EPSTEIN. At Theatre on the Bay until October 17. TRACEY SAUNDERS previews.
CONTRACTS to the value of millions of rand are fairly common these days. What is more unusual is the sale of a physical contract for millions.
Last week the original contract between the Beatles and their manager Brian Epstein sold at the Rock and Pop Auction at Sotheby’s in London for £365,000 (R7,601,000).The original contract was signed on October 1, 1962 in Epstein’s office. Both Paul McCartney and George Harrison were under 21 at the time and their fathers signed the contract on their behalf.
The value of the contract and other Beatles paraphernalia sold at the recent auction is testament to the abiding interest in the what was arguably the first boy band in musical history and timely given the opening of the play based on his life. Given the unprecedented success that the Beatles enjoyed the initial 10% commission on their earnings up to £400 a week increasing to 25% on earnings over £800 seems laughable. Ironically despite their meteoric rise and accompanying increase in personal fortunes their financial success had less to do with Epstein’s financial acumen and more with his management of their style. There is no doubting the impact he had on their image and public personae, but his business skills were doubtful as expressed by Lennon, “Brian was a not a good businessman. He had a flair for presenting things; he was more theatrical than business. He was hyped a lot. He was advised by a gang of crooks, really.”
His importance to the famous four was undeniable and it was McCartney, who wasn’t overly fond of the manager who said in an interview with the BBC in 1997: “If anyone was the fifth Beatle, it was Brian Epstein.” While Lennon was reluctant to accredit anyone with the success of the group he acknowledge the impact that Epstein’s death had on the Beatles when speaking with Rolling Stone magazine. “After Brian died, we collapsed,” he said in 1970. He was disparaging of McCartney’s control of the group even though it was under his guidance that they launched the singles Hey Jude and Let it Be and the LP’s W hite Album and Abbey Road. “Paul took over and supposedly led us. But what is leading us, when we went round in circles? We broke up then. That was the disintegration.”
The group’s disintegration was preceded by Epstein’s tragic unravelling. His drug addiction and alcoholism ultimately led to his ruin. He has remained somewhat of an enigma and in recent years there has been a revival of interest in the man including the making of a film and several books, fact and fiction.
Vivek Tiwary, a Broadway producer and author of the graphic novel The Fifth Beatle, said of Epstein, “The heart of it is that he was gay, Jewish and from Liverpool, which in the 1960s were three significant obstacles.” In 2015 it is difficult to comprehend how any of these factors could have an impact but given that homosexual acts were only decriminalised in the United Kingdom by an Act of Parliament, the Sexual Offences Act 1967 shortly after his death, the impact of his sexual orientation on his life cannot be underestimated.
He remained traumatised following his arrest in 1957, for “importuning”, the solicitation of anonymous men for sex in public bathrooms and his sexual proclivities placed him at risk of blackmail as he became wealthier and better known .
The Liverpool of his birth was predominantly Catholic and while anti-Semitism in Britain was limited it was still experienced by the son of a Jewish Polish immigrant. He was born on September 19, 1934 and convinced his parents to allow him to attend the Royal Academy for Dramatic Arts.
He passed the audition but dropped out after the third term from a class which was also attended by Susannah York, Albert Finney and Peter O’Toole. His army career, which began with his conscription at 18, ended after he was discharged after only 10 months for being emotionally and mentally unfit.
His discharge was precipitated when he was discovered cruising bars in London wearing an officer’s uniform which he had made by a tailor. Following his arrest he avoided a court martial by agreeing to visit an army psychiatrist.
The exact details of his discovery and initial meeting with the Beatles is murky and several versions exist, one being that he met them in the slightly seedy Cavern Club in Liverpool in November 1961 What is indisputable though was that the meeting was a defining moment in his life and that of the Beatles.
Despite the Beatles, his personal life was beset with disillusionment. It seemed that the higher the Beatles flew, the lower Epstein crashed. In his final years the fear of losing his position as the group’s manager consumed him and he was riddled with a self doubt. In his autobiography, A Cellarful of Noise published in October 1964 he said “I believe in democracy ,but I also like to see one man clearly in charge,answerable to himself for his own mistakes. There are penalties.
The chief of them is loneliness for ultimately I must bear the strain alone, not only in the office or the theatre, but at home in the small hours. When a disk goes badly or a business venture fails, I am the one who suffers most, for I hold myself responsible It isn’t the money that worries me, it’s the failure.”
The failure was inevitable given his lifestyle and his untimely and tragic death at the age of 32 is in stark contrast to the successful image of the group whose popularity he ensured. Audiences will be able to share in this strange dichotomy when Nicholas Pauling performs the role of Epstein in the play of the same name which opens this week at the Theatre on the Bay. Written by Andrew Sherlock the play premiered in November 2012 as part of the official programme of Liverpool’s 50th Anniversary of the Beatles. It is a rare opportunity to glimpse the personality behind the phenomenon of the Beatles. Lennon penned a song in 1968 Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey. Perhaps we will finally glimpse what Epstein managed to hide throughout his life.
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