HARRY BENSON: AN EXTRAORDINARY LIFE

As the 60^th Anniversary of The Beatles coming to America, and appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show, approaches in February, PARK Magazine’s Whitney Schott sits down with the award-winning photojournalist who accompanied them on that journey, Harry Benson CBE.

 

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Ask Harry Benson about his life and he will tell you it’s been extraordinary. “I wouldn’t have wondered from photography. Photography got me around the world…meeting people…Even if I was a millionaire, I couldn’t have had this life. You couldn’t afford it!” he says in his distinctly Scottish brogue.

                Vanity Fair, Town & Country, Time, Newsweek, People, Life  & Paris Match

As a photojournalist for LIFE magazine from 1970-2000, his work has also appeared in such publications as Vanity Fair, Town & Country, Time, Newsweek, People and Paris Match. He has literally shot everyone and everything. From Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, (41 and 43), Clinton, and Obama, to Senator Bobby Kennedy – the night he was assassinated. Then there are all the actors, models, athletes, socialites, and musicians he has photographed –including The Beatles, with whom he arrived in America on assignment in 1964.

Benson’s honors include a Commander of the Order of the British Empire appointed by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in 2009; letters from universities such as The Photographic Society and International Center of Photography. A documentary HARRY BENSON, SHOOT FIRST which chronicles Harry’s 70-year career was released by Magnolia Pictures in 2016.

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Benson says he was basically self-taught. Inspired by his father – a zoologist who founded the Calderpark Zoo and loved photography, he took up photography because he was good at art. “At school, I wasn’t a good student, but I was good at art. I was good at art, but not great at art. Good, but not good enough. Photography was a natural way. I studied photography by looking at photographs and basically taking over a camera. A camera will do what you tell it to do,” he says.

He went to work for a local newspaper, Hamilton Advertiser, moving on to the Daily Sketch after his exclusive interviews in prison with Scottish mass murderer Peter Manuel. By 1959, he was working for Lord Beaverbrooks’s Daily Express, and the rest is history. “The thing about photojournalism,” he says, “is that your situation changes every day. Things can change and you have to be quick enough to see it changing and I photographed everything…marching with Dr. Martin Luther King…the Watts Riots…Princess Di and Charles gettin’ married…I would photograph anything and would do any story.”

There were some challenges. “When I hear someone is a wonderful person, I know I have a big problem. Someone who knows how to manipulate you,” he says. “When someone would say, oh, I’ve got a person, a wonderful person, you’re gonna love them…I knew I had a problem. But when they say someone was terrible, a nasty piece of work, they were fine. People don’t tell you accurately what others are like. You have to find out for yourself. And even then, it doesn’t really throw me off because that is what I’m expecting…But one thing I did learn quickly is flattery. People love flattery. So, put it on with a shovel. Tell them how great they are. People love flattery. No matter who they are. Then you’re on a good level to tell them, I want you to jump into a bath…with a dog or something,” he laughs.

The Beatles

One example was when Benson first photographed The Beatles.  It was January 1964 and their manager, Brian Epstein, had just told them their hit single, I Want to Hold Your Hand, had gone to number one on the U.S charts. “I went to pick them up. They were prepared to go out on the street, and I said, no, I want you here. I had heard them talking about a pillow fight they had had a few nights before, so I suggested it. I thought it would make a good photo to celebrate. And John Lennon said, “You know, that is stupid. You’re gonna make us look stupid and silly. We don’t want to look stupid.” And the rest agreed, and then he slipped away. And the others, Paul and Ringo, stayed, and then John comes up behind them and banged them in the head with the pillow,” he laughs. “It was great, and I got my photo.”

      PERSONS OF INTEREST

Benson met his wife Gigi “while traveling to Houston, Texas, on assignment with Prince Philip who went there to see the space center,” says Gigi Benson. Her parents were invited to a gala reception for the prince and brought her along. She was in college at the time at the University of Texas. Harry then invited her to attend a Barbra Streisand concert. “The first concert in Central Park,” according to Gigi, “We sat in the front row.” Once they were married, she didn’t really travel on shoots with Harry. “The wife doesn’t go,” she says. Gigi serves as the archivist for Harry’s work and editor of his books, including HARRY BENSON: PERSONS OF INTEREST – Photographs that Defined an Era (powerHouse Books, 2017).

