AboutMelissa Davis Expertise I feel extremely comfortable with my ability to answer questions regarding The Beatles personally - backgrounds, family, education, and the genesis of the group from inception to the end. I do not feel that I have the expertise to answer extremely technical questions regarding equipment, other than to refer the questioner to other sources.
Experience Besides having been the right age at the right time to live through and enjoy The Beatles, I have continued my interest in them, in their music, and their influence on 20th century - in everything from the obvious, music, to fashion, humor, film, politics, and the music industry. As a dedicated Anglophile, I have studied at the University of London as an undergraduate and traveled in the UK extensively - yes, walked across Abbey Road, visited Savile Row - all of it. Beyond that, I am a teacher and a writer with excellent writing, editing, and research skills.
Publications The Copy Workshop advertising series
Colorado Law Journal
Various magazines
Education/Credentials B.A. History & Political Science, M.A. English History, J.D.
Awards and Honors Teacher of the Year, Archdiocese of Dallas (2000)
Expert: Melissa Davis Date: 5/11/2008 Subject: George Harrison
Question Can you give me rare facts about George Harrison?
Answer
Hi Ava,
I think I'm looking at another question from you about George's schooldays, so some of these facts might be repetitive, but I think I can help. I've just recently interviewed his sister, who was able to provide perspective on their family and the way they were raised, as well as about how certain myths arose about George that just were not based in fact!
I can give you some 'facts' and then you can write back and let me know if you want more information about any particular one.
1. George was the first Beatle to step foot in America! He was in the US about six months before the Beatles arrived on February 7, 1964 to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show.
2. He weighed 10 and a half pounds when he was born.
3. He was born at home in a 'two up and two down' row house without an indoor bathroom.
4. He was the youngest of 4 children.
5. His father had been a merchant seaman, but was a bus driver by the time George was born; his mother worked at a greengrocer's.
6. His mother came from an Irish family with the last name 'French,' but which was spelled the old-fashioned way with two lower case 'f's' so that it looked like 'fFrench' or 'ffrench.'
7. Years later, there was some thought that his birthdate had been recorded incorrectly, and you will sometimes see it listed as February 25th (or 24th), but his sister explained that the midwife hadn't recorded the birth right away and just misremembered it - he was born on the 25th just after midnight.
8. The family lived near lots of relatives and his grandmother lived right around the corner.
9. He was named after King George VI as a sort of patriotic gesture because of the war, but there is also an Uncle George somewhere back in the family.
10. His mother liked to listen to Radio India on the BBC when she was pregnant with George and when he was little!
11. He went to the same Primary school as John Lennon - just 3 years behind, so they were never friends.
12. He had lots of sore throats as a child and spent 6 weeks in hospital when he was around 11 - 13 with nephritis - an infection of the kidneys. His throat was always a week point for him - when the Beatles were in NYC that first time, he had strep throat and a temperature of 104 degrees. The hotel doctor recommended putting him in the hospital because of the fever, but he didn't want to do that. They thought he would not be able to go through with the performance and it would have to be delayed - he was too ill to go to the rehearsals. His sister stayed with him when the other Beatles went to rehearse and to press conferences and he had to keep his neck wrapped in ice and have antibiotics around the clock.
13. He dated a girl named Iris Caldwell who was known as the prettiest girl in Liverpool. Her brother, Alan, had a band, too, and the drummer in that band was... Ringo Starr.
14. He went to secondary school with Paul McCartney and Neil Aspinall.
15. His family let the group rehearse at his house and his mother gave them all tea and lots of encouragement. When John's mother died suddenly and knowing that Paul's mother had died suddenly the year before, all three said they used to 'watch Mrs. H. very carefully to make sure she wasn't going to go next.'
16. He never wanted to grow up and be a fireman or a doctor or anything - he had no idea what he wanted to do besides play music.
17. His mother bought him his first guitar when he was 11 - it cost 3 pounds.
18. The very first original Beatle song recorded on vinyl was not a Lennon & McCartney song, but a Harrison song called, Because Of All the Danger recorded in Liverpool in 1958. The group saved up and paid a few shillings apiece to have it recorded.
19. George was so irritated when hecklers at the Cavern kept shouting, "We Want Pete" the night Ringo joined the Beatles, August 22, 1962, that he yelled something rude back at them and was headbutted on his way out of the Cavern that night. Pictures of them at their first recording session three weeks later show him with a still very black eye, which Ringo said was his badge of honor for sticking up for him.
20. That night as they were leaving, George walked into the street and was knocked down by a Liverpool double-decker bus!
21. George went to Hamburg to play in August of 1960 and was deported in November for being underage. Technically, he wasn't even supposed to be in the bar, let alone playing there! He stayed up late teaching John (or trying to) how to play his lead parts and left for home alone. He said he was embarrassed - always being the young one, and didn't know for a few weeks that the others had been deported, too, after he left. He said he was overjoyed when he found out!
22. An early Beatle recording, done in Hamburg then next year, features another Harrison song, Cry For A Shadow.
23. Once when the Quarrymen had pretty much stopped playing because they weren't good enough to get any gigs, George went off and found another group to play with, which led to him meeting Pete Best and getting the Beatles a job at The Casbah, a teen club Best's mother ran in the basement of their house.
24. George met his first wife on the set of A Hard Day's Night and asked her to marry him. When she said 'no' - they had just met - he said, 'Well, can you at least have dinner with me?' She again said 'no' and he was terribly embarrassed in front of the other Beatles. She eventually said 'yes'!
25. Richard Lester, the director of both feature Beatle movies, said that George was far and away the best actor of the group, that he was a natural and because of that, more and more scenes with George were added as the movies progressed.
26. George and John were the first two Beatles to experience LSD when they - and their wives - were given it unknowingly by their dentist.
27. George once became so frustrated with a photographer at a club in LA after he asked repeatedly for the man to move away and instead, the photographer put the camera up to him and 'took a shot with a big flash' that he tossed his drink at the photographer, who naturally got a great shot of that moment!
28. George met his second wife on the phone while she was working as a temporary secretary for a record company. She was in LA and he was in England and he thought she sounded very nice.
29. His son's name is Dhani, meaning 'son of a rich man' and it also follows the names of two tones of the Indian music scale.
30. His son is the only Beatle 'baby' to graduate from a four-year college, Brown University in Rhode Island, in the U.S.
31. George took his father with him on his 1974 tour and introduced him to President Gerald Ford when he was invited to the White House.
32. He decorated Ringo's drums with thousands of flowers when Ringo returned after Ringo 'left' the Beatles to 'think it over' for ten days. Ringo said he was feeling left out and told each of the other three Beatles, "It's just you and the others" but John, Paul, and George told him, "I thought it was YOU and the others!"
33. When Ringo was unable to go on the beginning of a tour in June 1964 to the Holland, the Far East and Australia because he was hospitalized, George said they should cancel the tour and refused to go without him. Eventually, their manager did talk George into going and they had a substitute for the first part of the tour. George Martin said, "George is a very loyal person and didn't want to go without Ringo." and George said, "Without Ringo, it's like driving a car with three wheels - it's pointless to try."
Hope those help. If you want to know more about them or need other information, just let me know.
