Apple Corps
Apple Corps Ltd. is a company formed in January 1968 by the British rock band The Beatles, who dissolved their former company Beatles Ltd. and turned it into a corporate conglomerate.
At first, the company was very versatile. The main division, the record label Apple Records, was opened in the same year. Other divisions dealt with electronics, film, media, publishing and retail: Apple Electronics, Apple Films, the small publishing company Apple Publishing (including the music publisher Apple Music) founded by Brian Epstein in Baker Street and managed by Terry Doran, and Apple Retail, whose best-known project was the unsuccessful Apple Boutique in London. The Apple Boutique featured hippie fashion, among other things, but closed after only eight months. With the exception of the record label, all departments proved unprofitable.
At a press conference in New York in April 1968, John Lennon and Paul McCartney introduced their new company to the world. At the press conference for the founding of Apple, John Lennon said, among other things:
"We want to set up a system whereby people who just want to make a film about anything don't have to go on their knees in somebody's office [probably yours]."
"We want to build a system where people who just want to make a movie about anything don't have to get down on one knee in some office [possibly yours]."
- John Lennon, 1968
The company's headquarters in the late 1960s were at No. 3 Savile Row in London, which was also the location of Apple Studio, where recordings for the album Let It Be and the film of the same name took place in January 1969. Executive manager was former Beatles road manager and qualified accountant Neil Aspinall, head of the electronics department was Greek Magic Alex.
The company's name and logo can be traced back to a painting by Belgian surrealist René Magritte. Paul McCartney became aware of the works in the mid-1960s and commissioned art dealer Robert Fraser to get him a work by Magritte. Fraser brought him the 1966 painting Le Jeu de Mourre, which features an apple with the words "Au revoir". This apple later inspired naming and logo design by Gene Mahon, to whom the Beatles showed Magritte's apple.
When the Beatles disbanded as a group, Apple Corps was also considered for dissolution. However, it was decided to keep the company in existence, but to close all departments. Today, the Apple Corps brand serves primarily as an agent for licensing related to The Beatles brand, overseeing the re-release of Apple Records recordings and related media.
Because of the name similarity with Apple Inc, several lawsuits were filed with the computer company, some of which resulted in millions of dollars in payments to Apple Corps.
3 Savile Row, former headquarters of Apple Corps in London
Former "Apple Boutique" in London's Baker Street
