arts & entertainment
A Fly On The Wall
Photographer documented the Beatles.
I
Curt Schleier
Special to the Jewish News
I
n February 1964, when he was just 27
years old and starting out in the busi-
ness, Henry Grossman received an
assignment from Time magazine to shoot
the Beatles' first appearance on the Ed
Sullivan Show
It wasn't a big deal
to him. He wasn't even
sure who they were.
"I only knew that
they were famous:'
he said in a recent
telephone interview.
"I wasn't listening to
Henry Grossman:
their music at all. I'm
"I liked them a
a classical music lover. lot," he says of
I've sung opera. Opera the Beatles.
and Broadway were
© 2012 Henry
my forte:"
Grossman
But he went to do
the shoot, became
close to the Fab Four (he was a regular
guest in their homes) and snapped roughly
7,000 pictures of them, both individually
and as a group, between 1964 and 1968.
More than 1,000 of those photos —
many never seen before — have recently
been published in Places I Remember: My
Time with the Beatles (Curvebender), a
tome closer in size to a coffee table than
a coffee-table book. Weighing more than
13 pounds, it has 528 pages and has been
published in a numbered (1,200 copies)
edition, with a cost of $495 (the first 250
copies, signed by Grossman and at a cost
of $795, are sold out). To order, go to
www.curvebender.com .
This is actually Grossman's second
Beatles book. Five years ago, Curvebender
published Kaleidoscope Eyes, another lim-
ited edition, about the evening the Beatles
spent recording "Lucy in the Sky with
Diamonds:'
After the Sullivan show, Grossman
Jews
received additional assignments that put
him in close contact with the group, first in
the Bahamas and then in Austria, where the
Beatles were filming their second film, Help.
"When we got back to London [from
Austria], George asked me if I could take
pictures of him and [his then-wife], Pattie
[Boyd]. Then later, George said, 'Let's go
visit John,"' Grossman
recalled.
"I wasn't seizing
the moment to pose
RI moil'
o
them in funny ways.
I was just around,
a fly on the wall. I
was there for a lot of
[significant] events.
A limited edition
I was with them the
of 1,200 copies,
day [their manager],
with a foreword
Brian Epstein, died:"
by Sir Paul
(Epstein was Jewish,
McCartney
but Grossman's
© 2012 Henry
Judaism was never a
Grossman
subject that came up
with the Beatles.)
Grossman was closest to George. "Every
time I was in London, I'd call their office
to get George's latest phone number. They
had to change their numbers almost every
day. I'd call and say I [was] at the hotel,
and he'd say, 'Come over."'
In fact, Grossman's relationship with
Harrison may have helped make master sitar
player Ravi Shankar an international star.
"I was over at George's house once, and
there was this musical instrument on the
wall. I asked him what it was, and he took
it down. He told me it was a sitar, and he
couldn't get anyone in London to teach
him how to play it. I said, 'George, you
can probably afford to bring the best sitar
player in the world to London:
"The next time I was there, he greeted
me at the door barefoot, and said, 'You
got me started with Ravi Shankar: And
that's how he became interested in Indian
culture:'
Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News
No. 42
Opening in theaters on Friday, April 12,
is 42. The title references the player
number of the great Jackie Robinson
(1919-1972), the first African-American
to play Major League ball.
The film follows the college-
educated Robinson
(Chadwick Boseman)
as he is selected by
Brooklyn Dodgers
GM Branch Rickey
(Harrison Ford, 70)
to break the "gentle-
man's agreement"
Ford
46
April 11 • 2013
JN
that kept owners from signing black
players.
Depicted in the film is one teammate
who wouldn't play with Robinson, Dixie
Walker, and players on other teams
who directed racial slurs at Robinson
or even tried to injure him, including
Phillies player/manger Ben Chapman
and St. Louis catcher Joe Garagiola,
now 87. Garagiola later reinvented
himself as a genial sportscaster.
Robinson's allies included Dodgers
shortstop Pee Wee Reese, a
Southerner; Dodgers pitcher Ralph
Branca, now 87; and Hall-of-Fame first
baseman Hank Greenberg (1911-86).
