seen coming across the tarmac towards them. Derek Taylor, the Beatles’ press officer, was sent out to see what the locals wanted. They said they wanted autographs and photographs standing with the Beatles, which was the least they could do, as they’d been so kind and left them alone.