The author of sixteen books, Benson is working on a new one and has enough content for several more. “Our daughters, Wendy and Tessa, would say Harry was always getting up from the dinner table to get on a plane to go someplace far away that we couldn’t even spell!” says Gigi, noting a camera bag on the chair next to him.

A retrospective of Benson’s work, A MOMENT IN TIME: ICONIC IMAGES BY HARRY BENSON, an embodiment of some of the most significant moments captured in the 20^th and 21^st centuries, was shown this summer at the Southampton Art Center on Long Island, curated by Sally Martin Katz. There, Harry spoke about his life’s work and told some wonderful anecdotes about the photographs on view. A wide-breadth of Harry Benson’s work, including but not limited to works shown at the Southampton Arts Center over the summer, will be showcased by Griffin Gallery in Chagrin Falls, OH, from Nov 9, 2023 – March 31, 2024.

For more information, visit HarryBenson.com

PHOTOS AND ANECDOTES

THE BEATLES FIRST APPEARANCE ON THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW, NEW YORK CITY, FEBRUARY 9, 1964

Beatlemania was spreading and this was to be their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.The excitement started at breakfast time. My room was just down the hall, and I was having breakfast with the four of them in their suite at The Plaza Hotel. No one was eating much. Everyone was just talking about their performance, which would be broadcast live that evening. Outside, in the street, excited, hysterical young fans were waiting for us to leave for The Ed Sullivan Theatre. Police assigned to the hotel were busy wrestling with the young girls who were trying to climb up back stairways pretending to be hotel guests.

About 1:30pm, there was a band on my door. John came in and said they were going to the theater now and to stay close as I could or the police would cut me off. There was pandemonium trying to get to the car. In the car, we left the hotel, all four put their heads down while I took the photographs of the fams screaming and leaning on the back window. When we got to the CBS studio, it was chaos again. I jumped out first and John kept me next to him because the studio stage door opened and slammed like an elastic band so that no fans could push their way in. 

After the rehearsal, we just stayed at the studio; it would have been too hectic to go back to the hotel. We sat around drinking Coca-Colas until they went on. As everyone knows, they were sensational. The frenzied audience with girls crying and screaming in mass hysteria drowned out their singing. This became the norm for all their appearances.

QUEEN ELIZABETH WITH HER WELSH CORGIS

“I covered Queen Elizabeth all over the place. In Canada, in Paris, the Caribbean, around Britain and at Buckingham Palace,” he recalls. “I was commissioned by Christopher Baker, Director of the National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh, Scotland, to take their official portrait of Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace. The photo with the “red box” filled with details of the day’s world events. I was there waiting for her thinking what could I possibly have in common to talk about with the Queen…then she came in. She had a lot of dogs yapping around her, and I love dogs, too, so I asked, “Ma’am, do you sleep with these dogs?’ She looked at me with a grin and said, “No, because they snore!” We both had a good laugh and that broke the ice,” he said.

THE BEATLES, PILLOW FIGHT, PARIS, 1964

In early January, I had been given as assignment to go to Africa…and was all packed, ready to go…the phone rang…and the night editor said I was to go to Paris the next day to photograph a new group called The Beatles. I told him I was leaving for Africa on a major news story and didn’t want to photograph a relatively unknown pop group. I hung up and thought that was that. A few minutes later, the phone went again, and the night editor said, “The editor says you are going to Paris.” Unbeknownst to me at the time, that was my lucky day.

It was 3:00am after a concert at the Olympia in Paris in January 1964. They had so much pent-up energy after a performance, and they really couldn’t go out because they would be mobbed. So we were sitting around talking and drinking. Their manager, Brian Epstein, burst into their suite at the George V Hotel to tell them, I Want to Hold Your Hand was number one on the American charts which meant they were going to America to be on the The Ed Sullivan Show. That also meant I was going to America with them, and I was pleased. America had always fascinated me. Ever since I was a boy in Glasgow watching James Cagney gangster movies, I knew that was where I wanted to be.

BARBRA STREISAND, CENTRAL PARK CONCERT, NEW YORK CITY, 1967

Fans flocked to“A Happening in Central Park,” one of the first free concerts in New York’s Sheep Meadow. People were mesmerized. After the concert, which was filmed for television, Barbra Streisand lived up to her legendary reputation as being difficult when she looked at me and shouted at the photographers to “get the f— away” as she headed for her trailer.

