September 05, 2013

Freda Kelly Recalls Her Days of Working With the Beatles - "Good Ol' Freda"


                                                                       

                                                                             



Good Ol' Freda - Official Trailer


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There are places Freda Kelly will remember all her life — sights she saw and experiences she gained as the secretary to the Beatles, their fan club and their manager, as well as a friend and trusted confidante of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr for nearly the entire duration of their history-shaping rock group. 


“We were all teenagers together,” said Ms. Kelly, a Liverpool native who saw the Beatles play many early gigs there at the Cavern Club before she was hired by the band’s manager, Brian Epstein. “A bit wild, but we eventually settled down.” 


Though sharing her firsthand observations about the Beatles and their astonishing ascent does not come easily for her, Ms. Kelly tells her story in “Good Ol’ Freda,” a documentary directed by Ryan White, which will receive a theatrical and on-demand release on Friday. 


“I suppose it had to be done,” Ms. Kelly said in a recent phone interview. “I did want to do it eventually, for my grandson.” 


Here, Ms. Kelly, now in her late 60s, delves deeper into her personal collection of Beatles memorabilia, and talks about a few favorite items that further illuminate the tale of a young woman and the four superstars she knew simply as “the boys.” 

Courtesy of Freda Kelly

A Magical Mystery Dress

“Paul had this idea that ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ [the television film] would take two weeks to make. Being a girl, I decided to pack two weeks’ clothes: an outfit for every day, and I wore my worst outfit on the first day, just for travel. The next day I came down in a Mary Quant outfit. And one of the team said: ‘You didn’t have that frock on yesterday.

 This is supposed to be a day trip. Can you go back and put that frock on?’ So I had to wear my worst frock in ‘Magical Mystery Tour.’ It was so mad, the first week, I’d just had enough. I thought, I can’t cope with this for two weeks. There were plans, but things got changed every night. You would think you were doing one thing, and then you’d get up the next morning, and they’d say, ‘Oh, no, we’re going to do this instead.’ Or you’d be hanging around a field all day long.” 

                                                                            

Courtesy of Freda Kelly
A Big Day In Her Life

“When you get married, it’s your day, isn’t it? And the press got wind that I was getting married. They thought: ‘Oh, the Beatles are going to come. Have you invited the Beatles?’ And to be polite, I said, ‘Oh, yes, yes, I’ve invited them.’ Inwardly, I was thinking, ‘Hopefully they won’t come.’ And lucky enough, they were in India at the time. But they all sent telegrams. 


“Then Paul got married [to Linda Eastman]. I had girls ringing me up, telling me they were going to kill themselves. It was horrendous. You just had to calm them down. They were just hysterical Beatle fans that you had to deal with.” 

Courtesy of Freda Kelly
A Little Gift For the Fans

This keychain “was going to be the last present” for fan-club members when the Beatles broke up. “But when I saw it, I thought they could have come up with something better. I said, ‘Well, why don’t we give them all the fan-club records [made occasionally for its members]?’ 


“Peter Brown, who was one of the heads of Apple Corps, said to me, ‘We haven’t got the original tapes of those records.’ So they asked me, would I send my records in the post to Apple? And I refused. They could get lost in the post, and I’d never see them again. I’m not that stupid.

“So I thought, I’ll come down to London and lend you them, and you can make a master tape, and I’ll pick them up personally.” 

Courtesy of Freda Kelly
A Christmas Present

“That was the first Christmas record, and it was only for people that were members of the Beatles’ fan club. They told me they’d mentioned me on the record. I was completely on edge, because I knew them, and I thought they’d probably say funny things and jokes. They might say something like, ‘Oh, God, we can’t stand Freda,’ and the fans might not get the joke. 


“But they say, ‘Good ol’ Freda,’ and I was so relieved it was a good message. It’s nice to be known that they mentioned me on a record. Even if it was a fan club record.”
Courtesy of Freda Kelly
‘Just Thrown My Way’

This envelope is “just one of many: with just their name on it, it would get to the fan club. On that envelope it’s got Liverpool crossed out, and England left, because they probably thought, well, George might be in London, or he might be here.

