Al Brodax, Who Steered the Beatles’ ‘Yellow Submarine’ to the Screen, Dies at 90
Al Brodax, a television producer who delivered an enduring psychedelic classic when he turned the Beatles song “Yellow Submarine” into an animated film in 1968, died on Thursday in Danbury, Conn. He was 90.
The death was confirmed by his daughter, Jessica Harris.
In the 1960s, Mr. Brodax (pronounced BROH-dax) ran the motion picture and television division of King Features Syndicate, where he produced hundreds of “Popeye” cartoons for television.
Quick to see the cartoon potential of the Beatles, he sold their manager, Brian Epstein, on the idea of an animated series. “The Beatles” ran on Saturday mornings on ABC from 1965 to 1969 (in reruns for the last two years), attracting huge audiences.
When “Yellow Submarine” climbed the charts in 1966, Mr. Brodax sensed that lightning might strike twice. He approached Mr. Epstein again, this time with some trepidation; the Beatles did not like “The Beatles.”
But there was an opening. The group owed United Artists one more film after “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Help!,” but had lost interest in acting. An animated film, Mr. Brodax argued, would require virtually no participation by the Beatles and satisfy the conditions of their contract. “All they had to do was sign a piece of paper,” he told the website 21st Century Radio in 1994. “I’d do the work.”
By: William Grimes
Source: NY Times
