In 1961, Brian Epstein, who managed his family-owned music store NEMS in Liverpool, England, kept hearing about a local group that was getting popular and even received requests for a single it had recorded in Germany, “My Bonnie.”
Curious, Epstein went to see the group play a lunchtime concert at the Cavern Club in Liverpool on a rainy Nov. 9, 1961. Epstein evidently liked what he saw and heard because although he had no experience managing an artist or a band, he offered to become their manager. By the end of 1963 the Beatles were a household name and about to “invade” the United States.
Epstein may have had the magic touch concerning the Beatles and other acts he went on to manage, but as the British 2024 biographical drama movie “Midas Man” makes clear he had his own inner turmoil and challenges to contend with. He died at the height of the Beatles fame in 1967 of what was determined to be an accidental overdose of barbiturates at 32…