A Hard Day's Night (United Artists) (1964)

Publicity Beatles Fans Always Find Their Men—No Trick Works! (Production Story) The Beatles are back—this time on film. Their first feature, “A Hard Day’s Night,” opens SUENE Cruise oes Theatre, through United Artists release. Filmed in and around London, the comedy—with music, of course—is a fictional account of 26 eventful hours in the lives of the fabulous mop-topped quartet. Because of their popularity and the celebrated enthusiasm of their fans, producer Walter Shenson and director Dick Lester planned a campaign of evasion tactics to avoid entanglements. For studio filming they chose famous Twickenham Studios, situated in a remote suburb of London. Yet word of the movie being made was soon all over London and thousands of teenage fans daily besieged the studio eates. The Beatles became adept at arriving in various vehicles other than automobiles, to deceive them. Attempts to keep location filming sites secret were equally disastrous. At the stately Scala Theatre which was taken over for a day’s shooting, hordes of Beatle fans ringed the block, many climbed the walls and some managed to get inside. A lucky 500 were legitimately in the building, hired as extras and actually being paid to scream at WHAT IS THIS THING CALLED BEATLEMANIA? The rise of The Beatles to what seems an unparalleled position of popularity in entertainment circles came with such dizzying speed that it still has left many persons blinking. Unknown in America last year, the four Liverpool boys virtually ripped the juvenile emotional seams of the nation asunder with a triumphal U. S. tour... and now another coincides with the release of “A Hard Day’s Night,” opening Rei ie Bie. tnssde, Lneatre, through United Artists release. Newspaper and magazines vie with each other for stories and pictorial layouts. Song after Beatle song reaches the top rung of the record lists. Beatle wigs, shirts and other accessories also sell in the millions. A name has had to be coined for it all: Beatlemania. It was only a little over three years ago that the famed singing unit was launched. John Lennon and Paul McCartney (who write all their own songs, and who penned six brand new ones for “A Hard Day’s Night’), teamed with a school chum, George Harrison, to start the group. Ringo Starr joined them later, adding his unique drum rhythm. For a few years they didn’t seem to be getting anywhere, then, through Brian Epstein’s brilliant management, they grew to become the most outstanding show business phenomenon of the age. Both producer Walter Shenson and director Dick Lester agree that in addition to their musical ability, the boys have proven themselves to be natural and charming actors. “They enjoyed every minute of filming ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ and scene after scene went smoothly. In this first picture we’ve taken pains to see that besides their work in harmony each of the four boys has an important individual sequence so that not only their teamwork but their individual abilities will stand out.” Surprise! Twelve thousand British teenagers applied for the 350 extras’ roles offered for a day’s shooting at the Scala Theatre, in London, where The Beatles were location filming “A Hard Day’s Night,” which opens ....at the Theatre, through United Artists release. their idols! A full week of shooting took place on a train consisting of five coaches and a dining car—so that they wouldn’t have to stop for lunch. The first day, their stop at out-of-the-way Minehead Station (supposedly a top secret rendezvous) had almost caused a riot. Every day, thereafter, the Beatle Express thundered over the 330 miles of track while a crew of 50 photographed the quartet sealed safely inside the train. Prize-winning playwright Alun Owen’s screenplay casts the Beatles as four young men who come to London from Liverpool to do a big TV show and get caught up in the complications of being famous. Sound like life? That’s what was intended, and it results in a film in which the boys are natural and free and completely at ease and singing at the tops of their voices. The Secret’s Out While The Beatles were filming “A Hard Day’s Night,” comedy opening at the Theatre, through United Artists release, they naturally wanted to keep the six new songs written for the film a secret. Their fans, the screaming, shrieking, hysterical teenagers who followed them everywhere and tried to break into each of their sets, naturally wanted to hear them. O06 eee eRe (ERAS: Cece. 6 pes eee. e Well, they had their chance one day—and never knew it. Five hundred teenage extras were employed to do what comes naturally