The Beatles filmed promotional footage for their forthcoming single ‘Hello, Goodbye’ at London’s Saville Theatre on this day.
Without an audience present, they mimed to the song on stage. At the time the theatre was still leased by NEMS Enterprises, despite the recent death of Brian Epstein.
Paul McCartney and Tony Bramwell were the co-directors of the three promo clips made, and Bramwell was the producer.
Different costumes were used for each of the clips. For the first The Beatles wore their Sgt Pepper uniforms before a psychedelic backdrop. The clip also had cutaways of the group waving to the camera in their 1963 collarless suits, and some dancing girls wearing Hawaiian costumes in the finale.
The second clip had The Beatles in their normal (for 1967, at least) clothes, with the dancing girls again appearing in the finale. The third was made of outtakes from the first two clips, plus footage of The Beatles dancing the Twist.
Wonderful and to forever clip!
So who were the London girls dancing the hula?
It’s really interesting that they gave a tribute nod to the early Beatles in the scene where they are waving wearing their 1963 collarless suits.
I saw a version in around 2000 with john and paul dancing together at the end, they looked like outtakes. Any idea where I can find this version?
I actually worked on it. At that time I was working as a trainee assistant cameraman in Soho. A frantic call went out for anyone who knew how to work with a 35mm camera. I immediatly went round to the Saville theatre where THE BEATLES were there with just a camerman and sound playback etc. Even back then, this was a tiny crew.
When we finished, Paul McCartney asked me for the rushes and evidently took the film to the labs himself. A very strange experience!
Brian Rose