HALSTON WITH HIS HALSTONETTES, NEW YORK CITY, 1977

“I’ll tell you what Halston was like. I would phone him up and he’d say, “Well, Harry, what do you want?” And I’d say, “a pretty girl wearing a great dress.” And he would actually make it… create the whole photo.”

Halston was in his studio surrounded by some of his favorite models including Alva Chinn, Chris Royer, Karen Bjornson, Margaret Donahue, Shirley Ferro, and Pat Cleveland in bright red spandex.

BERLIN KISS, BERLIN, 1996

“I don’t know them, do you?’ he laughs. “It was late at night at a bar in Berlin…A couple at the end of the bar…totally oblivious to their surroundings…Their kiss went on and on… they wouldn’t stop! I couldn’t take it anymore, so finally, I just jumped behind the bar and took their photograph. It was a moment that was here and then gone forever.”

DAVID FIELD, NORTH LONDON, ENGLAND, 1962

“That little boy…He was in a class and they flew to Norway, but he missed the plane …and the plane crashed… and they were all killed… his whole class… and he was a boy that couldn’t afford to fly because he was a bit short on his money.”

David worked as a delivery boy to earn money for a class trip to Norway. At the last minute, he stayed behind, giving the money to his mother, who was quite ill… I went to his house the next day, and his mother told me she had sent him fishing near their home. He turned to look at me when I called his name. The haunting look in his eyes tells the story.

ELIZABETH TAYLOR, CEDARS SINAI HOSPITAL, LOS ANGELES, CA, 1997

“I photographed her a lot and she really was stunning… and she was terrific. She swore like a trooper. It came natural to her,” he said. When she was ill, all her hair was cut off, and she was bald… I sent word that I wanted to photograph her because I wanted to show the world that she was alive and well. And she agreed. When I arrived, she said, “Harry, tell me how I look.” And I said, fine, but she kept saying, “I want the truth…Harry, tell me the truth, so finally I did say, “Elizabeth, you do look like shit,” and we laughed. Then she said, “Harry I want to show you something.” And she leaned over and bowed her bald head and said, “You won’t see any scar marks you would get if you had a face lift.” She wanted me to know that she had not had a face lift.”

MICHAEL JACKSON

“Like a lot of people, I was allowed into his bedroom. And at the entrance to Michael’s bedroom there’s a little boy and girl –like a Boy Scout and a Girl Scout, outside his bedroom door. He knew what I wanted for LIFE magazine, He knew I wanted to get as close to him as possible and he knew he was going to have to show me something. I was not just going to accept something dopey. I want to see something special. Otherwise, why we would the magazine give you five or six pages. I didn’t show him I was excited about it because if they see you’re excited they think they’ve given you something and you’re done. If you don’t show them you’re excited, they may give you something more. He gave me “Bubbles” his monkey. Michael was eccentric. He showed me everything I wanted to see…and he danced for me…on the bed and around the house.”

TRUMAN CAPOTE AND LEE RADZIWELL AT HIS BLACK AND WHITE BALL, THE PLAZA HOTEL, NEW YORK CITY, 1966

“He was one of the funniest people I’ve ever been with.  He was crushed when they cut him off. He cried with me…. and cried. He knew that was going to happen, but he said, “I didn’t mean it.”

Everyone wanted to be invited to what is still being called the “party of the century.” It was the hottest ticket in town. It is said that those who were excluded lied, saying they were out of town, rather than admit they weren’t invited. It seemed everyone who was there was famous for one reason or another. The party was given in honor of Kay Graham, owner of the WASHINGTON POST, and for the detectives who broke the murder case Capote wrote about in his groundbreaking non-fiction novel, IN COLD BLOOD. Truman was on top of the world.

ANDY WARHOL AND BIANA JAGGER, THE FACTORY, NEW YORK CITY, 1977

“Andy took my photo that night too, but I have never been able to find it,” says Benson.

From Harry Benson: Person of Interest…

I first met Andy Warhol when I came to New York in 1964 with the Beatles. He was making one of his underground films, and I photographed some of his entourage at the Chelsea Hotel. I hadn’t run into him in quite some time when Bianca Jagger suggested we have lunch at The Factory, Warhol’s studio, which was as infamous as the artist, himself. We were joined by fellow artists Jamie Wyeth and Larry Rivers.