In the 1960s era, the Beatles' agent/manager,
Brian Epstein, was Jewish, as was the promoter, Sid Bernstein ("New York's
leading promoter in the mid-sixties," [GLATT, p. 87] of their early Carnegie
Hall and Shea Stadium concerts. The head of Bernstein's employer -- the
General Artist Corporation -- was Norman Weiss, also Jewish. A Jewish entrepreneur
in America, Irwin Pincus, "secured foreign rights on six original Beatles
recordings." [ELIOT, M, p. 127] These seminal tunes appeared on the Vee
Jay label (which also recorded the popular Four Seasons) in the early months
of "Beatlemania' in America. (Meanwhile, the state of Israel banned the
Beatles from performing there in 1965 "for fear of the decadent affect it
would have on Israel's youth)." [FRANKEL, G., p. 273] Sandy Gallin (also
Jewish and, like Epstein, gay) "shot to stardom after booking the Beatles
for their legendary 1964 American debut on The Ed Sullivan Show." [KING,
T., 2000, p. 93]
"The daughter of prosperous furniture manufacturers
in Sheffield," says Albert Goldman, "[Brian Epstein's mother] had been educated
in a school dominated by Roman Catholics, an experience that led to her
to attribute all her subsequent misfortunes in life to anti-Semitism, another
trait Brian adopted." [GOLDMAN] "At age ten," adds Chet Flippo, "[Brian]
was expelled from Liverpool College for scrawling dirty pictures. He and
his mother attributed the expulsion to anti-Semitism." [FLIPPO, C., 1988,
p. 143]
Both Epstein's parents "were from prominent
Jewish families in Liverpool" and he was an heir to his family's NEMS company:
the North End Music Store chain, which was purchased in the 1930s. [FLIPPO,
C., 1988, p. 143] "Brian didn't care that much about the Beatles' music,"
writes Flippo, "They knew that early on and he always acknowledged it. He
had absolutely no experience in managing a group and the Beatles knew that.
His contacts, such as they were, were with the business side of record companies."
[FLIPPO, C., 1988, p. 142] Epstein, notes the Jewish Forward, was
a
"gay, Jewish record-department manager -- of the
Liverpool store owned by
his parents -- who met
the Beatles and in little more than a year turned
them into the most successful musical act in the
world. The life of the
Beatles' first manager has been
familiar to Beatles fans for decades, though
always
as one of the sideshows to the record-shattering main
attraction.
With the focus reversed, some arresting
tidbits emerge, such as when Paul
McCartney explains
his father's immediate approval of Epstein. 'He thought
Jewish people were very good with money,' Mr. McCartney
says. 'That was
the common wisdom. He thought Brian
would be very good for us ... And he
was right ... If anyone
was the fifth Beatle, it was Brian.'
[MANDELL, B.,
2001]
A biography of Epstein is entitled "The Man
Who Made the Beatles." "While none of his performing artists were Jews,"
notes author Roy Coleman, "Brian veered towards the company of Jews in the
music business, and some of his senior colleagues were Jews: Nat Weiss,
Dick James [originally Richard Leon Vapnick], Dan Black, Vic Lewis, Bernard
Lee." [COLEMAN, p 345] Weiss became partners with Epstein in a company called
Nemperor Artists.
Another Beatle-based company (called Stramsact
in London and Seltaeb in America) was formed, in conjunction with Epstein's
lawyer, David Jacobs, to merchandize everything from Beatles chewing gum
to wallpaper. Jacobs funneled considerable Beatles business in America to
famous Los Angeles Jewish lawyer Marvin Mitchelson. [JENKINS, p. 85] David
Jacobs, note Peter Brown and Steven Gaines, "adored the young Brian Epstein
and took him under his wing. The two men were similar in many coincidental
ways. Their families were both in the furniture business, both were born
and bred of money, and both had doting Jewish mothers. Both were homosexual.
David Jacobs became Brian's chief solicitor. From then on, all legal decisions
and contracts would be made with David Jacobs' advice." [BROWN/GAINES, 1983,
p. 122]
Victor Lewis, also Jewish, was the Managing
Director of yet another Epstein company, NEMS Enterprises. The Beatles had
a 10% interest in this company that was based on their profitability; Epstein
and his brother held the other 90%. [COLEMAN, p. 305] As Decca writer Tony
Barrow once noted, "As for hiring of staff, what John Lennon said to me
upon our introduction -- 'if you're not queer and you're not Jewish, why
are you joining NEMS?' -- proved to be pretty accurate. They weren't all
Jewish, but that was the ideal combination of the two things that were most
close to [Epstein] or his family's heart." [COLEMAN, p. 178]
Nemperor Holdings (formerly NEMS) was eventually
sold to Jewish businessman Leonard Richenberg of Triumph Trust. "Trust became
a 90 percent holder of Nemperor ... The Beatles were stunned that they had
lost Nemperor" After various legal threats, they managed to reacquire it).
