autisticbrianepstein

[autisticbrianepstein]

It’s Paul

[autisticbrianepstein]

The other beatles hating maxwells silver hammer just makes me love it so much more sorry lads

[autisticbrianepstein]

i can tell when someone's admiration of yoko ono is performative and not a reflection of their true spirit

[autisticbrianepstein]

[autisticbrianepstein]

Every unhinged fic writer needs an equally unhinged friend who "yes ands" their ideas and encourages them to write all their most far fetched and insane stories.

[autisticbrianepstein]

I know Paul didn't die in 1966 because no one else on earth would have made Maxwell's silver hammer

[autisticbrianepstein]

Brian Epstein & Diz Gillespie's relationship

So I put together most of the quotes on Brian and John 'Diz' Gillespie's relationship from Peter Brown & Steven Gaines's book The Love You Make & Jim Irvin's MOJO article on Brian's death earlier to make it a bit easier for me to look at in full - I'll put it on here too if anyone wants to read.

(Some of the quotes from the MOJO article are in the BBC documentary The Brian Epstein Story. It's available on YouTube here but its also available on BBC iPlayer for the next three weeks in better quality)

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In spring 1965, Brian meets and quickly falls for 'Diz' Gillespie, a young Californian actor living in London, who soon moves into his Whaddon House flat. 

'Dizz was an aspiring actor-singer in his early twenties, with dark hair, mischievous eyes and an impish, upturned nose. Brian was so taken with him he seized upon Dizz’s phantom acting career to play Svengali. … Using the excuse that Dizz was a NEMS artist, Brian paid many of his debts and began to dole out a small allowance from his own pocket. Naturally, all of Brian’s friends warned him against being used by this boy. “He may be manipulative,” Brian said, “but he’s different than most. There’s something special about him, something that I can’t name.”'  - Peter Brown, The Love You Make: An Insider’s Story of The Beatles (1983) p.172

Despite Brian's infatuation, the relationship is evidently volatile and unhappy - 

'But Diz was bisexual and upset Brian by bringing women back to the flat and causing scenes in public, once in front of Brian's parents. Their doomed relationship lasted too long and clearly made him miserable.' - Jim Irvin, “The Death of Brian Epstein”, MOJO (November 2002)

- and this instability was further intensified by the pair spending many nights at Brian’s flat ‘ingesting large amounts of uppers, Tuinals, and Cognac’, which would often turn violent:

‘…these drugged, drunken nights ended in some sort of unhappy confrontation. They ran from simple arguments to all-out fistfights, which included breaking vases and mirrors. One night, unhappy with Brian’s largesse, Dizz worked himself into a rage. When Brian ordered him out of the house, Dizz raced to the kitchen, grabbed the largest knife he could find, and held it to Brian’s jugular vein while extracting an additional sum of money from Brian’s wallet.’ [Brown, p.72] 

As a result of the incident, Brian ends the relationship, yet according to Brown ‘[Brian] only pined away for the boy, lovesick over him.’

Yet it isn’t long until Gillespie appears again in August 1965, contacting Brian, who was in New York two days ahead of the Beatles’ Shea Stadium concert. Brian appeals to his New York business partner, Nat Weiss, to keep Diz away. 

In a meeting with Weiss, Gillespie pushes for a car in exchange for staying away from Brian. When told this information, Brian insists that Nat Weiss gives Diz $3,000 to buy a car. Weiss therefore strikes a deal with Diz - that he was to ‘be kept locked in a hotel room at the Warwick Hotel on Sixth Avenue - with a private guard hired by Nat - until the Beatles and Brian left town.’ [Brown, p.185] 

After this event, Gillespie disappears again, only to appear a year later in LA on August 28 1966, the day of the Beatles’ penultimate live performance. Brian, overjoyed, believes it to be a true show of Diz’s love for him, and the pair spend the day together at a house in Beverly Hills - despite Nat Weiss’ scepticism: 

‘At first Nat was incredulous, then angry. “Brian, you must not have anything to do with that boy–”  “Now, now,” Brian interrupted, “he came all this way to find me. He said he came because he loves me.”  Nat sighed but said nothing. As preposterous as it was that Dizz Gillespie had any real affection for Brian, Nat could see by the smitten look in Brian’s eyes that he believed it. ... Brian had been so skittish lately that one wrong word could send him off on a three-day snit.' [Brown, p.205]

Weiss’s caution was not unfounded - the following day, Diz had disappeared and taken briefcases belonging to Brian and Weiss. Weiss’s case had contained important business documents, whereas the contents of Brian’s case would have been even more damaging if made public: 

First, there was his large and questionable supply of pills, obviously the property of a junkie. Then there were half a dozen or so billets-doux containing explicit references to his conquests, along with Polaroid photographs of his young friends. Lastly, there was $20,000 in brown paper bag money skimmed from concert funds to be distributed as a bonus [Brown p.206] 

Nat Weiss soon received a blackmail note from Gillespie, demanding an additional $10,000 for the return of Brian’s personal photographs and letters. The suitcase was eventually recovered, however $8,000, the pills and Brian’s photos and letters were all missing - as was Gillespie, who had not been found by the police. 

Alongside the fear that the content of the suitcase may still at some point be made public, as well as the realisations that:

‘...he'd been duped by someone he trusted – coinciding with the last performance by his boys – seemed to tip Brian into despair. "That accounts for his first major depression," says Weiss. "That was the beginning of Brian's loss of self-confidence." [Irvin, 'The Death of Brian Epstein']

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Also of note - this livejournal account pointed out that a ‘vendor’ mentioned in the descriptions of two Christie’s auction items in 2006 was most likely Diz Gillespie. The items were a 1962 Beatles handbill and an autographed copy of John Lennon’s book In His Own Write, which was addressed ‘To Diz, You're a great turn, good God, from John Lennon’

The description of the 1962 handbill: 

‘According to the vendor, he was given this handbill by Brian Epstein in 1966. The two met at a party in Los Angeles in 1964 and maintained a friendship for many years.’

The description of the autographed book: 

The vendor first met John Lennon and Brian Epstein in 1964 and was given this book by John Lennon when he visited him at his home, Kenwood, in Weybridge, Surrey. Diz was the vendor's nickname.

[autisticbrianepstein]

sexually weird, vaguely closeted but sometimes not, known for his “sharp wit”, barked in interviews a nonzero amount of times, sat in really stupid positions, skilled at thinking of the most inappropriate thing to say in a situation and saying it……john lennon was truly the roman roy of his time

[autisticbrianepstein]

John Lennon backstage at Circus Krone-Bau in Munich, Germany | 24 June 1966 © Robert Whitaker

[autisticbrianepstein]

brian epstein come back

[autisticbrianepstein]

[autisticbrianepstein]

Paul McCartney & John Lennon during a press conference at the Sheraton Hotel in Sydney, Australia | 11 June 1964 © John Howard

[autisticbrianepstein]

The Beatles Deluxe Ice Cream Bars promotional poster (1965)

[autisticbrianepstein]

Requesting Maxwell's Silver Hammer at the club

[autisticbrianepstein]

*John Lenon singing in melody of "Imagine"*

Imagine if Ninja got a low taper fade

[autisticbrianepstein]

Whatever. Go My Beatles