Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This black-and-white newsreel clip shows the phenomenon of ‘Beatlemania’ that emerged with the English pop group the Beatles’ visit to Australia and New Zealand in 1964. The Beatles are seen greeting the crowd from Melbourne Town Hall, arriving in New Zealand and in a car cavalcade. Shots of Beatle record covers, memorabilia and magazine posters reinforce the popularity of the group. A narration, sounds of screaming fans and Beatles’ music accompany the footage. Fans of the classical pianist Arthur Rubinstein are also shown.

Educational value points

• The Beatles’ 1964 tour of Australia and New Zealand depicted in this clip generated a level of mass excitement that has rarely been seen in either country. A sense of the feverish excitement generated by the thousands of screaming fans who greeted the group is captured in the images and sounds. In cities streets were jammed and mounted police were required for crowds estimated to be as large as 350,000.

• The Beatles’ Australian tour occurred through a deal between Australian entrepreneur Ken Brodziak (1913–99) and Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein (1934–67) that had been secured in July 1963 just before the Beatles achieved international fame. The contract price for the 16-day tour was a modest ₤1,500. Epstein honoured his verbal agreement with Brodziak even though American promoters offered him up to 50 times that amount for a US tour.

• The Beatles had gradually built up a following in Australia during 1963 and by the time they landed they had scored twelve hits in the country; during one week in early 1964 they held the first six places in the top ten. The Beatles performed in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane during this, their only tour of Australia. Their concerts consisted of an 11-song half-hour set, most of which was drowned out by the screaming of fans.

• Still in their early twenties, the British group was on the crest of a new wave of popular music and youth culture that spread throughout the western world. This clip shows the Beatles during a year in which their international fame had skyrocketed, beginning with their record ‘Please, Please Me’ reaching number two in Britain in January. Their next single, 'From Me To You’, reached number 1 in April. By 31 March they held the top five American Billboard hits.

• Manager Brian Epstein developed the merchandising of the Beatles, mentioned in the clip, with unusual sophistication for the time. Epstein controlled every aspect of the business affairs of the group; he granted merchandising licences and in the 1963–64 period an avalanche of Beatles products appeared. These included dolls, scarves, mugs, wigs, badges, bathwater, empty cans of ‘Beatle breath’ and small squares of bed linen on which the band had slept.

• The renowned American concert pianist Arthur Rubinstein (1887–1982) found himself the focus of competing views of culture when caught up in ‘Beatlemania’ in Sydney while on a recital tour of Australia, staying in a hotel across the street from the Beatles’ hotel. About 300 university student fans of Rubinstein positioned themselves directly opposite Beatles fans and traded insults with them. Rubinstein was reported to be delighted at the attention he received.