 They were just hoping against hope it would get to him. But it got to me. So it was answered.

“We have a paper in Liverpool called The Liverpool Echo, and there was a George Harrison who used to work there. So you never know. It could have ended up with him instead. The postman guessed right. If it had anything to do with the Beatles, it was just thrown my way.” 

Courtesy of Freda Kelly
‘Don’t Worry About It, Fre’

“Juke Box Jury” “was a live television program, shown in our biggest theater in Liverpool. They would play a record, and you [the jurors, including her] had to decide whether it was going to be a hit or a miss. I didn’t really want to be on the stage. To calm me down, John said: ‘Don’t worry about it, Fre. The theater’s going to be in darkness. You’ll only see the first row.’ 


“But I had to be pushed onstage because when my name came up, I froze. The whole theater was lit up, and I was as red as a tomato. I was looking at John, more or less with my eyes saying, ‘I’m going to get you for this.' ” 


With many thanks to The NY Times. All Picture credits Freda Kelly.


More on The Beatles in no particular order:


The Beatles : An Oral History of Their Concert In Washington DC



George Harrison - My Favourite Beatle - "My Sweet Lord" Live



New Beatles Band May Form With Sons



Lifetime Achievement Award for Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr At 2014 Grammys



George Harrison and Ringo Starr - It Don't come Easy



For sale: Beatles recording that led to the biggest mistake in music history



Ravi Shankar and George Harrison - Two Music Legends



Was John Lennon Really a Genius?



Ringo Starr: Solo Beatle's lonely art club brand



Becoming The Beatles



Sir Paul McCartney Gaining Back Rights To His Music in 2018, 2019?



John Lennon Reveals Torture of Beatles 'Let It Be' Album In Tape-recorded Interview Now Up For Auction



The Beatles Visit To Australia 1964 - Powerhouse Museum Exhibition



John Lennon's Childhood Home To Be Auctioned - Update: Sold for £480,000



Tom Pinch: Time - Lapse Portraits of Paul McCartney and John Lennon



Beatles’ Royal Variety Performance: Fifty Years ago!



John Lennon Set To Stir Up US Stamp Collectors



Unheard Lennons on Beatles Bootleg - Just Released



Freda Kelly Recalls Her Days of Working With the Beatles - "Good Ol' Freda"





George Harrison's Apple Years Box Set To Be Released 

The Art of McCartney Project


The Beatles: Good News For Fans This week

Paul McCartney: Destiny Game Song "Hope For The Future"

Beatles Lyrics Reveal Enduring Words Of Love And Life

The Traveling Wilburys: Their History

George Harrison and The Bee Gees To Receive Recording Academy Honors

John Lennon or Paul McCartney? Matt Schichter Documentary Offers 550 Answers

Are These The Best Double Albums Ever?

Sir Paul McCartney To Induct Ringo Starr Into Hall Of Fame

'American Pie' Lyrics Sell For $1.2 million In New York


 Penny Lane: Original On The Block, Minus The Fanfare

Lost Beatles US Concert Movie Blocked From Release


The Three Lennon-McCartney Hits That Went to No. 1 Without Lennon or McCartney 

 Beatles’ First Recording Contract to Be Auctioned For An Estimated $150,000

The Beatles 1 To Be Reissued With 50 Videos

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White diamond set to fetch record $39 million at Sotheby's auction - Updated: Sold!


                                                                     


I have several posts on diamonds and other jewellery on this blog. I enjoy keeping up with these things.


Like so many of the stories about diamonds I have posted I am pretty sure this will sell for more than this estimate of $39 million!

I was wrong! It sold for $32.5 million.

 A NEW York auction house is showing off what it calls the world's greatest white diamond on the block - a 118-carat stone from Africa the size of a small egg.
 
The oval diamond glistened in its glass case today at Sotheby's Manhattan headquarters, not yet mounted after it was mined and cut two years ago.

