The Beatles (George Harrison; Paul McCartney; Ringo Starr; John Lennon)

1 portrait of John Lennon

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© Norman Parkinson Archive/ Iconic Images

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The Beatles (George Harrison; Paul McCartney; Ringo Starr; John Lennon)

by Norman Parkinson
bromide print, 12 September 1963
15 3/8 in. x 23 1/4 in. (392 mm x 591 mm) image size
Photographs Collection
NPG x128893

Sittersback to top

Artistback to top

  • Norman Parkinson (1913-1990), Photographer. Artist or producer of 244 portraits, Sitter in 14 portraits.

This portraitback to top

The most famous Britons of the 1960s, the Beatles sold 150 million albums during the decade; 'Beatlemania' erupted in the year Parkinson's photograph was taken and for the next seven years the group needed police protection wherever they appeared. Taken in a hotel in Russell Square on an early visit to London.

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Edited by Rab MacGibbon and Tanya Bentley, Icons and Identities, 2021, p. 36
  • Rogers, Malcolm, Camera Portraits, 1989 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 20 October 1989 - 21 January 1990), p. 283

Placesback to top

Events of 1963back to top

Current affairs

The Secretary of State for War, John Profumo is found to have lied to the House of Commons when he denied having an affair with the showgirl, Christine Keeler. The Profumo Affair was a public scandal for the Conservative party, and ultimately contributed to the resignation of Harold Macmillan.

Art and science

Doctor Who is first broadcast on the BBC with William Hartnell playing the Doctor. This long running science fiction series about an alien Time Lord who travels through time and space in his police-box-shaped Tardis has been watched by generations of viewers (often from behind the back of the sofa), and features imaginative, but traditionally low-budget, special effects, innovative electronic music, and the Doctor's greatest enemy, the Daleks.

International

John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Texas. The arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald for his murder did not prevent a score of conspiracy theories involving Cuba, the CIA, the KGB, and the Mafia among others.
Martin Luther King delivers his 'I have a dream' speech, marking an important moment in the civil rights movement in America and helping to secure him the Nobel Peace Prize' in 1964.

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