[BROWN/GAINES, 1983, p. 322]
The aforementioned Jewish businessman, Dick
James, controlled the Beatles' publishing licenses and was their publisher
at Northern Songs. James, note Peter Brown and Steven Gaines,
"became for the Beatles a symbol of the music business.
He was a balding
Jewish 'uncle' to the boys, a man with
a big cigar and a sly smile, who
taught John and Paul one
of the biggest lessons of their lives ... John
and Paul would
form a songwriting partnership called Northern Songs ...
Dick
James, in return for his responsibilities as a music publisher,
would
get 50 percent of the earnings. In literal terms Brian
[Epstein] signed
over to Dick James 50 percent of Lennon
and McCartney's publishing fees
for nothing. It made him
wealthy beyond imagination in eighteen months."
[BROWN/GAINES, 1983, p. 186]
Chet Flippo notes the context of Epstein's
death (an overdose of sleeping pills):
"There were immediate rumors then, just as there
are rumors now, that Brian
Epstein was murdered
as the end result of one or another of the many business
deals that he had cut regarding the Beatles. There were
so many murky deals,
involving so many people and so
much money, that it could even have been
a deal that he failed
to do that might have resulted in such rumors of vendetta
and
revenge. Subsequent court hearings over the years have
showed that the
Beatles were probably -- there is no information
for this kind of data --
the most underpaid superstar performers
ever. Given thier worldwide acclaim
and the milions of records
they sold, one would have imagined that they
were millionaires
many times over. That was hardly the case ... As Paul
[McCartney] especially had started to try to dig into the Beatle
business
books, which they had never even thought to do
during the Fab Beatlemania
years, suspicions of Brian had
started bubbling to the surface." [FLIPPO,
C., 1988, pl. 244]
Also after Epstein's death, in 1969 James
sold the rights to the Beatles songs from under them. "It was the single
most contentious deal arising from the Epstein-James era," says Coleman.
"The Beatles were angry at what they regarded as betrayal." [COLEMAN, p.
306] Marc Elliot notes that James sold "his interest in Northern Songs to
the notorious [British Jewish media mogul] Lew Grade, known in the film
industry as Low Grade." [ELLIOT, p. 158] Epstein also had "good communication"
with Grade's brother, Bernard Delfont, "one of the czars of London show
business." [COLEMAN, p. 245-246]
Epstein also managed the career of singer
Cilia Black. "After Cilia's performance [in New York City]," notes Brown
and Gaines,
"Brian threw a party for her in a hotel suite upstairs.
The party was crowded
with press and New York
show business personalities when some woman
within
Brian's earshot remarked that the lobby of the
Plaza Hotel looked 'Jewish.'
Brian flew into a wild rage.
The party came to a halt around him as he screamed,
'Madame, I happen to be Jewish!’.... It was a small miracle
the incident
didn't find its way into the press."
[BROWN/GAINES, 1983, p. 183]
Moving in the circles of rich and powerful,
notes Coleman, "Brian had struck up a particularly warm rapport in London
with Bernice Kinn, wife of the owner of the New Musical Express. An ebullient,
intuitive Jew, she and her husband Maurice formed part of the core of London's
1960s show business hosts and party goers." [COLEMAN, p. 245-246] Another
of Epstein's "close friends" was Lionel Bart (Beglieter), the Jewish song
writer for many of pop star Cliff Richard's songs, and originator of the
musical score for the musical play, Oliver! [PRESS ASSOCIATION NEWSFILE,
4-3-99]
The Beatles' "official photographer" during
their peak years (1962-67) was Jewish -- Dezo Hoffman. Paul McCartney's
wife Linda (Eastman -- originally Epstein) was also Jewish. [GILBERT, G.,
1996, p. 77, 172] Eastman's father also became active in legal squabbles
between the Beatles, especially between McCartney and Lennon. McCartney's
lawyer in this contentious era, Charles Corman, was an Orthodox Jew. [BROWN/GAINES,
1983, p. 333] The producers of the Beatles first movie, A Hard Day's Night,
were Walter Shenson and Bud Orenstein. Richard Lester directed the movie,
and is also Jewish. [JEWHOO; online] Famous Jewish singer Bob Dylan (Robert
Zimmerman) introduced the Beatles to marijuana the first time he met them,
a gathering arranged by music writer Al Aronowitz. [BROWN/GAINES, 1983,
p. 150]
After John Lennon's death, another Jewish agent, Elliot Mintz, has been
for years Yoko Ono's publicist (he has also worked as a public relations
man for Bob Dylan, and other capacities with pop singers throughout the
years). Immediately after Lennon's assassination, an employee, Fred Seaman,
and his "old college roommate," "psychiatrist and New York diamond dealer"
Bob Rosen, set up a network (termed "Project Walrus") to market Lennon's
stolen journals and other memorabilia [MINTZ, 1991]
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