Queer Places:
Wrekin College, Sutherland Rd, Wellington TF1 3BH, Regno Unito
Kirkdale Cemetery, Longmoor Ln, Liverpool L9 9AG, Regno Unito
Brian
Samuel Epstein (19 September 1934 – 27 August 1967) was an English music
entrepreneur who managed the Beatles. Epstein first discovered the Beatles in
November 1961 during a lunchtime performance at The Cavern Club. He was
instantly impressed and saw great potential in the group.[2]
Epstein was rejected by nearly all major recording companies in London, until
he secured a meeting with George Martin, head of EMI's Parlophone label. In
May 1962, Martin agreed to sign the Beatles, partly because of Epstein's
conviction that the group would become internationally famous.[3]
The Beatles' early success has been attributed to Epstein's management
style, and the band trusted him without hesitation. In addition to handling
the Beatles' business affairs, Epstein often stepped in to mediate personal
disputes within the group. The Beatles' unquestioning loyalty to Epstein later
proved detrimental, as the band rarely read contracts before signing them.
Shortly after the song "Please Please Me" rose to the top of the charts in
1963, Epstein advised the creation of Northern Songs, a publishing company
that would control the copyrights of all Lennon–McCartney compositions
recorded between 1963 and 1973. Music publisher Dick James and his partner
Charles Silver owned 51% of the company, Lennon and McCartney each owned 20%,
and Epstein owned 9%.
By 1969, Lennon and McCartney had lost control of all publishing rights to ATV
Music Publishing. Epstein's death in 1967 marked the beginning of the group's
dissolution and had a profound effect on each Beatle. In 1997, Paul McCartney
said, "If anyone was the Fifth Beatle, it was Brian."
Epstein's homosexuality was not publicly known until some years after his
death, although it had been an open secret among his friends and business
associates.
While Epstein was in the Army, he commissioned a tailor to make an
officer's uniform for him that he wore when cruising the bars of London, but
was arrested one night at the Army and Navy Club in Piccadilly by the military
police for impersonating an officer. Epstein managed to avoid a court martial
by agreeing to see an army psychiatrist, who learned of Epstein's sexuality.
After 10 months he was discharged from the army on medical grounds for being
"emotionally and mentally unfit". Epstein later stated that his first
homosexual experience was when he returned to Liverpool after being
discharged.[22]
Brian Epstein
by Lewis Morley
vintage bromide print, 1963
7 3/4 in. x 9 3/4 in. (196 mm x 247 mm)
Given by Lewis Morley, 1989
Photographs Collection
NPG x38922
Epstein spent a year studying acting at RADA, but dropped out shortly after
his arrest for "persistent importuning" outside a men's public toilet in Swiss
Cottage, London; cottaging, as it was called, was one of the few public places
gay and bisexual men could meet at the time, especially if they were closeted.[128]
When Epstein first saw the Beatles perform he noticed their stage attire
first, saying, "They were rather scruffily dressed, in the nicest possible
way, or I should say in the most attractive way—black leather jackets, jeans,
long hair of course."[129]
McCartney said that when Epstein started to manage the Beatles they knew that
he was homosexual but did not care, because he encouraged them professionally
and offered them access to previously off-limits social circles.
Although Lennon often made sarcastic comments about Epstein's homosexuality
to friends and to Epstein personally, no one outside the group's inner circle
was allowed to comment. Ian Sharp, one of Lennon's art school friends, once
made a sarcastic remark about Epstein, saying, "Which one of you [Beatles]
does he fancy?" Sharp was sent a letter by Epstein's office within 48 hours
that demanded a complete apology.[70]
Sharp apologised, but was then completely ostracised. McCartney sent him a
letter directing him to have no contact with any of them in the future.
Epstein went on holiday to places such as Amsterdam, Torremolinos and
Barcelona or Manchester at weekends, as the attitude to homosexuals there was
more tolerant than Liverpool, even though Liverpool did have several gay bars.[128]
In his autobiography, Best stated that Epstein drove them both to Blackpool
one evening where Epstein expressed his "very fond admiration." Epstein then
supposedly said, "Would you find it embarrassing if I ask you to stay in a
hotel overnight?" Best replied that he was not interested, and the two never
mentioned the incident again.[70]
There were reports of a brief sexual encounter between Lennon and Epstein
during a four-day holiday in Barcelona, in April 1963. Lennon always denied
the rumours, telling Playboy in 1980: "Well, it was almost a love
affair, but not quite. It was never consummated ... but we did have a pretty
intense relationship." Lennon's first wife Cynthia also maintains that
Lennon's relationship with Epstein was platonic.
A fictionalised account of the Spanish holiday is featured in the 1991 film
The Hours and Times.[132]
Epstein's autobiography, A Cellarful of Noise, was published in the
UK in October 1964, and later in the United States. It was ghost-written by
journalist Derek Taylor, who served as Epstein's assistant that year, and then
as the publicist for NEMS from 1968 to 1970.[3]
Lennon reportedly once quipped that the memoir should have been titled A
Cellarful of Boys; he also once said it should be called Queer Jew.
Lennon delighted in mocking Epstein's sexuality; a popular rumor holds that
during the recording of "Baby, You're a Rich Man", he sang altered choruses of
"Baby, you're a rich fag Jew".
Male homosexual activity was illegal in England and Wales until September
1967, when it was decriminalised; however, this was one month after Epstein's
death.[136]
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