THE BEATLES ANTHOLOGY THREE

EPISODE THREE

This instalment is defined by what happened next: a first trip to America that still brims with fascination and iconic imagery.

It all begins in New York, where they play at Carnegie Hall and deliver their erachanging performance on the “Ed Sullivan Show,” which draws a record-breaking 73 million viewers. Meanwhile, as recorded in brilliantly intimate footage, The Beatles find that their music is blaring from every radio, and the four of them delight in phoning the city’s stations—not least WINS, the home of the self-styled “fifth Beatle” Murray the K—and requesting the soul and R’n’B music that they love. One sequence in this episode, for example, is soundtracked by the Marvin Gaye classic, “Pride and Joy.”

As they move on to rapturous receptions in New York, Washington DC and Miami, the first place they have seen palm trees, where they make their second Ed Sullivan appearance—they’re thrilled and surprised by what’s happening to them, but also full of the underlying self-belief hardened up in Liverpool and Hamburg, evident in a perfect performance of “This Boy,” broadcast to yet another huge audience. “We were just very confident,” says Paul. “Confidence was at an all-time high.”

“I felt we conquered America,” says Ringo. “It was a sort of attitude we had: ‘OK, we’ve conquered Sweden, France, yes.’ America was ours now.”

Everything goes up another level with the making of their first movie, “A Hard Day’s Night,” directed by Richard Lester and scripted by the British playwright Alun Owen, but really a showcase for qualities that The Beatles already had in abundance. There is talk of them inheriting the mantle of the Marx Brothers, and praise for a deftly comical solo sequence filmed with Ringo when he was in the midst of a grinding hangover.

“The Beatles were funny,” offers George. “They actually were funny.” The movie is the opposite of what many expect: not a cheap and flimsy cash-in, but a clever and witty fictional picture of The Beatles’ lives.

Ringo returns to hospital to have his tonsils removed—and, much to his chagrin, the band briefly tour with his temporary replacement, Jimmy Nicol, who plays with them in Holland, Hong Kong and Australia—more territories to add to the list. 300,000 people turn out to catch a glimpse of them in the centre of the city of Adelaide. The intensity of their lives is crisply summed up by a new member of their inner circle: Derek Taylor, who takes a job as Brian Epstein’s persona; assistant and eventually becomes their press officer. “It was all very exciting and wonderful,” he says. “But I think only a madman would have volunteered to join such a thing.”

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