June 18

Paul McCartney is born in Liverpool, England, 1942. He and his fellow Beatles first hit movie screens in 1964 in the Richard Lester-directed romp A Hard Day’s Night, depicting a day in the life of the Liverpool band. Screenwriter Alun Owen spent several days with the boys, created a script heavily influenced by their daily habits and turns of phrase and crafted four distinct personas for each―Paul as the cute one, John the cheeky one, George quiet and Ringo clueless. Featuring such hits as “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “I Should Have Known Better,” “She Loves You” and the title tune, the movie began filming on March 2, 1964, just a few hours after the group joined Equity, the actors’ union. Said a delightfully surprised New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther, “[I]t's a fine conglomeration of madcap clowning in the old Marx Brothers' style, and it is done with such a dazzling use of camera that it tickles the intellect and electrifies the nerves…It comes in fast-flowing spurts of sight gags and throw-away dialogue that is flipped about recklessly. Alun Owen, who wrote the screenplay, may have dug it all out of his brain, but Richard Lester has directed at such a brisk clip that it seems to come spontaneously.”