While America was celebrating the 50th anniversary of the arrival of The Beatles to the US this week, Harry Benson, the Scottish-born photographer most closely associated with their arrival and the Fab Four’s early years, was at a retrospective of his own work at the Mallet in London.
Benson was a photographer on the London Daily Express awaiting a trip to Africa when he got the word to divert instead to Paris to cover a new musical group that was making a name for itself.
And he said he can still remember the electricity when the band began playing, “All My Loving” at a club outside of Paris. The crowd went mad. “I think Beatlemania started there,” he said.
It was in Paris that he snapped the now-famous photo of John, Paul, George and Ringo in a pillow fight in the George V hotel.
“In my opinion, it’s the best picture of The Beatles ever taken,” he said of the spontaneous pillow fight. He just happened to be rooming on the same floor, camera at the ready.
He remembers that John’s first wife, Cynthia, accompanied the band on its flight to the US.
A married Beatle did not fit the image, and after a few days, he recalls, she was soon bundled out of sight and away from the tour.
“John was not too happy about that,” said Benson. He said he always thought John’s song, “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away,” was written about Cynthia.
While most press reports said that The Beatles were hardly able to leave their hotel, the Plaza, because there so many shrieking fans, Benson said he actually managed to sneak out with George Harrison one night.
“We went to Coney Island,” he said. “Nothing was open, not even the Nathan’s hot dog stand. But we went.”
The Fab Four also made it across the street from the hotel to the old Playboy Club.
“The Beatles were good for my career,” he said, “but I was not a music photographer.”
He’s also photographed every American president going back to Eisenhower.