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So it is all the more to Debbie Geller's credit that she brings fresh perspective to a familiar tale with this collection of transcripts, culled from 1998's two-part BBC documentary. As well as obtaining access to Epstein's unpublished correspondence, she has rounded-up an impressive array of former chauffeurs, attorneys, employees and ex-Beatles to tell their tales of the shy salesman who chanced upon a scruffy quartet in a Liverpool cellar and went on to help them conquer the world. Particularly illuminating are the details of Epstein's business deals: "I think...Brian did good deals", Paul McCartney says, "he looked to his dad for business advice, and his dad really knew how to run a furniture store in Liverpool. This was a little bigger than that!"
Back then, the full impact of The Beatles was impossible to foresee--but, when it did finally come, it was immense and immediate. A month before he died, aged only 34, Epstein wrote of his beloved charges: "The boys have gone to Greece to buy an island. I think it's a dotty idea but they're no longer children and must have their own sweet way". Had he lived, one can only speculate how different things might have been for The Beatles, and the world. --Patrick Humphries --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Without the determination, magnetism, vision, good manners, respectableclothes and financial security of Brian Epstein, no one would ever have heard of John, Paul, Ringo and George. In Liverpool, in December 1961, Brian Epstein met the Beatles in his small office and signed a management deal. The rest may be history, but it's a history that Epstein created, along with a blueprint for all pop groups ever since. As Paul McCartney once said, 'If anyone was the fifth Beatle it was Brian.'
This book tells the story of Epstein's complicated life through the reminiscences of his friends and family. Based on dozens of interviews - with Paul McCartney, George Martin and Marianne Faithfull, among others - plus many of Epstein's personal diaries, this book uncovers the truth behind the enigmatic young man who unintentionally caused a cultural revolution. And in the process destroyed himself.
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It's a real diamond for anyone looking for an insight into the managers' side of the Beatles story, with emphasis too on Epstein's other business interests, but without becoming too dry and dull.
Martin
Epstein was perhaps not only a victim of his own "incautious self-overdose" (as the coroner recorded at his inquest), but also of his time: The number of people dying from fatal accidents caused by overdoses of barbiturates - often mixed with alcohol - rose from 49 in England and Wales in 1945 to more than 800 in 1962 (according to The London Observer at the time). Part of the sadness of his death in the late summer of 1967 is that he did not live to experience the post-Stonewall era, during which it became possible to live out homosexuality more openly and with less danger or threat of recrimination.
Geller's book - which is actually a series of transcripts from interviews used in the BBC documentary of the same name which aired in 1998 - benefits from access to Epstein's unpublished diaries and correspondence. She has also interviewed Paul McCartney on Epstein ("There was no question in our minds that if we were to be managed by anyone it would be by Brian") as well as Lonnie Trimble, his home-help ("People couldn't really get close to Brian, because he didn't let them"), and the New York attorney Nat Weiss, Epstein's best friend (who is open about Epstein's dependency on uppers and downers). All of these commentators have interesting things to say about the man.
Further commentary is provided by, amongst others, Marianne Faithfull ("I flirted with Brian, but I like to flirt with people"), his assistant Joanne Petersen (at whom, in one of his temporary fits of temper, he threw a teapot), his chauffeur Bryan Barrett ("That's what he hated I think: the loneliness") and Beatles' producer Sir George Martin.
I think the two key aspects of Epstein's life that come out of this series of recollections are Epstein's private sadness and his caring, emotional character. Now that both Deborah Geller and Ray Coleman have died, it will be down to the next generation of Beatles addicts and Epstein enthusiasts to keep his spirit and memory alive.
Also recommended>
1. Ray Coleman, Brian Epstein: The Man Who Made The Beatles (1989) - biography
2. Brian Epstein, A Cellarful of Noise (1964) - his autobiography
3. The Hours And Times (1991) - a film which gives a fictionalised account of the Lennon-Epstein holiday of 1963 in Spain
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