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3.24pm
27 April 2010
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It is my great honor to present to you this telephone interview with Sid Bernstein. He, without any doubt, should be listed in the People section of BeatlesBible.
In early 1963, Sid, a former student at Columbia University, WWII
vet, ex-ballroom manager was acting as an independent promoter/agent and
at 44 years old was also earning about $200 a week working for General
Artists Corporation (GAC), the largest theatrical agency in America. He
was taking a night school course, at the time, under Dr. Max Lerner, at
the New York School of Social Research. He’d begun the course in 1962
and during October of that year, as part of the coursework, he was
required to read English newspapers each week. By the time his course
had finished in February 1963 he noted the rise of an obscure rock group
from Liverpool who had begun to dominate the British press with
headlines of Beatlemania.
He had a hunch that The Beatles were unique, but couldn’t convince
anyone at GAC. So having never even heard any of their music, he set out
on his own by seeking out Beatle manager Brian Epstein’s phone number
in Liverpool and calling him in February 1963. Sid had decided on
promoting them independently in New York and suggested to Brian that he
would like to book them at Carnegie Hall. This was before anyone in the
US was even aware of The Beatles and at a time when rock bands did not
play at prestigious venues like Carnegie Hall. A year later, in early
1964, thanks to some ingenious negotiations from Sid, it happened. He
was also responsible for getting The Beatles to play at Shea Stadium in
1965 and 1966, again at a time when it was unheard of for a rock band to
play at a sports stadium.
Sid went on to change the music scene here in the US in the 1960?s by
bringing many rock artists from Britain to America, including The
Rolling Stones, Herman’s Hermits, The Dave Clark 5, The Animals, The
Moody Blues, The Kinks but first and foremost for our listening
audience, The Beatles. Sid became close fiends with Brian Epstein and
last spoke to him in April 1967, shortly before Brian’s death, about a
management partnership. Sid had begun managing The Young Rascals and Brian would include some of his new artists such as The Bee Gees and Cream. Brian was also working with Robert Stigwood on this who went on to create his own well known record label RSO (for Robert Stigwood Organization) in the 1970?s.
Sid made two unsuccessful attempts to reunite The Beatles during the 1970?s. Once in 1976 when he took out an ad in the European Herald
suggesting The Beatles reunite for a benefit concert in aid of either
the victims of a recent major earthquake in Italy or for the homeless,
parentless children of Biafra. In 1979 he tried again to reunite the
group through advertising, suggesting a benefit concert to aid the
Vietnamese Boat People.
Sid is now 92 years old and full of humor and charm. This past August
he attended Paul McCartney ’s Philadelphia show as you will hear in this
interview and he is close friends with Lenny Kravitz’s father. He spoke
candidly with me over the phone yesterday about his amazing past,
though it had to be kept quite brief for the sake of a 15 minute
interview to be posted here and for airplay on Fab 4 Radio. For more of Sid’s amazing story, please check out his memoirs published in his book It’s Sid Bernstein Calling … The Promoter Who Brought the Beatles to America
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