It was fifty years ago today- Monday February 3, 1969- a few days after their legendary rooftop concert- an event which would drive a wedge into The Beatles. They were losing money like crazy. John had recently made the remark that the way things were going they would soon be broke. On this day they made a mistake- three of them did- John, George and Ringo would bring in a shark by the name of Allen B. Klein as their new manager. Missing in this action was Paul who wanted his father-in-law Lee Eastman to manage their affairs. Of course John wasn’t going to go along with this. Klein had a bad reputation as a cut throat who was always looking out for himself first and foremost but John at this point- wasn’t thinking straight. It was his influence that convinced George and Ringo to join along.

Allen Klein had previously been the manager for Sam Cooke and The Rolling Stones.  He had made overtures to Brian Epstein about signing The Beatles as early as 1964 but Brian wasn’t interested. Reportedly when he heard the news that Brian had died- Klein’s first thought this is his opportunity.

Klein would be The Beatles manager- with the Eastman’s appointed as their attorney’s- of course this arrangement wasn’t going to work. In May 1969 the Eastman’s were out and John, George and Ringo signed Klein as their business manager- Paul refused to sign. Klein came in and cleaned house and brought in his own people to run things. He even tried to fire The Beatles confidant Neil Aspinall but The Beatles wouldn’t let that happen.

To make a long story short- in the long run even John after becoming disillusioned with Klein in the early 70’s said that Paul’s suspicions of Klein were correct. Klein would end up suing The Beatles- he would receive a 5 million dollar settlement. Klein died in 2009 at the age of 77.