Is THIS the first-ever film footage of future Beatle Paul McCartney - aged 12?

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Is THIS the first-ever film footage of future Beatle Paul McCartney - aged 12?
Historian and Fab Four fan believes this is his best find yet
BY PADDY SHENNAN
5 APR 2017


Peter Hodgson from Kirkby, pictured with Paul McCartney in 1995 (Photo: handout)

Could this be the earliest recorded film footage of – a then 12-year-old – Paul McCartney?

Last month we asked whether the earliest piece of film showing future Beatles Paul, John Lennon and George Harrison, along with Paul’s brother, Mike McCartney, had been unearthed.

In that case, tiny figures in the distance were on screen for just a couple of seconds, but local historian and Fab Four fan Peter Hodgson, from Kirkby, was convinced the Liverpool City Police recruitment film from 1958 contained a world first.



Now Peter has scoured another You Tube film – Liverpool Trams: Green Goddesses Remembered, by Online Videos – and he said: “This is my finest find yet... absolute gold!

“It is circa 1955 and at one point a tram is seen heading down East Prescot Road, from Old Swan towards Page Moss, where Paul’s Aunty Jin and Uncle Harry lived.

“He is only on screen for a second but, comparing him with old pictures, I am 100% convinced that is Paul sitting at the window, at 29 miunutes and 25 seconds into the film. And is that his late mother, Mary, sitting behind him? It looks like her.”

Paul was born June 18, 1942, and so would have celebrated his 13th birthday in the summer of 1955.

Before watching the footage, Mike McCartney said: “We did get trams when we were going to Dinas Lane to visit Uncle Harry and Aunty Jin and if that is Mum on the tram it would be the only film of her in existence! And it’s weird this has come up now because my 1972 album, Woman, is being re-released this Friday – with a picture of, wait for it, my Mum on the cover!”


The cover of Mike McCartney's 1972 album, Woman, released under the name Michael McGear, which is being re-released this Friday, April 7. Mike says: "You can see it's a picture of my Mum as a Liverpool nurse - and not a nun as some people think!" (Photo: handout)

And after watching the film, he said: “It’s all so quick! I can’t say it definitely is my mam and our kid. But it might be! It’s so annoying.”

He added: “It would be wonderful to have a clear, moving record of Mum, as I was only 12 when she died (on October 31, 1956, when she was just 47).”