to them: scream. The scene was a television studio. The actors were The Beatles. The action was their playing and singing of six new songs. Unheard above the uproar—and to the dismay of the engineers who were recording it—The Beatles actually played and the top-secret songs. Beatles Themselves In‘Hard Day's Night’ Once The Beatles had agreed to make their first feature film, the problem was finding the right story. “A Hard Day’s Night” is the result, and it opens at the Theatre, through United Artists release. It wasn’t as hard as it might seem, smiles Walter Shenson, who launched Peter Sellers as an international star in “The Mouse That Roared” and whose productorial hand guided The Beatles’ first movie venture. “Once we had figured out the right elements for the boys—and __ their fans—everything fell smoothly into place.” “We never even considered a routine musical comedy story into which we’d have to try to squeeze them. I started with the premise that we had to find a writer who understood them and their backeround, and then work along from there. We were lucky in finding Alun Owen free to do the script. He comes from Liverpool, the same city as The Beatles, and he’s young enough to be in complete rapport with them. He spent several weeks just getting acquainted and traveling around on tour with them before he typed out his first scenes. “Alun and I and The Beatles all agreed that it would be best to have them play themselves—four boys who come to London from Liverpool to do a big TV show and get in the middle of a lot of funny complications. This was the pattern and it resulted in what we consider a bright, friendly, funny and entertaining motion picture.” sang MR fed er a ee Oe ie I Ts a ie Still HDN-45 Mat 3A The mop-topped quartet is, of course, The Beatles, starring in their first feature film. A comedy with music (naturally), it is called “A Hard Day’s Night,” and opens through United Artists release. at the...... Theatre, ‘The Beatles’ Are Here In Their First Feature Film, A Hard Day's Night’! Creators of the sound and source of Beatlemania are four fabulously talented lads from Liverpool known collectively as The Beatles, and individually as George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. Their first feature film, “A Hard Day’s Night” opens...... at thie’. caste oe Theatre, through United Artists release. In assessing their fantastic popularity, Life magazine wrote: “First England fell, victim of a million girlish screams. Then Paris surrendered. Now the United States must brace itself. The Beatles are coming.” The Beatles are a product of Liverpool, which has a population of some 300 rock-and-roll bands, hawking their musical wares in countless small cellar clubs, old stores and movie houses—nearly all in the proximity of the Mersey River (hence the so-called “Merseybeat”). In 1956, when the grind and scratch of “‘skiffle’” was starting to eraze the pop horizon, the three founder members of The Beatles (John, Paul and George) were busily experimenting with washboard ’n banjo sounds at every outof-school opportunity. In 1960 they outgrew their rock and_ skiffle phase to explode onto the highly competitive Merseyside scene as a thoroughly groomed, super-charged quartet. Eventually they left London and in Hamburg became the first entertainers ever to play louder than the audience in a rowdy cabaret called The Indra Club. They were subsequently heard by Brian Epstein, an English talent agent who has since become known as “the fifth Beatle”. Under Epstein’s shrewd guidance, The Beatles soon found themselves signing a contract with Britain’s giant Electric & Musical Industries, Ltd., the largest recording organization in the world; headlining concerts throughout Britain . . . and appearing on Television, Their first recording, “Love Me Do,” sold a respectable 100,000 copies. It was the last time a Beatle single sold less than a half-million! Their first million-seller, “She Loves You (Yeah, Yeah, Yeah)”, came out in the spring of 1963. It was followed by two albums, “Please, Please Me” and “With The Beatles.” Both LP’s sold over 300,000 copies. Then came the unprecedented success “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” and there has been no stopping them. Beatle music is wild, pungent, hard-hitting, uninhibited . . . and personal. Newsweek said, “The sound of their music is one of the most persistent noises heard over England since the air-raid sirens were dismantled.” Beatle popularity reached a pinnacle of sorts when the group headed the annual command performance for the Royal family. The Queen Mother found them “. . . young, fresh and