Louise Harrison, the mother of The Beatles guitarist George Harrison, revealed that she was “really ashamed to be female” after witnessing the hoards of screaming fans at one of her son’s concerts.
During The Beatles’ meteoric rise to fame in the early 1960s, the Harrison household was bombarded by a mountain of fan mail. In efforts to aid her son, Louise took it upon herself to reply to some of the letters, most of which were from young females.
After receiving a series of letters from one fan, Janet Gray, Louise replied, expressing her distaste for the uproarious reception The Beatles encountered during a recent performance in Manchester.
“Last Wednesday I went to Manchester, and I was really disgusted at the way the so-called fans just screamed right through the whole of the Beatles act,” Mrs Harrison wrote in her reply letter in 1963.
“Nobody with any sense would pay and queue for a ticket just to stand on a seat and scream and not hear one sound from the stage. I was really ashamed I was a female.”
She later addressed Gray’s issues at home: “I do hope my writing to you is not the cause of any trouble at home. For if so, I will definitely not write any more,” she said. “Now Janet I hope you will try and remember that your mum is your best friend, even if you don’t see eye to eye on some issues. Thank God I get on fine with all my 4 children, and they with each other.
“Anyhow I shall pray that everything will be just fine for you in the very near future. Lots of love, Louise Harrison”.
“PS I have about 90 letters not opened yet and hundreds opened awaiting replys [sic].”
In a later letter, marked July 1964, Louise mentions a small road accident in which her son crashed his E-Type Jaguar in Fulham, London. “George was home for two days, or rather nights – out all day rehearsing at Blackpool. George was not hurt, thank God, in a crash,” she wrote.
Several weeks later, in September, Louise noted that she had “3,000 letters to answer at least,” describing George Harrison as “very thin but okay”.
Almost two years later, in August 1966, Louise replied to Gray once again: “Dear Janet, I have just been away on holiday touring around France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany and now I am back to about 500 letters and so I am afraid this will have to be rather short”.
Adding: “I am hoping the boys will have a successful tour of America despite all the rumours we have heard.”
The correspondence between Luise Harrison and Janet Gray will be put up for sale as part of a Liverpool Beatles Memorabilia Auction on Saturday, August 26th.
