Fifty years ago, The Beatles performed a series of concerts at L’Olympia in Paris, where they stayed at the luxury hotel George V. Harry Benson was on hand to photograph their French tour. To celebrate this anniversary, George V is holding a retrospective exhibition in its lobby. It runs through June 30th.
A book was also published for the occasion.
Harry Benson had this to say about his photographs :
“One afternoon in their suite, as it was too late to go out, but not time to get ready for the show, Ringo sat down at the piano. Then Paul came over and was joined by John. As they began to play a few notes, Ringo slipped into the background. George came over with his guitar. Slowly it became serious, they weren’t playing around anymore, they were composing. They were very intensely absorbed in what they were doing. I had become invisible.” [Photo: Beatles Composing Frame 14]
“Brian Epstein came into their suite very late one night after one of the shows at the Olympia. He showed them the cable saying “I Want to Hold Your Hand’ was number one in America and that they would be going there on tour and would be appearing on the Ed Sullivan television show. They were tremendously excited. They had this pent-having up energy after each show and they needed to let off steam. I suggested a pillow fight like the one I had heard John mention them having several nights before. But John said, “Don’t be ridiculous, how childish.” Then he sneaked up on Paul and hit him with a pillow and the fun began. Paul got the worst of it I think with the other three ganging up on him.” [Photo: Pillow Fight, George V Hotel, 1964]
“You could still hear the music when they performed in Paris. The deafening screams had not begun. Later they could sing anything , say anything they wanted on stage because after the first chord, no one could hear a thing. The French audience had never heard anything like it. They didn’t know what to think. This music was not what they had heard before. But the Beatles played the Olympia for three weeks and each day the phenomenon grew. By the end of their gig, they had taken Paris by storm. The world was opening up to them. Everyone wanted to meet them. A large part of their appeal was that they were what everyone secretly wanted to be: fresh, young, witty, carefree and extremely talented.” [Photo: On Stage Paris]
“In the lobby of the George V Hotel was a bust of Napoleon. One of the waiters told John he looked like Napoleon. As we passed it every day, we joked about how much John resembled him. I asked John to pose in front of the Napoleon bust not because there was even a slight resemblance, but because they did have the same haircut. ” [Photo: John as Napoleon]
“A large bag of fan mail was delivered to their suite in the George V each day and the Beatles would actually sit down and read the letters and look at the photographs the girls had enclosed. Who do you think got the most fan mail? Ringo!” [Photo: Beatles Reading Fan Mail]
EXHIBITION
I feel fine
Harry Benson
Until June 30th, 2014
Four Seasons Hôtel Georges V
31 Avenue George V
75008 Paris
France
