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Freda Kelly with Paul McCartney schedule.sxsw.com
AUSTIN - Freda Kelly was just 17 when she began working for the Beatles, answering letters for their official fan club after spending countless hours watching them perform their earliest gigs at the Cavern Club in Liverpool. She remained with the group for its entire lifespan, working as their secretary and managing the fan outreach - and she's barely breathed a word about her life with the biggest band in the world to anyone, including her own family. Until now. In the feature documentary Good Ol' Freda, which debuted this weekend at the SXSW Film Festival, the modest Liverpudlian finally shares what is likely the final untold story of the Beatles. (The title is a reference to the Fab Four's term of affection for Kelly.) Director Ryan White has known Kelly for years - White's uncle, Billy Kinsley of the Merseybeats, is an old friend of Kelly's - but while the 31-year-old grew up a big Beatles fan, he had no idea the "sweet and funny lady" who knew his uncle was a living piece of Beatles history. Producer Kathy McCabe did know, and had been gently prodding Kelly for years to tell her story. It wasn't until Kelly's grandson was born, however, that her vow of silence began to soften, and she allowed McCabe to organize a private talk with some 30 people about her time with the Beatles. When that went well, McCabe suggested to Kelly that they approach their mutual friend White, who had worked with McCabe on his first documentary. After a series of phone calls, Kelly finally agreed to share her deep, detailed memories of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr (whom Kelly calls by his real first name, "Ritchie"). White and McCabe spoke with me in Austin about their fascinating film. Adam B. Vary: I understand Ringo Starr was a last-minute addition to the film? Ryan White: Yeah, he did a little interview. It's in the credits of the film. It's just him saying a few things to Freda and to her grandchildren. ABV: Are you hopeful Paul McCartney will be able to do an interview before this gets a general release?
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RW: We'll see. Obviously the focus of the film is on Freda, and having Paul and Ringo would be really cool, but I think it's a solid film without it. We'll see what happens. But we were really pleased when Ringo did do something. It's very heartfelt. ABV: How long did you shoot with Freda? RW: We did two three-week-long interviews. I think it's about 40 hours of interviews with her, and then obviously many hours of B-roll and other interviews with other people on top of that. So for someone who had never taken the time to tell her stories to the family or her best friends, she was a real champion for sticking it out. I think she enjoyed the process too. You could literally see her remembering the stories as we'd talk them out. It runs the gamut. Really charming and funny stories, and some are really emotional for her too - and Freda's not an emotional person. To delve into these things that she hadn't thought about in 40, 50 years... ABV: You do see a few interviews she did back when she was with the Beatles in the film. RW: A handful, but she never really got the attention. Probably because she never sought it, and also because she says she thought she was just a secretary. We have searched everywhere for anything that exists of Freda, and there are a few that she remembered that don't exist any more, that were done by, like, local news stations or a local newspaper. I think what you saw is all that exists from that decade. There's a real written document of her mostly because her name was on everything and she wrote the Beatles' monthly column . But not a real audio or visual record of her. Kathy McCabe: I think one of the most important parts for her was going back to Ringo's house, because she had such a close relationship with his parents - his mom and stepfather. ABV: It seemed like they almost adopted her. KM: Yeah. She considers Ringo's mother her mother figure, because her mother died when she was a baby. That was very emotional for her. She hadn't been in that house since she was with them. They sold it in '64, and she literally hadn't set foot in it. That was really cool to watch it all flow through her there.
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Kelly (center) with Ringo Starr and George Harrison helenkearns.com
ABV: Her ability to recall all these stories she'd never discussed was really impressive, but did she not remember certain things? RW: If Freda doesn't remember something, she won't speak to it. I can't tell you how many times I've been shot down trying to get her to remember something. Sometimes I needed connectors to pull different parts of Beatles history together. You just want a general sound bite of the Beatles hitting America or the Beatles starting to disband. And if she doesn't remember or she wasn't there, she won't open her mouth. So everything in this movie is 100 genuine. I truly believe that she's making the film for one person: her grandson. She jokes that she's living on borrowed time. She thinks that she could pass away at any moment, and this kid will never know. She's never called it a movie or a film. She calls it "a little DVD." She pictures giving a DVD to her grandson, so one day he can watch it and understand. I think she clearly has an appreciation for Beatles fans and is happy to share the story with them. But I think when it comes down to it, it's for him. So I felt a responsible to make something really cool about his grandma that was honest and true. That's my main hope, that he gets to see it one day and say, "Wow. My grandma was really badass."
Read more: http://buzzfeed.com/adambvary/the-beatles-secretary-finally-tells-her-story-like-howshe-w The Beatles' Secretary Finally Tells Her Story (Like How She Would Mail Out The Band's Hair)
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