NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) — On opening day of Paul McCartney’s Beatlemania photography exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum, the iconic musician took to social media to invite “Adrienne from Brooklyn,” a fan who in 1964 gave a famous interview declaring her everlasting love for The Beatles—and specifically, McCartney.
“Paul McCartney if you are listening, Adrienne from Brooklyn loves you with all her heart,” the emotional young girl told CBS reporters in 1964 among a mob of fans.
On Friday, the black-and-gray clip got a new light. McCartney posted a video stitching Adrienne’s interview and gave her an invitation 60 years in the making.
“Hey Adrienne, it’s Paul,” McCartney says. “Listen, I saw your video. I’m in Brooklyn now. I’m in New York. I finally got here. We got an exhibition, a photo exhibition, come along and see it.”
The invitation came on the opening day of McCartney’s photography exhibit, titled “Eyes of the Storm,” which shares photos taken by a 22-year-old McCartney between 1963 and early 1964.
According to the exhibit description, the collection of about 280 photos, which are displayed alongside archival materials and video clips, “takes us inside the frenzy of Beatlemania in 1963–64, when the band’s first U.S. tour skyrocketed them to superstardom” and focus on McCartney’s “singular vantage point at the center of this whirlwind of attention and adoration.”
Catherine Futter, director of curatorial affairs and senior curator of decorative arts at the Brooklyn Museum, spoke to WCBS 880’s Newsline with Brigitte Quinn on Friday about the project.
According to Futter, the photos were taken on a Pentax film camera by a young McCartney at the beginning of point-and-shoot in documentation of the journey he, John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison took from the UK to the U.S., including some images from NYC.
“You get images of the screaming fans, but also the photographers chasing the Beatles down the road,” Futter said. “Then also him, the internal view that he sees of those around him and then the external of experiencing new cities, new worlds, new peoples.”
“Eyes of the Storm” will be on display until Aug. 18, and is included in general admission to the Brooklyn Museum.
“There’s a real combination for people to really feel that love for the Beatles, but also really the aesthetics of the photographs,” Futter said.
While McCartney's response came six decades after the fact, according to Adrienne, time is no concern.
“I love the Beatles and I’ll always love them,” she says in the extended interview clip. “Even when I’m 105 and an old grandmother, I’ll love ’em.”