Cowboy Ringo

by Billy Shepherd and Johnny Dean

We were in on a lot of the chats as to what the Beatles should actually do. You may remember there was talk of them doing a Western "A Talent For Loving," but eventually they scrubbed round it. Anyway, they'd bought the screen rights and Ringo especially was looking forward to donning the old cowboy gear. He wanted to be the fastest gun in the group!

This film situation has always caused trouble. Even now it is very tricky. Their producer Walter Shenson explained to us that hundreds of writers were suggesting script ideas but they were all based on the idea of something that happened in the course of a day of the Beatles. And this had been done before, of course. What was wanted was a story in which the boys could appear as John, Paul, George and Ringo, as individuals, not as the Beatles, a group.

We heard the rough story outline of "A Talent For Loving" and it seemed good. But the difficulty was that it had already been published as a book and it was almost impossible to adapt it for the screen without making it seem to have been hurriedly rearranged.