| 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." [FLI_PPO, 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 |