Home movie. Autopromo 12frames from 12frames on Vimeo.
This odd and interesting document was filmed by McCartney himself in November of 1966, during a stop The Beatles, along with their road-manager Mal Evans, made in the city on their way to meet John Lennon in Almería, who was then working in the film How I won the war by Richard Lester. Unfortunately they had already finished shooting the film and John had gone back to London. Thereby, Evans and McCartney went to Sevilla, where they would later, the 12th of November, take a plane to Madrid.
The video is two times as interesting since in it we catch a young almost unrecognizable Paul McCartney, and also because the images of the city were recored by McCartney himself, as he was very fond of cinema –an interest that would later reveal itself properly in the famous “Magical Mistery Tour”.
But there’s more! The year 1966 also symbolizes the encounter between the band and the city of Córdoba. Just this past year the media echoed the news. Manuel Benítez “El Cordobés” (the Córdoba man) revealed that that very same year of 1966 during the very same month of November he had met with two members of the band and Brian Epstein, their manager. It looks like those two members were George Harrison and Ringo Star. They offered the bullfighter to be in a film. However, the project never took place as they didn’t reach an agreement. In the very own words of the Córdoba man this happened: I was offered 30 millions (pesetas) for the 50% of my part. The bullfighter asked the reason behind it and the Beatles replied that they were four plus their manager. “Well, we are eight: the sword lad, two picadores (horsemen that jab the bull with a lance), two banderilleros (bullfighters in charge of placing a sort of colorful sticks), the manager, the chauffeur the sword lad’s helper and me”, told us the Córdoba bullfighter laughing.
What happened in 1966 for all the members of the band to end up in Andalucía? This, my friends, is a matter for a Beatles expert, not me. But, perhaps, Lennon’s time off the band forced them somehow to stop too and use that sabbatical time to travel and other personal ventures… and in the end it all drew them towards the leader of the band John Lennon.