On October 23rd Bloomingdales and Esquire teamed up to put on night of Beatlemania at the Paley Center for digital arts. The event was a cocktail reception and panel discussion. The panel was full of some big names, the biggest being Albert Maysles, a filmmaker most well know for pioneering documentary style with pop subjects, and is known for, among other things, his film Gimme Shelter. That is not to disparage the others – Henry Grossman, photographer and friend of the Beatles, was on the panel, as was enthusiastic collector of Beatles films John McEwen, while Mark Lewisohn; a renowned Beatles expert was MC.
The crowd were all Beatles fans, that is to say they were people. McEwen showed some of his found footage an old 8mm B&W that was taken by a then 12 year old. The grainy texture of the 8mm was in stark contrast to Maysles' crisp professional work.
Each panelist discussed their love for the Beatles, and the crowd was shown various works from their oeuvre.
Text by John Hutt
Photographs by Tanya Kiseleva