We have a gay man to thank for the Beatles, and he’s finally getting the celebration he deserves

_{Photo courtesy of Martin Lewis}

In many senses, the Beatles were destined for sudden, meteoric success. They showed up at a moment when American pop was desperate for something new, something strange, and maybe even something slightly queer.

But make no mistake: when it comes to the Beatles’ early branding, it was a gay man who was responsible for the outfit’s sexy streamlined look and vibe. Brian Epstein only managed the band from 1961 until his early death by accidental overdose in 1967, but during those years he transformed four unknown Scouse boys into the global legends they would become, and he did it with a characteristically gay sensibility. Martin Lewis, one of Epstein’s foremost champions, fought for sixteen years (with eventual success) to get the influential RADA dropout and Beatles manager inducted into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame for just this reason.

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“He was 27, and he’d never managed anybody,” explains Lewis, the Beatles scholar, writer and producer who’s dedicated years of his life to telling Epstein’s story. “He instinctively had this innate skill. And he said—he wasn’t a loud braggart type, but he said after the first three or four months, they’re going to be bigger than Elvis Presley.”

At the time, it was unheard of. A group of four Englishmen in tight pants taking over the world?

“Nobody British had really succeeded in America in pop music, a couple of one-hit wonders but not a career,” Lewis says. “So the chances of them becoming successful even in Britain were extremely remote, but [Epstein] said it with quiet certainty. What he was reacting to was partly the music, but also their charm and spirit.”

Lewis, who’s hosting an event this Friday to honor Epstein, wants Beatles fans to know there’s so much more to Epstein than his tragic death. In 1967, the same year Epstein died, homosexuality was finally decriminalized in England. Sort of.

“The [anti-gay] law under which Brian was convicted still hasn’t been overturned,” Lewis notes, referring to Epstein’s 1957 arrest for soliciting sex from a man who turned out to be an undercover policeman. While the Sexual Offenses act of 1967, along with the bombshell Wolfenden Report of the same year, made some gay sex legal among consenting adults over 21, as long as it took place in private. But there were still plenty of aggressive anti-gay laws that lingered for years afterward.

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Unlike some gay icons, like the codebreaker and mathematician Alan Turing, Epstein hasn’t received an official posthumous pardon. Epstein wasn’t able to live an out gay life during his time, but he lent his queer sensibility to the Beatles and made his mark through them. He made crucial early fashion choices for the group, introduced them to edgy queer artists like Joe Orton (with whom they were supposed to make the movie Up Against It before Orton’s own untimely death) and Beyond The Fringe’s Alan Bennett. Epstein infused the early Beatles performances with the kind of sex appeal that made their rise to the top inevitable, and solidified their pull with female fans as well as queer men.

Epstein didn’t leave much of his legacy behind–he died too young. He published one book, his 1964 autobiography A Cellarful of Noise, and we can see firsthand proof of the floundering the Beatles in his absence in Peter Jackson’s “Get Back” documentary. They found their way eventually, but it was Epstein that got them their start. Lewis feels that he deserves to be known and celebrated as a cornerstone of Beatles history, and rock n roll history. “If Epstein hadn’t done the action of getting US news crews to get the Beatles on the news, on [Walter] Cronkite, the Beatles would have happened but not at the same speed, there wouldn’t have been those 73 million people [watching them on Ed Sullivan.] There wouldn’t have been the same craziness.” That’s why he’s making it his mission to tell Brian’s full story at the Philosophical Research Society. Unlike many managers of the time who sneakily siphoned profits from huge stars and tried to sell their clients as something they weren’t, Epstein’s passion was for protecting the Beatles as artists. He made sure they were able to explore their creativity and didn’t feel hemmed in by the constraints of mainstream success.

Before he died, Epstein’s former assistant and co-author, Beatles publicist Derek Taylor, told Lewis (who he had mentored in the early 1970s) “somebody’s got to bang the drum for Brian.” That’s just what he’s doing.

“The Greatest Beatles Story NEVER Told!” – a new Beatles gospel according to Martin Lewis, will take place at the Philosophical Research Society on, Friday August 23rd, at 7:30pm.