The History of Paul McCartney's ID Bracelet (part i: the beginning)
(part ii) (part iii) (part iv) (part v: correction)
(25 June 1963 © Peter Hall)
(hello, i come from yonder [beatlestwt] where i sometimes do silly threads deep diving into nonsensical things. i thought it might be worth pulling it over to tumblr, despite tumblr giving me flashbacks to being 15 years old and witnessing dashcon in real time. anywho, this was formatted for a twitter thread so the paragraphs will be a bit funky, but i also added a bit more detail in places - hope you enjoy!)
paul's ID bracelet holds somewhat a mythical status - a myriad of unanswered questions ranging from who gave it to him? what does it say?? does he wear it during the anthology doc?? well settle in and buckle up, we're gonna be looking at a lot of photos to try and solve the case
first and foremost, a note on methodology: i primarily used beatleschronology dot ru to go day by day thru the 60s to trace The Bracelet, then i used the paul mccartney project, getty images, & the like after. it ain’t perfect but it’s something.
we are gonna go on a chronological journey and try and answer key questions along the way. good? good! let's start at the beginning - cast your mind back to the early 1960s…
the first question to answer: is this the first image of paul wearing the bracelet? and better yet, when was it taken?? well, unsurprisingly, it's complicated. (photo by mike mccartney lest he banish me to the pits of that dodgy firm pinterest)
this photo (taken by mike mccartney) is sometimes dated as december 1960, largely due to a caption in mike's 1982 book 'thank u very much', which says the following:
the ‘four months’ in hamburg therefore places it in dec '60. now i don't want to call mike a liar, but let's look at other pictures taken of paul around that time (first pic astrid, second mike mike mike)
im sorry to say but there is no way that image is from 1960 - man has a moptop for christs sake!! thats gotta put it post '61 at the very least. looking at other mike photos in 1962, the aesthetics are bit more similar
however, having now extensively looked at paul's hair from this period, i propose that the bracelet image *might* have occurred on his 21st while he is getting ready for his shindig. There’s a certain full moptopness to it that is moreso ‘63 coded imho.
ultimately, i don't think there's any compelling evidence that the image occurs wildly before paul's 21st on 18th june '63. so, onwards to the birthday, aka when The Bracelet Arrives on the Scene (photo by mike mccartney!!!!!)
the bracelet itself is a classic ID bracelet (which was the style at the time). we can’t see the inside inscription but we can see the outside says paul. the colour flip flops from gold and silver depending on the photo so we’ll just say it was ~metal~ (photo from c. jun '63)
id bracelets were advertised in teen mags like Rave in ‘65. similarly, ireland's saturday night paper noted ID bracelet popularity among celeb men in dec '64
from the 18th jun '63 onwards, the bracelet doesnt leave paul's left wrist (apart from in november, maybe due to touring reasons). so, this suggests it was a gift from *someone* for Paul's 21st. but whoooooo?
four main camps have emerged in The Bracelet Theory: 1. it was a gift from brian epstein 2. it was a gift from jane asher 3. it was a gift from john lennon 4. it was a gift from mike/jim/some other family member
the gift from eppy idea stems from the fact that ringo is also pictured with an ID bracelet throughout the ‘60s. some have speculated that maybe eppy gave all the beatles a bracelet, but john and george simply didnae wear theirs (ungrateful gits)
however this is unlikely/untrue due to the simple fact ringo stated that his bracelet was a gift from his mumma for *his* 21st birthday (7:49):
so, lets turn our speculative eyes to jane asher as the gift giver - it appears at paul's 21st birthday, a few months after they start dating, and he is then seen wearing it consistently thereafter. in dec '63, the daily record published this:
case closed?? well, one could argue it’s not a direct quote from jane so there is some wiggle room but…it’s quite compelling evidence tbh. it doesn’t mean we can completely rule out Other Gift Givers, but there isn’t any great evidence to counter it’s *not* from jane
(for those yelling at the screen about its appearance in later decades hold yer horses we’ll get there!!!)
paul wears the bracelet at least once a month for every month in 1964 - through tours, photoshoots, and filming a hard days night it doesn’t slip off that dainty left wrist. from jun ‘63 - dec ‘64, that Bracelet is his no 1 left wrist support (apart from a blip in nov ‘63)
post ‘64? well babs, you’ll have to go to pt ii for that
