David Puttnam

David Puttnam had an early career in advertising, and as agent acting for the photographers David Bailey and Brian Duffy. As part of those positions, he became friendly with The Beatles. Puttnam turned to film production in the late 1960s.

My career was entirely made by the Beatles. It was 1962, and I was a messenger at a very good advertising agency. I was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, but I had long hair and always wore a white suit. They figured I would be a turnoff for clients. […] Then came ’63, and suddenly the Beatles emerged, and people started saying about me, “Oh, really. He looks a bit like Paul McCartney. He’s got long hair and maybe that’s all right.” Suddenly, after the Beatles, the floodgates opened and they made me a kind of spokesman. I was actually allowed to meet the clients. Within two years, I split and became a photographer’s agent. I did very well. I had Art McCain, David Bailey, Brian Guthrie, David Montgomery. I was a lucky man. I met the Beatles at Vogue Studios. David Bailey was doing a book, David Bailey’s Box of Pinups [portraits of the royal court of Swinging London], and the Beatles were just coming in. David Bailey said, “I’ve got these boys from Liverpool. I cannot understand a word they’re saying.”

David Puttnam – From “All You Need Is Love: The Beatles in Their Own Words: Unpublished, Unvarnished, and Told by The Beatles and Their Inner Circle” by Peter Brown and Steven Gaines, 2024

In March 1970, as Paul McCartney was preparing to release his first solo album, “McCartney,” he sought the advice of David Puttnam to choose a suitable photograph for the album cover. The image Puttnam selected was ultimately used for the back cover.

For the “McCartney” cover artwork we had a big wad of photos that Linda had taken, and the only one that wasn’t of me with a guitar was a photo with Mary, our new baby, inside my jacket. I used to carry her that way to keep her warm. Eventually, we had so many photos that we couldn’t see the woods for the trees, so we sent a pile of them to a friend – David Putnam, now Lord Putnam. He has a very good eye for an image and he called back and said, ‘There’s only one cover in this lot – the one with the baby in the jacket’. Just to be difficult, though, we put that on the back cover and put a photo of cherries on the front.

Paul McCartney – From “Wingspan: Paul McCartney’s Band on the Run“, 2002

We didn’t know what to use. Linda had taken a lot of pictures of me, sort of holding the guitar, doing a pose, against the wall and stuff, we had about 30 or 40 pictures, and we couldn’t decide. And one of them was the one with me with my baby [Mary] in the jacket. And we sent them round to David Puttnam, who was a mate in advertising, now Lord Puttnam. I knew him because he’d always got mistaken for ‘Paul’ when he went to America, he was a Paul lookalike. So Linda and I went out to dinner with him and his wife and left him with some images and said, “Just see if any of these are good for the cover”. And he got back the next day and said, “There’s only one”. Well, which one? “That one, you and the baby, in the jacket, that’s incredible”. So we went, Oh yeah! I like that, sometimes you need someone to show you.

Paul McCartney – From “McCartney – Archive Collection“, 2011

I felt used, not by Paul but by Linda. She could be very dismissive. She got hooked into the photography thing, and asked me to do some favors, and I did them as best as I could. She is a very demanding girl. In the end, I thought, Hang on a second. One day I got a phone call at home, and my wife said, “It’s Paul on the phone, but Linda wants to speak to you.” They also used to do this extraordinary thing. One would cover for the other. Most peculiar. They even still do it. We’d reached that point where every single phone call was, “Do you have? Can you do?” and it would always start off very sweet, and then a week later, if you hadn’t done it, she could become quite demanding. “Where should I get my color processed?” “Am I getting ripped off with syndication?” She was in fact a very aggressive young lady, who was using Paul’s contacts and who he was. I really felt used. It started out as a favor, and then it became an obligation. The relationship I had with them altered. Up to that point, I felt a 50/50 relationship with Paul, where I really enjoyed him asking me anything. It was nice. I never felt pressured by or put on by him, ever.

David Puttnam – From “All You Need Is Love: The Beatles in Their Own Words: Unpublished, Unvarnished, and Told by The Beatles and Their Inner Circle” by Peter Brown and Steven Gaines, 2024