Friday, July 21, 2006

Dezo Hoffman's Home Movies: July 22-27, 1963




















When Dezo Hoffman visited The Beatles while they were performing concerts in Weston-Super-Mare (along with Gerry and the Pacemakers) he brought along an 8mm movie camera to document the occasion. The screen captures seen here are taken from the footage of The Beatles and others enjoying the sunshine in their hotel courtyard as delighted teenage girls take pictures. Paul actually goes over to the girls to chat and sign autographs.

More screen captures of their adventures are soon to follow, including footage of their striped bathing suits photo sessions at Brean Down beach, the Fabs riding go-karts, and the Ty-Phoo tea advertisements.

A bit of these home movies were seen in the Anthology documentary, set to the song "It Won't Be Long". (Information about this footage obtained from John C. Winn's Way Beyond Compare, p. 67-68.)

One can see how lively, exuberant, and just plain "fun" The Beatles were from watching this footage. I can imagine how entertaining and delightful it would be to have spent a day like this with them, just hanging out and enjoying their new-found fame--the days before it became overwhelming.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

When I first saw this footage (Thank You MS A!) I thought of scenes from Magical Mystery Tour -
whatcha think?

Anonymous said...

When I first saw this footage (Thank You MS A!) I thought of scenes from Magical Mystery Tour -
whatcha think?

child of nature said...

I can get the MMT reference, but I mainly get the AHDN vibe from the footage. Dezo said he thought Richard Lester may have seen these home movies and was inspired by them before shooting AHDN. Glad you enjoyed the footage and photos!

child of nature said...

I just got who you are! LOL! I must be a little slow today... :)