Paul Is Alive!
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Reads a headline in "The Beatles Monthly Book" the Beatles' fan club newsletter put together by Freda Kelly. Another headline on the same page reads "Revolver Hits #1" (in blue) with the text "Beatles back in the recording studio for session on a new single. At the beginning of March, you will see Beatles at Shea Stadium show filmed in New York last August when the boys starred in the largest ever concert of their career before. (sic)" The next section has a headline "Cavern Club To Close" (also in the same blue) followed by the text "At last the on (sic) a new single. At the beginning of March, you will see Beatles at Shea Stadium show filmed in New York last August when the boys starred in the largest ever concert of their career before 57,000 fans. Thank goodness the rumors about Paul are over. Paul is still with us and is likely to be with us for a long time. Congratulations to Ringo and Maureen who are expecting their second baby shortly after Maureen's next birthday. George has been to the dentist again! Oddly enough a headline in another color (purple) reads "Beatles Invade America" followed by the text "Beatles back in the recording studio for session on a new single. At the beginning of March, you will see Beatles at Shea Stadium show filmed in New York last August when the boys starred in the largest ever concert of their career before 57,000 fans. Thank goodness the rumors about Paul are over. Paul is still with us and is likely to be with us for a long time. This headline seems like it's on the same page as a 1965 newsletter that carries the headline (also in purple) that reads "HELP! In Stores Now." This is taken from the actual copies of Beatles fan club newsletters shown by Freda Kelly! It would seem that rumors about Paul's death go back to at least 1965! According to the film, these newsletters were mailed to fans internationally so it was not only a handful of English fans that knew about the rumors. Another photo shows Paul, John, and George reading copies of the newsletter! So there you have it--this is indisputable fact that the "Paul is dead" rumor existed long before 1969! If anyone doubts what I am posting then please pick up a copy of the DVD "Gool Ol' Freda" on Blu-Ray and see for yourself.
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I watched the doc Good Ol' Freda and I don't doubt what was written, I would only say it was 1966, not 1965. Revolver came out in Aug. 1966, plus when she talks about Shea Stadium, she's talking about the film: "At the beginning of March, you will see Beatles at Shea Stadium show filmed in New York last August when the boys starred in the largest ever concert of their career" (the March she means is March 1966, "last August" refers to Aug. 1965) I was a member of the Beatles U.S. Fan Club in the '60's and we got all the Christmas records the Beatles put out, just like the U.K. fans, but our newsletters were not written by Freda Kelly. You had to actually be a member of their U.K. fan club to get those. I still have all my fan club newsletters. So, perhaps this is why most of the U.S. didn't know anything about the PID rumors until 1969.
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Erik in NJ:
So there you have it--this is indisputable fact that the "Paul is dead" rumor existed long before 1969!
That's not a fact, that's your intepretation. There was a rumour back in 1966/1967, but that was denied. After that it became silent on the subject, there we're no further rumours or conspiracy theories untill 1969 when the hoax actually started.
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Nancy R:
I watched the doc Good Ol' Freda and I don't doubt what was written, I would only say it was 1966, not 1965. Revolver came out in Aug. 1966, plus when she talks about Shea Stadium, she's talking about the film: "At the beginning of March, you will see Beatles at Shea Stadium show filmed in New York last August when the boys starred in the largest ever concert of their career" (the March she means is March 1966, "last August" refers to Aug. 1965)
Nancy, I essentially agree with your assessment, thanks for filling in some dates. I guess what surprised me last night was that it seemed the same story was run in a '65 newsletter that contained the headline "Help! Now In Stores" The editing of the initial newsletter I quoted seemed a bit dodgy (see my use of sic) as it appeared that the same story appeared twice on the same page and was fragmentary in one case. You would think that a newsletter like that would be better edited especially with Freda's supposed attention to detail, but I was just reading it off the TV screen. Would be interesting to see reproductions of the actual newsletters. Do they exist anywhere in a book or on the web? Is Freda Kelly still alive? She came across in the documentary as a rather sweet and well grounded woman.
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The Eggman67:
Erik in NJ:
So there you have it--this is indisputable fact that the "Paul is dead" rumor existed long before 1969!
That's not a fact, that's your intepretation. There was a rumour back in 1966/1967, but that was denied. After that it became silent on the subject, there we're no further rumours or conspiracy theories untill 1969 when the hoax actually started.
Let me try this again. Based on the newsletters written by Freda Kelly, there was a rumor with the fans that was wide spread enough for it to be addressed in the Beatles monthly fan club newsletters as early as 1965-1966. That is fact. How quiet the rumor became after it was addressed there I don't know. I don't know if it was addressed through other channels other than the newsletter. I do know that at least Paul, John, and George were reading the newsletters from the picture which appears to either be in one of them of part of the documentary--so they were certainly privy to what was being published by Freda, no to mention that they were friends with her. Folks here have cited two incidents "involving" Paul that may have started the rumors. One was a moped crash and the other was a car crash. I don't know the dates of these incidents and I don't have time to Google them right now, but hopefully someone here will supply them. I found it interesting that the same story seemed to be run in more than one newsletter. I don't know how pervasive or persistent the rumors were. I was one of the few newsletter stories that Freda Kelly read in the documentary made some many decades later. I'm not sure what you are encompassing when you use the term "the hoax" or who was the perpetrator(s) of said hoax.
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Erik in NJ:
Nancy R:
I watched the doc Good Ol' Freda and I don't doubt what was written, I would only say it was 1966, not 1965. Revolver came out in Aug. 1966, plus when she talks about Shea Stadium, she's talking about the film: "At the beginning of March, you will see Beatles at Shea Stadium show filmed in New York last August when the boys starred in the largest ever concert of their career" (the March she means is March 1966, "last August" refers to Aug. 1965)
Nancy, I essentially agree with your assessment, thanks for filling in some dates. I guess what surprised me last night was that it seemed the same story was run in a '65 newsletter that contained the headline "Help! Now In Stores" The editing of the initial newsletter I quoted seemed a bit dodgy (see my use of sic) as it appeared that the same story appeared twice on the same page and was fragmentary in one case. You would think that a newsletter like that would be better edited especially with Freda's supposed attention to detail, but I was just reading it off the TV screen. Would be interesting to see reproductions of the actual newsletters. Do they exist anywhere in a book or on the web? Is Freda Kelly still alive? She came across in the documentary as a rather sweet and well grounded woman.
Yes, Freda was a guest at the Fest For Beatle Fans in New York earlier this month.
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DrivinFan:
Yes, Freda was a guest at the Fest For Beatle Fans in New York earlier this month.
Thank you. Sorry I missed that being I am in the Greater New York area. Did she speak, sign autographs, or both? I haven't been to a Beatlefest since the early 80s.
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Funny you should say that as this was actually the first New York area fest that we missed since the 80's. Guests at the Fest usually are scheduled to speak and sign autographs on one or both days.
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Didn't she take up a collection to make that movie? Am I remembering the right thing?
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I believe you're right...the following link is a good read: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/nov/17/beatles-secretary-freda-kelly-story
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What a great story!
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This article tells the story of the hoax: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_is_dead Paul's moped accident was Dec. 26, 1965 where he chipped his tooth: This was verified by Paul's brother Mike (who took the photo) in his book The Macs. If you grew up in the U.K. and were a member of the Fan Club, you received Freda's newsletters. Anybody out there save theirs? Tomorrow I will dig out my U.S. Fan Club newsletters and see what they say. All I know is that it was a huge surprise to us in Sept. 1969 (I was in 9th grade) that Paul was supposedly dead! BTW, I have both the magazines pictured in the Wikipedia article. Wonder what they're worth?
