George Harrison and Freda Kelly at the fan club screening of Magical Mystery Tour (and The Beatles At Shea Stadium), December 1967.
“[Freda Kelly] went to college and used to spend her lunchtimes in the Cavern Club. She owns up: ‘If shorthand, which I loathed, was the first lesson in the afternoon, I’d just not go back. Especially if the Beatles were doing the lunch sessions at the [Cavern] Club. Later on I worked for Princes', the salmon people, and again I'd spend lunch-times in the Cavern... especially if the Beatles were there. Gradually I got to know the boys. Like ‘Hello, Paul’ — ‘Hello, Freda.’ And a girl there, Roberta Brown, known as Bobby, decided to ask Brian Epstein if a fan-club could be started. He used to pay the stationery bills and so on. In the end I met Brian and he asked if I was a shorthand-typist and so I got the job. But my father was very much against the scene.’ […] ’The job is made easier by the attitude of the Beatles themselves. If you have no contact with the artist, well… forget it. But we can talk to them as ordinary people and find out the information and it works very well. My advice to someone wanting to start a fan-club would be: “Don’t start it unless you already know the artist well.” ‘You have to have this sheer love of the job. […] The boys are good to their fans. We try to do the best job we can. But most of all it’s something I really believe in.’” - Beat Instrumental (October 1967) “Before they moved to London, I wanted to get their autographs. So George was in [the office] this day, and I had like autograph book upon autograph book for him to sign, and mine — I slipped mine in the middle. So he’s signing them, and I’m saying, you know, ‘That’s to Rita, that’s to Barbara’ […] and it gets to mine, and, ‘Who’s this to?’ And I said, ‘Well, just — just sign that,’ because I just wanted it out of the way. And he went, ‘Well, no, who’s it to?’ And I think it was because I was going, ‘It doesn’t matter, just sign this.’ I remember saying to him, ‘Just sign the book, just sign the book!’ And he flipped it to the front, and he went, ‘It’s yours!’ And I went, ‘Yeah, I haven’t got your autograph, I just want your autograph before you go to London.’ So he signed it, and he pocketed it. He took it. And I went, ‘What are you doing with my book?’ And he went, ‘I’ll get the others for you.’ And then next time he came in, he just threw it on the table and he went, ‘There you go.’ And they’d all put little comments.” - Freda Kelly, Good Ol’ Freda Ryan White, director [of the highly recommended documentary, Good Ol’ Freda]: “George [Harrison] is Freda’s favorite Beatle too. She would never admit it, but from years of being around her, that’s what I think.” [Freda laughs and shrugs, but her lips are sealed] Q: “I liked your observation in the film that George wasn’t necessarily the quiet one.” Freda Kelly: “He wasn’t quiet with any of us in — I hate that word, 'The Inner Circle.’ But with us, he was his most natural self. I don’t think he liked Beatlemania.” - Film School Rejects, SXSW 2013 (March 2013)