 It will be auctioned in Hong Kong on October 7 and has a pre-sale estimate of $US28 million ($31.1m) to $US35m ($38.85m).

 In terms of size, quality, polish and colour, "this is the greatest white diamond we've ever had the privilege to sell," said Quek Chin Yeow, deputy chairman of Sotheby's Asia and an international diamond expert.

 The stone was discovered in 2011 as a 299-carat rough diamond in a southern African country whose name Sotheby's declined to disclose.

 When asked why they could not give the exact source, auction house officials said the owner wished to remain anonymous and that was the agreement.

 The current record for any white diamond is $US26.7m. 

 That pear-shaped stone was over 101 carats. It was sold at Christie's in Geneva last year. Three other white diamonds over 100 carats were auctioned by Sotheby's: in 1990, 1993 and 1995.

 The white stone is part of a lineup of jewels up for auction that also includes a flawless, round, vivid blue diamond, worth an estimated $US19m at 7.6 carats. It's the largest, most significant such diamond graded by the Gemological Institute of America.

 The reason these stones were going on the block in Hong Kong, Quek said, was that it had become a centre for jewellery sales and it was there that the $US1.7m record price per carat for vivid blue diamonds was set - with the sale of a six-carat blue diamond for $US10.2m in 2011.

 Blue diamonds - more rare than white ones - are from the same colour family as the famed Hope Diamond, though a different hue.

 The Hope Diamond, which belongs to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, is not for sale.

 Story and picture:with many thanks to The Australian

                                                             


The Hope diamond, above, is considered one of the ‘cursed diamonds’.

 Picture credit: The Smithsonian Museum. 

 Other diamonds I have mentioned before are the The Taylor-Burton Diamond and other outstanding jewels once belonging to Dame Elizabet Taylor,the Beau Sancy, the Botswana Diamond, and the Archduke Joseph Diamond and the Argyle Siren.

And, of course, the Bahia Emerald!

                                                                 


October 8th.

A WHITE diamond the size of a small egg has sold for $32.5 million at a Hong Kong auction.

However a blue diamond that was the sale's other highlight, with a $20 million estimate, failed to sell.

Two phone bidders competed for the 118-carat white diamond from Africa in six minutes of measured bidding until one dropped out in the Sotheby's jewellery auction, part of fall sales of art and collectibles by the firm and its rivals.

The twice-yearly ritual in the southern Chinese city draws wealthy collectors from mainland China and other Asian countries and has made the city one of the world's busiest auction hubs.

The “flawless” white oval diamond, mined and cut two years ago, was hammered down for $29 million, just under the low end of the estimate range set by Sotheby's. Total price including commission came to $32.5 million.

That was more than the previous record of $28.3 million for a white diamond set in May at Christie's in Geneva.

The stone, which weighed 299 carats when it was found in the rough in 2011, is the largest and most significant such diamond graded by the Gemological Institute of America. Sotheby's says it was discovered in southern Africa but won't name the country because the seller wishes to remain anonymous.

The auction's other highlight, a 7.6-carat flawless, round, vivid blue diamond which had an estimate of $20 million, failed to reach its reserve price.

The two gems were among 330 lots of rare jewellery that fetched a total of $100.9 million, $16 million less than expected.

“Hong Kong has in the last few years pulled itself up alongside Geneva and New York as one of the three major selling centres at auction” for diamonds, said Quek Chin Yeow, deputy chairman of Sotheby's Asia and an international diamond expert.

But he added that the results should not be taken as an indicator of how wealthy Asians are being affected by economic trends such as China's slowdown. That's because such stratospheric prices can only be afforded by the super rich, who he said are mostly immune from such fluctuations.

The world record price for a jewel at auction was set in 2010, when London jeweler Laurence Graff paid $48.8 million for a “fancy intense pink” diamond weighing 24.8 carats.

That record could be blown away in November, when Sotheby's puts a pink 59.60-carat diamond on the block that's expected to fetch more than $63 million in Geneva.

With thanks to The Australian (pay wall)
                                                            

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 "Pink Star" Diamond sells for record $89m












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