Inside the Long-Unopened Storage Locker of The Beatles' American Lawyer
I got lucky last June, just not in quite the way I'd hoped, as you'll read. But my pursuit of a long-lost audiotape eventually opened the door (literally) and allowed me to take possession of a storage locker owned by a lawyer named Nat Weiss. For those who don't know, Nat just happened to represent The Beatles over on this side of the pond. It all started when I was doing research for a non-fiction book on The Beatles' manager Brian Epstein. I was poking around for some audiotapes of a phone conversation that I know existed at one time. Whether those tapes still exist, I do not know. But I was hoping they might still be around and, if anyone had them, it was Nat. After all, he was the person who ordered a phone line to be tapped in the first place. I should back up and tell you that Nat Weiss was very good friends with Brian Epstein, both Jewish and gay in an era when being gay was a crime. The audiotapes had to do with a blackmail attempt against Brian. Nat was furious and had ordered all calls from the blackmailer to be taped. I know for a fact that those tapes existed and wanted to listen to them if they were still available.
Nat had bonded with Brian by showing him around the gay scene in New York back in the Swinging '60s. Brian trusted Nat so much that, in 1966, they formed a company together called Nemperor to manage musical artists aside from The Beatles. Brian died of a drug overdose in 1967 but Nat carried on, eventually providing legal advice to James Taylor, Cat Stevens, Stanley Clarke, The Mahavishnu Orchestra and Steve Forbert, among others. (Pictured is a touring schedule for James Taylor, circa 1969.)
Source: Huffington Post