Branca, a devout Catholic who was
the Dodgers' pitching ace during the
The Beatles with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, in Wales, 1967. Most of the songs on
1968's The Beatles (The White Album) were written during a spiritual retreat with
the maharishi in India. © 2012 Henry Grossman
Grossman isn't sure how or why he got
so close to the group. "It was probably a
matter of personality:' he said. "I liked
them a lot. I was having fun with them:'
In any event, his relationship with the
Beatles wasn't unique.
Grossman has a talent for getting along
with his subjects. As a four-year theater
scholarship student at Brandeis University,
he had the opportunity to photograph
guest speakers like Eleanor Roosevelt,
Marc Chagall, David Ben-Gurion and John
F. Kennedy. This portfolio led to a career
shooting photographs of many luminaries
in politics and the arts.
He and a reporter helped Elizabeth
Taylor and Richard Burton escape a media
scrum outside their Toronto Hotel and
get to Montreal for their second wedding,
which Grossman photographed.
Grossman spent two weeks in California
taking pictures of Carol Burnett.
As I was leaving, she said, 'When you
come back to Los Angeles call me. I did
come back but didn't call her. I saw her
some time later in New York and went
over and said, 'I don't know if you remem-
ber me: She said, 'Of course, I do. You
came back to LA and didn't call me:'
Grossman is the son of artist Elias
Grossman, who created etchings of
Gandhi, Einstein and others.
"I grew up in New York, and my Jewish
upbringing was going to shul with my
father:' said Grossman, who was a bar
mitzvah in Philadelphia, where his uncle
was a rabbi. He is now "Jewish by culture
he said. "I know who I am. I know who my
landsmen are:'
1947 season, found out in 2011 that his
late mother was Jewish. He told the
reporter who discovered this fact that
maybe her Jewish background led his
mother to teach him to be tolerant of
people of any background. Branca wel-
comed Robinson on his first day with a
hearty handshake.
Unlike the other players, Greenberg
is not depicted in 42. However, the
details of his friendship with Robinson
are found in many sources.
In 1947, Greenberg was the Pirates'
first baseman (all his prior years
were with the Tigers). During a May
1947 game, Greenberg told Robinson,
"Stick in there. You're doing fine.
Keep your chin up."
Asked if his Jewish upbringing influ-
enced his work, he chuckled.
"I'm laughing because there is one very
obvious incident.
"I was in a taxi with Vice President
[Spiro] Agnew after he resigned as vice
president. I was with a reporter, and we
were going from a TV studio to the vice
president's suite at the Waldorf-Astoria. He
asked me if I play golf, and I said, 'No, Mr.
Vice President: He said, 'Next time you
come to Washington, we'll play:
"When we got to his suite where I was
going to take his portrait, I'm looking for
my Rembrandt lighting, which is good for
portraits, when the reporter asked him if
he really believed in a Zionist conspiracy.
"When he said, 'Yes, I do believe that: I
quietly put away the Rembrandts and put
down low lighting and shot the rest of the
portraits with what I call 'evil lights:" ❑
See the Fab Faux – a Beatles cover
band that includes New York studio
musicians Will Lee (bassist in David
Letterman's band), Jimmy Vivino
(guitarist and music director of
Conan O'Brien's band), drummer/
producer Rich Pagano, guitarist
Frank Agnello and keyboardist Jack
Petruzelli – perform the Beatles
self-titled masterpiece, also known
as The White Album, in its entirety
(a 30-song concert with guest
musicians) at 8 p.m. Saturday, April
13, at the Michigan Theater in Ann
Arbor. $39.50-$65. (800) 745-3000;
ticketmaster.com .
A couple of days later, Robinson
told reporters that Greenberg was his
"diamond hero. Class tells. It sticks
out all over Mr. Greenberg."
Shining Fascination
The Shining, the famous 1980 hor-
ror film directed by the late Stanley
Kubrick, has divided critics over the
years.
However, as explored in the docu-
mentary Room 237, opening April 12
at the Birmingham 8, it has spawned
a subculture of fans and scholars
who seek secret messages in the
film, including messages about the
Holocaust, with which Kubrick was
almost obsessed.
❑