The largest traveling multi media show in the world, Away with words was owned and toured by Howard Ragland and Chris Marshall in 1973. Toured all over the world including Japan. The US tour was the entire country, almost every state had a showing including Hawaii. I worked for the company foe awhile mostly in the promotion phase but also worked with the road crew and staging for the production. What made the show unique at that time is that the entire show, which consisted of 30 slide projectors, 4 movie projectors and a 360 degree sound system, was controlled by computer. It was high tech in that day. I left the show in 1974 when the IRS started coming around asking questions about all the money and where it was going. The owners were crappy book keepers, never saved the actual "take" receipts, and a lot of other shady practices involving the accounting of the money. Keeping in mind that this show mostly played at small theatres and college campuses, but sold out every show. I personally don't remember one show that didn't sell out so there was a bunch of money being made,just not properly being accounted for. If PA. Dave is out there, I hope you're doing good...Hope this adds something to this old thread... the show was excellent and I watched it over 300 times...
George Harrison attended three showings, and actually did like it, didn't care about copy rights or any of that...sorry to disappoint but the Beatles actually did like the show..
My uncle is Howard Ragland. I was talking to him and this came up. Decided to look it up here. I can ask him any questions if any of you guys would like.
For some reason today this show popped into my head. I Googled "Beatle multimedia show 1978" and this thread came up. I saw it at the Auditorium Theater in Chicago. And that's the only thing I can recall about it.
Nicely put. In a different time, when neither video on demand nor video for rent existed, this type of "four wall" experience could handily attract moderate crowds to art houses and college theaters. And it could fly under the radar because it was gone before anyone who would care noticed it.
I saw it there too! Maybe we were in the same audience. My recollection - pretty lousy. I disagree with those who say this was just shown in small theaters. The Auditorium theater was no small place. And this played throughout the country. It was not a "here and gone" production, but had a schedule that played around the country at some major venues. Still, it was a pretty lousy show and I felt ripped off when I saw it. Yes, they had a lot of projectors going at one time, apparently run by a computer, but the overall effect was pretty blah.
Apparently it played in Australia too in late 1977. Here's a program from the Palais Theatre, St Kilda screening.
What gave him the idea to put the show on in the first place? Could he give us a run down of the show? Does he still have the film reels? Does he have any photos of the show to give us, too young to have seen it, an idea of what it was like? When did he start touring and when did he stop? Did he every get any trouble from EMI, Capitol or Apple Crops?
Until relatively recently, I thought this was called "A Way with Words" (four words). It's probably because when it played the Philadelphia area, I only heard the ads on the radio and never saw one in print. And if I had seen an ad in print, I might have thought it was a typo, because the title as three words makes no sense to me.
Me too, although I figured it out once I went to see it in the 1970's. Wished I hadn't wasted the time and money.
I'll see if I can get on the phone with him tomorrow and answer your questions. I am only 15, although a very avid Beatles fan, but I never saw it or really know much about it.
Do you think you could get in contact with him via phone? He says he would love to talk to you over the phone. I'll give you his phone number if so.
Howard Ragland and P.A. Dave are close friends of mine. Howard went on to owning oil field service companies after Away with Words. Chris Marshall got into real estate, Mark Kirk went into building while (PA Dave) went in to the furniture liquidation business. It was a one of a kind show and if the real story could ever be made into a movie I know it would be a hit. I wish I still had all the Away with Words t-shirts that Howard gave me and I wore them in the oil fields for years and then threw away. They were and are good people.
No licenses, the show was sued and taken over, the format was changed , four mop topped boys hired and name changed to Beatlemania, I think.
P A Dave is a close friend of mine for over 30 years, and he is doing very well. Howard and Chris are doing ok as well.
I'm a Beatles collector live in Brisbane ,have a t-shirt, Away with words 1977, like to catch up for chat
Never got that one. There was a fan that used to show films at the local library near me in the late 70's. He had some cool stuff. The Budokan '66 concert, Hey Jude Experiment and TV and the inevitable "Braverman's Condensed Cream Of Beatles". It drew a pretty good crowd at the time for a show in the basement of a local library. I remember going with a few friends into the band and the first thoughts about what we later learned were called "bootlegs" started to take root.
I saw 'A Way With Words' as a multimedia show in Sydney, Australia in about 1970 - 71. The picture quality and sound were great so I suppose it wasn't a bootleg. There were a lot of slides of The Beatles moving around the screen to Beatles music which impressed me as I hadn't seen anything like that before. The best part of the show was when they moved the band to the top of the building and showed the whole concert performed. It filmed how it started with a few people at the top of the building watching and then it documented all the members of the public on the street below hearing the music and realising it was The Beatles. Hordes of people gathered on the street and on the roofs of nearby buildings. The streets became crowded and chaotic and the police were flustered by it all until they eventually managed to pull the plug on the concert. They show only part of this impromptu concert in 'The Beatles Anthology' DVD. I came away from that movie in a very emotional state. It moved me so much to see the power of The Beatles at play. I would dearly love to see the whole concert again.
Your memory is very rosy as the picture and sound were not very good, although at that time that material wasn't readily available to see, so anything was welcome. And the "impromptu" concert was the end of "Let It Be", which you can pretty easily come across if you look. Savile Row - Unreleased 1992 Restoration Part 2 (of 3) - Video Dailymotion » Savile Row - Unreleased 1992 Restoration Part 3 (of 3) - Video Dailymotion »
I used to have a picture just like this taped to the wall of my barracks room in the Air Force in the early 70s. I didn't know it referred to a film or anything then.
Wow this brings back some memories. Not because I saw this, but because about 1978-9 I think (I was 11), I saw something at The Palais called 'History Of The Beatles'. It was a collection of all the legendary footage and clips, 'minus' the rooftop but including Magical Mystery Tour songs. I remember it had the Hey Jude studio footage and I remember seeing George behind the control desk with G. Martin. I was just beginning my love for The Beatles and my parents drove me to St Kilda from Noble Park..and let me go to the film by myself and picked me up afterwards. Oh the days before the digital revolution when seeing film and video was magical.