Source Dilemmas
A hypothetical (?) situation. You’re doing research and you find that someone said something so unbelievable and out of step with all other research that it is almost comical. Do you then decide that you will never trust anything that source says ever again? Or do you think they may still have some valid things to say? Let me know what you think…
Philip Norman’s Shout!, contains the following: “On a side table in [Joe] Flannery’s living room stood a hand-colored photograph of his mother, taken in the 1920s, her bobbed hair forming a glossy helmet with bangs above her eyes. Flannery remembers how fascinated John used to be by the photograph, and remains convinced that his mother, not Astrid or Jürgen Vollmer, was the genesis of the Beatle cut.”1 I want to be completely clear. I know how Philip Norman is regarded these days, but in this case, he is merely the messenger. It is Joe Flannery with whom I have an issue, or at least questions…
The Swimming or Steam Bath Story
It is my impression that over the years many people have given Astrid Kirchherr a lot of credit for the haircut. But that’s not how the story started. Between 1964 and 1968 there were several books and magazines that told a haircut origin story that came from George. Here’s the way it was told in Michael Braun’s Love Me Do: The Beatles’ Progress: “Well, we were coming out of a swimming-baths in Liverpool and we liked the way it looked.”2
Looking at all of the sources that repeat this basic story, there are some minor differences. Some say it was a swimming pool, others say it was a steam bath. Some say it was in Hamburg, not Liverpool. Some say it was all of The Beatles, others say it was just George. In Rick Friedman’s 1968 The Beatles: Words Without Music, the George story is repeated, but it also includes quotes from two other Beatles. Paul said that they got the inspiration from a German photographer (more about that coming), and John, typically, says: “We’ve told so many lies about it we’ve forgotten.”3
Astrid and Jürgen
So all of this giving credit to Astrid… The first time that I’ve found Astrid even mentioned is in Peter McCabe and Robert D. Schonfeld’s Apple to the Core. Astrid herself is quoted as saying, “All that shit people said, that I created their hairstyle, that’s rubbish.”4 I don’t doubt that she had heard people give her credit, but I have found no source before that time that mentioned her in that regard. I guess it was an attempt to be pre-emptive. It didn’t work. In the decade following the release of that book, there are at least a dozen references I have found that give her credit for inventing The Beatles’ hairstyle. These include books by both Cynthia Lennon and Bill Harry. The only additional detail commonly put forward is that Astrid convinced Stu to change his hairstyle, and the others followed over time.
The first mention of what seems to be an accepted version of the story involving German photographer, Jürgen Vollmer, appeared in Hunter Davies’ authorized biography, The Beatles, in 1968. “In Paris they met Jürgen Vollmer, one of their Hamburg friends. It was during this Paris visit, which was mainly hanging around clubs till their money ran out, that John finally brushed his hair forward.”5 To this day, even when other details are included, the basic idea that John and Paul got their hair cut by Jürgen in Paris in October of 1961 remains.
But We Must Say Something Negative, Mustn’t We
An annoying tendency in many, many books when talking about this subject began with, as best as I can tell, Geoffrey Stokes in his The Beatles. He wrote, “The new look was the first of many that would mark The Beatles’ progress from local phenomenon to worldwide stars. Only Pete Best resisted it.”6 I can’t tell you (I’m not finished looking!) how many books I’ve found that basically have the same little jab. The story is told, and then, oh, by the way, Pete wouldn’t do it. Well, just to throw this out there, Astrid was once quoted as saying that Pete’s hair was too curly to make the adjustment, so he couldn’t do it. Pete himself said, “no one suggested that I fall in line.”7
My Version! Ha!
So here’s what I think happened (yes, I am just making this up…): The German friends of The Beatles in Hamburg, Jürgen and Klaus Voormann, already had brushed forward hairstyles. Astrid told Stu that he should try it, so he did. George went swimming one day and his hair dried before he was able to style it. He liked it that way. Then they all came home to Liverpool. John and Paul went to Paris in October 1961 and met up with Jürgen. Their hairstyles weren’t going over well in France, so they asked their friend to cut their hair. So now four of the five Beatles had the haircut. In other words, there is truth in almost every version. Is this exactly how it happened? Why not? By the way, I have not yet found any source to back up Joe Flannery’s story about his mother’s photo. I’ll let you know if I find something! Ha!
As always, thanks for being here and reading. I really do appreciate it. Please leave comments to let me know what you think and to add any relevant information to the discussion. Please follow or subscribe to
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Next week the subject will be a book by Jem Roberts called Fab Fools! Looking forward to that.
- Adamson
Photo: Feb 1964, Public Domain. https://picryl.com/media/the-beatles-performing-at-the-ed-sullivan-show-cropped-b56230
Quotes:
1) Shout!, by Philip Norman (Fireside, New York, 2005 ed.), p. 156.
2) Love Me Do: The Beatles’ Progress, by Michael Braun (Graymalkin, 2016 ed.), p. 86.
3) The Beatles: Words Without Music, by Rick Friedman (Workman, New York, 1968), pages unnumbered
4) Apple to the Core, by Peter McCabe and Robert Schonfeld (Pocket, New York, 1972), p. 14.
5) The Beatles, by Hunter Davies (W.W. Norton, New York, 2009 ed.), p. 107.
6) The Beatles, by Geoffrey Stokes (Times Books, New York, 1980), p. 35.
7) Beatle! The Pete Best Story, by Pete Best & Patrick Doncaster (Plexus, London, 2001 ed.), p. 123.
Jürgen had the cut since mid / late 50s. Klaus followed and was cut by Astrid in this style to cover his ears. This was around 1960 when Klaus and Astrid were together. Astrid later did so with Stuart around April 1961. In October 1961 Jürgen cut Paul and John in Paris and George got his cut in Liverpool after Paul and John came back from Paris despite wrong claims by Astrid she cut his hair. End of the story. Everything is prooven by quotes from them all.
I think you probably have something close to the truth. Stu was in Germany with Klaus, Jurgen etc. He was hanging around with artsy people and probably decided to go for the artsy look himself or maybe encouraged by Astrid or a little of both (didn't she have a similar hairdo as well?). I'm not sure how you go from greased DA to a Beatle cut easily (just because of the way the hair falls) so George and the baths thing still baffles me, but going to Paris and asking Jurgen to or being urged by Jurgen to let him cut their hair (J&P) makes sense because they wanted to be hip and happening esp to girls. Maybe George wanted to look like Stu (he seemed to have a man crush on him). Maybe he was tired of the "fookin' turban". It's one of those things we'd need a TARDIS for to go back and investigate. Even the "official stories" aren't necessarily true.