Filming “Help!” in the Bahamas • Day 13

On the thirteenth day of filming in the Bahamas for “Help!“, the Beatles filmed at a hospital for children with disabilities and elderly patients on New Providence Island. The location was used in the finished film as an exotic temple.

During their stay in the Bahamas, The Beatles received visits from several journalists and radio DJs travelling from the United States. Among them was Murray the K, a New York radio DJ who had become an early and vocal supporter of The Beatles when they first visited the United States in 1964. Murray the K filmed scenes intended for inclusion in “Help!“, though the date of his filming is not precisely documented. His footage was ultimately cut from the final film.

The day-to-day filming activity in the Bahamas is drawn from “The Complete Beatles Chronicle” by Mark Lewisohn.

On the 7th and 8th they filmed at what, in the movie, they assumed to be a temple, and what, in real life, they assumed to be a disused army camp. (In fact, it was a ramshackle hospital for handicapped children and old people, the state of which disgusted the Beatles.)

From “The Complete Beatles Chronicle” by Mark Lewisohn, 1992

Going further

The Beatles Diary Volume 1: The Beatles Years

With greatly expanded text, this is the most revealing and frank personal 30-year chronicle of the group ever written. Insider Barry Miles covers the Beatles story from childhood to the break-up of the group.

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