What was Apple Co. ?  | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

A headache, a mess, an ego-trip for Paul and John.

Will echo DRBeatles recommendation to read Doggett’s ‘You Never Give Me Your Money ‘ for a very good, honest, understandable account of Apple. Its one of the best Beatles books out there.

John C. Winn covers the above promo in his book ‘That Magic Feeling’ for the entry “circa 11th June 1968“.

One of Apple Films’ more obscure productions was a ten-minute promotional short titled simply Apple. This was a sort of groovy industrial film to give Capitol and EMI executives some idea of what the Beatles and company were up to in their new enterprise.

With George and Ringo out of the country, it was left to John and Paul to put in appearances; as always, Tony Bramwell directed the 16 mm footage, which was hastily assembled in time for Paul to bring on his Los Angeles trip June 20. (Some of this film may have been aired on Dutch station VARA-TV’s Puntje September 27.)
The film opens with crude title cards and some shots of London, including Apple’s office building. An American narrator describes the Apple concept in simplest terms as music from Wonderwall plays. Meanwhile, inside Apple Corps, Paul is arguing business matters with Dick James while John sits at a desk with his head down, doodling. The attractive Apple Records Granny Smith label is then shown off and we cut to EMI for Paul’s performance of “Blackbird ” (see previous entry).
The second half of the film opens with further narration and several quick shots, including brief glimpses of Alistair Taylor, the Apple Boutique, and Apple Tailoring. Mary Hopkin, one of Apple’s first “discoveries,” is then highlighted. Sitting in Paul’s yard, she performs a Barry Gibb song, “In the Morning,” on acoustic guitar, as Paul’s sheepdog, Martha, rolls around in the grass. According to Mark Lewisohn’s Complete Beatles Chronicle, a scene of Mary and Paul listening to playbacks at EMI was shot on June 11; however, this does not appear in the circulating copy of Apple.
Paul provides a link from Hopkin to Apple Electronics, represented in hilarious fashion by Alexis Mar-das, who says hello to “all the girls around the world.” Back at Apple Corps, John and Paul tease Dick James with what is presumably a Magic Alex creation, a telephone that plays music through its receiver. Finally, we see John at Studio 2 chatting with George Martin about Capitol’s sales conference (as noted in the previous entry, this bit of dialogue is missing from the raw sound reel presented on bootleg). The camera pans across to Paul, performing an acoustic rendition of “Helter Skelter .”
Apart from the novelty of unreleased McCartney tunes and Hopkin’s sweet performance, it’s hard to say what attraction this rather disjointed film would have held. However, it would have needed to be truly atrocious to dissuade Capitol and EMI executives from distributing the Beatles’ new label.

RELEASE HISTORY
A decent-quality copy of Apple with rather washed-out color circulates among collectors (usually with the two reels in the wrong order); excerpts in much better quality were released in the Anthology home video, including “Blackbird ” and Magic Alex’s segment. The circulating edit is presumably the one shown to EMI executives in London August 26, since the exterior shot of Apple Corps shows Savile Row. The office’s move from Wigmore Street, where the interior scenes take place, did not occur until July 15, well after the film was completed and shown in Los Angeles, so it would seem a bit of reediting was done to reflect the new location.
The complete soundtrack to this fillm was included on the CD-R Blackpool Night Out ’64— Upgraded.