George Harrison's Mom Was a Bit Irked by His Fans

In letter up for auction, Louise Harrison says she was 'disgusted' by screaming girls, 'ashamed' to be female
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 14, 2023 10:00 AM CDT
George Harrison's Mom: Screaming Beatles Fans 'Disgusted' Her
In this Feb. 7, 1964, file photo, screaming teenagers, mostly girls, wave a banner reading "Beatles 4ever" to welcome the British band outside the Plaza Hotel in New York.   (AP Photo, File)

If there was one Beatles song that the late George Harrison's mom could've picked to describe how she felt about some fans of her son's band, "Get Back" may have been a top contender. At least that's the impression one gets from a letter penned by Louise Harrison, set to go on sale later this month at the Liverpool Beatles Memorabilia Auction. The elder Harrison's note, postmarked November 23, 1963, was one of more than two dozen she wrote to teen Janet Gray as she regularly helped the Beatles answer fan mail from around the world, per the BBC.

In this particular letter, however, Mrs. Harrison had a particular beef with the young groupies who went wild over the Beatles. "Last Wednesday I went to Manchester, and I was really disgusted at the way the so called fans just screamed right thro' the whole of the Beatles act," she wrote to Gray. "Nobody with any sense would pay [and] queue for a ticket, just to stand on a seat and scream, and not hear one sound from the stage." She then added: "I was really ashamed I was a female."

Other letters penned by Louise Harrison to Gray between 1963 and 1966, which the Guardian calls "touchingly intimate and encouraging," will also head to the auction block, including some offering motherly advice to Gray, and others addressing her own motherly concern toward her son, whom she saw in Surrey in 1964 after a car crash he survived. "George was there five days before I came home. He is very thin but OK," she wrote. The letter griping about Beatles fans is expected to draw between $125 and $190 when the auction takes place on Aug. 26. Check out all the other Beatles memorabilia up for grabs here. (More George Harrison stories.)

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