a candid conversation

In the 1960s, when Playboy had been in business for 10 years, the Playboy Interview became a big deal.

     The interviews were in-depth, free-ranging, and "finely edited."  Hugh Hefner and his fellow organizers at Playboy tried to offer the best interviews to the reading public.


[excerpt]___________________________________

Playboy Interview with The Beatles:

A candid conversation with England's mop-topped millionaire minstrels

Interviewed by Jean Shepherd
February 1965 issue
Article ©1965 Playboy Press

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PLAYBOY:  "OK, we're on.  Why don't we begin by..."

JOHN:  "Doing Hamlet."

(laughter)

RINGO:  "Yeah, yeah, let's do that."

PLAYBOY:  "That sounds fun, but just for laughs, why don't we do an interview instead?"

GEORGE:  "Say, that's a fine idea.  I wish I'd thought of that."

PAUL:  "What shall we ask you for a first question?"

RINGO:  "About those Bunny girls..."

PLAYBOY:  "No comment.  Let's start over.  Ringo, you're the last Beatle to join the group, aren't you?"

RINGO:  "Yes."
JOHN:  "A few years probably ... sort of off and on, really ... for three years or so."
PAUL:  "Yeah, but really amateur."

GEORGE:  "The local pub, you know.  And in each other's uncle's houses."

JOHN:  "And at George's brother's wedding.  Things like that.  Ringo used to fill in sometimes if our drummer was ill.  With his periodic illness."
RINGO:  "He took little pills to make him ill."
PLAYBOY:  "When you joined the others, Ringo, they weren't quite as big as they are now, were they?"

RINGO:  "They were the biggest thing in Liverpool.  In them days that was big enough."

PAUL:  "This is a point we've made before.  Some people say a man is made of muscle and blood... No they don't... they say, 'How come you've suddenly been able to adjust to fame,' you know, to nationwide fame and things.  It all started quite nicely with us, you see, in our own sphere where we used to play, in Liverpool.  

We never used to play outside it, except when we went to Hamburg.  Just those two circles.  

And in each of them, I think we were 'round the highest paid, and probably at the time the most popular.  So in actual fact we had the same feeling of being famous then as we do now."


GEORGE:  "We were recognized then, too, only people didn't chase us about."...

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