vital.” The Beatles write their own music, make their own vocal arrangements and design their own instrumental backdrops. And do their fans love them? Yeah, Yeah, YEAH! Best Screamers! Beatle George Harrison says the champ Beatlemanic secreamers are in the U. S. His comment was appropos to the opening in this country of their first feature film, “A Hard Day’s Night,”’ which opens at the, 5... « ; Theatre, through United Artists release. “The biggest, wildest screamers we’ve ever hit in our travels were in the States when we were over the first time. But you know, we really enjoy it when our fans scream .. . shows they’re having a good time. And that’s the big thing, isn’t it!” see ee Author John Lennon Compared to Joyce (Book Feature) “Sports hurt,” says John Lennon, whose hobby is writing. His profession is Beatling, and the 23-year old literary Beatle is currently starring with his fellow Beatles in “A Hard Day’s Night,” opening..... at the Theatre, through United Artists release. ole. iGetia: 60) 6 Lennon has just published his first book, “John Lennon In His Own Write,” containing off-beat stories, verse and drawings. A sample of Lennon reads: “All of a southern I notice boils and girks sitting in hubbered lumps smoking Hernia and taking Odeon and going very high.” As the critic for the London Sunday Observer put it, with Lennon there’s “joy lying in the spelling, which is often like ‘Finnegans Wake’ in that one word has to do the work of six.” The Sunday Times, another top British newspaper, also reviewed Lennon’s book, commenting, “It is fascinating of course to climb inside a Beatle’s head to see what’s going on there, but what counts is that what’s going on there really is fascinating.” This critic added that the book’s ancestry is plain: Lewis Carroll, Klee, Thurber, The Goons, Ivor Cutler and very noticeably, late Joyce. In America it is published by Simon & Schuster, and the reviews were in the same tone as the British. ‘Hard Day’s’ Scripter Knows Beatles’ Beat The man chosen to write the script for The Beatles’ first film, “A Hard Day’s Night,” opening Leer at the Theatre, through United Artists release, is Alun Owen, who hails from the same Liverpool background as the mop-tops themselves. He knows the area and its people and. both frequently figure in his work. He’s written six plays about the city for TV and the stage. One got a television prize, another an award from America’s Variety. A writer for radio, TV, the stage and films since 1958, Owen previously worked as a merchant seaman, coal miner, waiter and truck driver’s helper before landing a job as an assistant stage manager in the provinces. Within a year he was acting in repertory, the train eeeereene ing ground of British dramatic talent. Following his first sale, a radio play, Owen got increasingly busy as a writer and finally abandoned acling except for very occasional appearances. Wilfrid Brambell Plays Grandfather In ‘Beatles’ Film Dublin born Wilfrid Brambell, co-starring with The Beatles in “A Hard Day’s Night,” opening...... At tbe sececaites Theatre, throug! United Artists release, stands only 5’ 4” in his stocking feet, but he looms large in British show business. The 52 year old character actor stars as the father in “Steptoe and Son,” Britain’s tp TV comedy show. In “A Hard Day’s Night,” Brambell has been cast as Beatle Paul McCartney’s grandfather —a_ role not unlike the crusty old codger, “Albert,” he plays on television. “The old boy raises a lot of the devil in the picture,” he remarks, “but underneath there’s a hint of his fear of growing old and lonely. It’s a very human part—and I know film audiences will take to it the way television audiences have taken to my Albert.” Brambell began his show business career at the age of two and a half, but his present stardom came slowly. In between, he has played the provinces as well as London; worked as a second comic as well as “top banana”; he is a skilled performer of memorable roles which vary from Shakespeare to the traditional English Music Hall “turns.” Brambell enjoys working with The Beatles, in the Beatle world of Beatlemania. He admits that in all his professional career he has never known anything like it. “My, but they’re clever kids!” he says. “I don’t think I could have taken all this fame at their age. I’d have wound up with a big head. Not these boys, though. Although they do have rather big haircuts!” Still HDN-15 Mat 1A The Beatles’ first feature film, “A Hard Day’s Night,” co-stars Wilfred Brambell, star of Britain’s top television comedy series “Steptoe and Son.” The Beatle comedy opens ...... at the Theatre, through United Artists release.