The Beatles promote Apple Corps in New York

On May 11, 1968, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, joined by ‘Magic’ Alex, Neil Aspinall, Mal Evans and Derek Taylor, travelled from London to New York to promote their newly formed company, Apple Corps. They stayed in New York until May 15, hoping for a discreet visit, but media and fan frenzy ensued as soon as their plane hit the ground.

Following a day of business meetings on May 12 and interviews on the 13th, a press conference was held at 1:30 pm on the 14th at New York’s Americana Hotel. There, John and Paul, accompanied by Apple director Peter Brown, Apple’s press officer Derek Taylor, Apple Films’ head Denis O’Dell, and the US head of Apple Ron Kass, discussed their vision and goals for Apple.

Linda Eastman attended the press conference as a photographer. Some of her photos were published in the press article “101 Hours with John Lennon & Paul McCartney,” written by Lillian Roxon and featured in Eye Magazine in September 1968.

After the press conference, John and Paul recorded an afternoon interview with New York’s educational TV station WNDT / Channel 13, scheduled to be broadcast on the program Newsfront. That evening, they made a special appearance on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show, hosted by Joe Garagiola.

We really want to help people, but without doing it like a charity or seeming like ordinary patrons of the arts. We’re in the happy position of not really needing any more money. So for the first time, the bosses aren’t in it for profit. If you come and see me and say ‘I’ve had such and such a dream,’ I’ll say ‘Here’s so much money. Go away and do it.’ We’ve already bought all our dreams. So now we want to share that possibility with others.

Paul McCartney – From the press conference, May 14, 1968

In May, John and I went to New York to announce that Apple was starting: ‘Send us your huddled talent.’ We wanted a grand launch, but I had a strange feeling and I was very nervous. I had a real personal paranoia. I don’t know if it was what I was smoking at the time, but it was very strange for me.

I remember sitting up there and being interviewed. John was wearing a bus driver’s or a prefect’s badge, and he was doing well. Linda was there taking photos, and afterwards I said, ‘Couldn’t you tell I was nervous?’ but she said it was fine. For some reason I just felt very uneasy about the whole thing; maybe it was because we were out of our depth. We were talking to media like Fortune magazine, and they were interviewing us as a serious economic force – which we weren’t. We hadn’t done the business planning; we were just goofing off and having a lot of fun.

Paul McCartney – From “The Beatles Anthology” book, 2000

Even though I visited England in between times, I didn’t see Paul again until he came to New York with John in May 1968 for a press conference at the Americana Hotel. It was here that they announced the formation of Apple. […]

I was amazed at the mediocre questions they were asked that day. “When are you getting your hair cut?”, “What does the badge mean that you’re wearing?” No one seemed remotely interested in the creative of business side of their new venture. It was just the same old Beatle questions. Paul was very nervous about it all, and all the pictures I took capture their bemusement and the inane level of the questions.

It was at the Apple press conference that my relationship with Paul was rekindled. I managed to slip him my phone number. He rang me up later that day and told me they were leaving that evening, but he’d like it if I was able to travel out to the airport with him and John. So I went out in their limousine, sandwiched between Paul and John. […]

The next time I heard from Paul was the following month when he left a message with my answering service saying that he was on his way to LA to do some Apple business and attend the Capitol Records Convention […]

Linda McCartney – from “Linda McCartney’s Sixties“, 1992

At the party, Linda told me that she thought Paul was smiling at her. ‘What shall I do?’ she asked. I told her to slip Paul a piece of paper with her phone number. He called her that night. Until then, Paul had never responded hugely to her. In fact, she really preferred John. She used to say, ‘John is very exciting.’ Linda went with them to the airport the next day.

Lillian Roxon – Linda Eastman’s friend – From “The Beatles: Off the Record” by Keith Badman, 2008

After the [Tonight Show] Paul McCartney went off by himself to meet Linda Eastman. Linda had appeared earlier in the day at the Apple press conference and had boldly slipped Paul her phone number. He called her later and made plans to see her that night, but he was afraid they would be photographed together if she came to his hotel suite at the St. Regis, and Jane Asher would see the photos. Instead, he arranged to meet Linda at Nat Weiss’ East Side apartment, where they spent the next few days together. One night when Paul told her how fond he was of children, Linda produced her daughter Heather, then six years old. Paul happily babysat for the child while her mother went off to photograph a rock act at the Fillmore. When Paul returned to London later that week, Linda sent him a huge blow-up of himself, lips pursed, on top of which she had superimposed a photo of Heather kissing him.

Peter Brown – From “The Love You Make: An Insider’s Story of the Beatles“, 2002

101 Hours with John Lennon & Paul McCartney

[…] Tuesday was press conference day. All the people Derek Taylor kept at bay on Monday with his candy-colored tangerine-flake Finnegan’s Wake word clouds would get their chance on Tuesday at 1:30 P.M. at the Americana Hotel’s Versailles Terrace.

The press conference was a bringdown. They were there to talk Apple business, to explain how Apple was going to make it easier for ordinary little people to get money to make films and records and so on without having to get down on their knees in anyone’s office.

They did say for the first, but not the last time, that the Maharishi had been a mistake and they played cute word games with the press whose questions were dopier than ever. […]

There was a bit more sparkle at Channel 13, the educational station […]

So they dropped into Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show where Joe Garagiola (subbing for Carson) looked about as much at ease as if they had put him into full female attire and forced him to do a singing impersonation of Mae West. Beside him was the notorious Tallulah Bankhead, who obviously hated being upstaged by two comparative newcomers to show business, even if they were the notorious Beatle Brothers. […]

From “101 Hours with John Lennon & Paul McCartney” by Lillian Roxon

Hungry Beatles Form Apple in Bid for Slice of Trades’ Pie

NEW YORK — The Beatles have formed Apple Corps. Ltd., from Beatles, Ltd., for projects in films, recordings, electronics and merchandising. The company, with headquarters in London’s Savile Row, also has been established in West Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, Sweden, the Netherlands, the U.S., and Canada.

Ronald Kass, head of Apple’s international music division, told a Lennon-McCartney press conference at the Americana Hotel on Tuesday (14) that the firm’s first project would be a soundtrack recording of “Wonderwall,” a forthcoming film with score and arrangements by George Harrison of the Beatles.

The Beatles will produce disks and write material for Apple, but will not sing on them, since the group records for EMI. Beatles disks are released on Capitol in the U.S.

Denis O’Dell and Brian Lewis, who run Apple Films, said “The Jam,” based on a short story by Julio Cortazar, will begin filming in Britain in July with John Barry as producer. “Yellow Submarine,” an animated feature film with music by the Beatles and caricatures of the group is listed for a July 18 release in London. Filming on “Walkout” by Edward Bond is slated to begin in November in Australia.

From Billboard – May 25, 1968

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