In 1962 he was smuggled onto the campus of the riot-torn University of Mississippi when James Meredith was enrolled and three years later was in the front lines as Los Angeles’ Watts riots erupted.
He was the only British daily newspaper correspondent to cover The Beatles’ first American tour from start to finish, given unparalleled access to John, Paul, George and Ringo on the road, in their hotel and during long nights of card and Monopoly games as they talked frankly about their bizarre new life. He also ghosted a regular newspaper column for George. Ivor’s first-hand, insider’s memoir, the award winning The Beatles and Me On Tour, is a fascinating travel back in time where for the first time he chronicles, frankly and humorously, 34 days with the world’s most famous band on the road—at a critical moment in the history of rock.
He covered Robert Kennedy’s 1968 presidential bid and was in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel the night Kennedy was assassinated. He was one of the Boys on the Bus chronicling the life of actor-turned-politician Ronald Reagan, first in his campaign for governor of California, then for president.
He was a co-author of the 1969 political book Divided They Stand, which chronicled the Presidential election; and witnessed some of the biggest trials in American history: Sirhan Sirhan, convicted of killing Bobby Kennedy in 1969; black-power militant Angela Davis, acquitted of murder in l972; a year later, Daniel Ellsberg’s trial for leaking the Pentagon Papers, and, in 1976, he was in San Francisco to see heiress Patty Hearst convicted of robbery after being kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army.
In 1969 he co-wrote Five to Die,the first book ever published about the Sharon Tate murders. (The book was updated in 2009.) As a foreign correspondent, he traveled throughout the western hemisphere covering riots, floods, earthquakes and politics. As Editor at Large for Los Angeles Magazine. he and his late wife Sally Ogle Davis wrote over 100 major magazine and cover stories. He has reported on four World Soccer Cups for CBS radio.
His 2018 book, Ladies and Gentlemen… The Penguins, is an illustrated childrens’ book that stars four penguins on the Falkland Islands whose rise to rock-n-roll fame is tongue-in-cheek, funny, and, not surprisingly, eerily similar to that of The Beatles.
In 2019 “Manson Exposed:A Reporter’s 50-Year Journey into Madness and Murder” which was Davis personal account of the most notorious murder of the 20th century was published and was awarded a silver medal by the Independent Publishers of America as the best new true crime book of 2020.
In 2020 Davis was featured in the six part EPIX TV series “Helter Skelter: An American Myth.
He currently lives in Southern California and is working on two new books: one about movies the other a true crime story.
A: First let me say that Brian was never a hale fellow well met. He was a tortured, complicated young man who was uncomfortable with people he did not know. He ran a record store in his parent’s Liverpool furniture store but he was entrepreneur at heart. When I first met him in the Summer of l964 on the first Beatles tour of North America I soon discovered he was leading a double life: A sophisticated, elegantly attired businessman—the Beatles Creator-- who had clearly put his blood, sweat and toil into turning the grubby, leather jacketed, swearing, smoking Quartet –graduates of long nights playing in Hamburg’s seedy, red light district. Brian first set eyes on them at the famous, sweaty Cavern Club and instantly recognized that they were destined for stardom. Early on he boasted, “they will be bigger than Elvis.” But there was a dark side to Brian: He sought –without success at times---to hide his sometimes sordid sexuality. He was a sensitive, gay young man in a Britain---a country where homosexuality was considered to be a major arrestable crime. And Brian was arrested. He grew up in an upper class Jewish Liverpool family-- and was constantly terrified his sexual secrets would get out and embarrass his respectable family.
But his love for the Beatles was unparalleled. On tour I watched him in the presence of his “Boys.” He was their headmaster, their mother and their father. He cleaned them up, put them in neat and finely tailored suits and those matching Mop Tops-- and demanded that they behave like gentlemen on stage. Still, I would see him reprimanding them over their behavior---everything from smoking in public, swearing and even burying their hands in their pockets while talking to people. But from the get-go he always had an unwavering faith in their talents. It was he alone who flew from London to New York at his own expense and twisted Ed Sullivan’s arm to persuade the American host of the most popular variety show in the world to headline the Beatles on his show. Some 74 million viewers tuned into the Beatles first performance on the Ed Sullivan show in February l964-----as Brian was the flag-bearer as the Beatles strode the path to international rock and roll history.
Only Brian’s merchandising skill were somewhat lacking—but it was an era when merchandising was viewed by performers –like John Lennon—as beneath them: Sheer hucksterism.
Q: Did you ever see the Beatles writing songs?
A: Everywhere. All the time, in their private chartered Electra jet as we flew across America , on the floor of their hotel rooms—John and Paul were inseparable. But I quickly learned that Brian Epstein had given them a monstrous task—they were making history during that feverish non stop tour of North America—but Brian had already committed them to contractually produce a new Christmas Album. Brian was a taskmaster on the song writing front. And John and Paul always wanted to please Brian---so they delivered despite the frenetic pace of touring.
Even back then John and Paul kept the best songs for themselves. Maybe it was guilt, or who knows what--because they from time to time tossed a morsel or two to George and Ringo. Usually an odd novelty number. At that time John and Paul were the Creators and it was not until years later that George blossomed into the songwriter he became—and even Ringo did his own singing and song-writing. I know from George that he was chagrined by the fact that the Beatles unofficial pecking order was John and Paul in the driver’s seat—with George and Ringo almost second bananas. When I was hired to ghost write George’s column for the London Daily Express, Derek Taylor, who was Brian’s personal assistant and the witty and brilliant press guy for the Beatles told me, “Brian wants you to write his column-because it will give George something to do on the tour.”
Q: Back in ‘64—what were your impressions of John, Paul George and Ringo?
A: They were callow young men, with healthy libidos who quickly discovered that America was their private candy store. Even they were astonished at their own success which came so quickly after many of their British predecessors had come to America and fallen on their pretty faces. From day one in San Francisco in the Summer of l964—they were smash hits, and swept across America like a musical tornado. They were all so young. John was a provocateur. He liked to needle you—and he had no room for pomposity. He was very close to Brian and he liked to needle Brian—and he got away with it. Paul was always the diplomat, friendly, affable and although he was missing his girlfriend Jane Asher who remained in Britain, he like the others, had an eye for a pretty face. And there was never a shortage of pretty faces from Seattle to New Orleans to Hollywood. George had not emerged into the all-round musician he became because both he and Ringo—as I have mentioned earlier—were definitely Beatles 3 and 4. Paul and John came already mature—George and Ringo matured with age.
What I loved best about them all was their Liverpool wit—and their uncanny sense of humor. They could finish each other’s lines at daily press conferences—and often they did. United they stood. Always.
By Bob Wilson
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