Bess Coleman attended school in Leicester before working as a journalist with the Leicester Mercury, a role which included writing a record column. In 1964 US interviews, she gave her height as 5' 3" and age as 23. She was EMI press officer in London from 1962 until going to New York, where she eventually got a job with United Artists, which led to a meeting with Brian Epstein when he was in New York to discuss the project that became A Hard Day's Night. Epstein appointed her as press liaison for Brian Epstein's stable of acts, which most importantly would mean arranging access to The Beatles for DJs and journalists during the North American tour in August-September 1964. She joined the group in San Francisco on 18.8.64. A photograph of Bess appeared in The Indianapolis Star, 4.9.64, p.7:
On October 11, 1964, The Sunday Sun in Baltimore provided this longer profile:
Her appointment in June 1964 was reported in Cash Box, reproduced in the Ottawa Journal 20.6.64:
The facsimile below is a letter that Brian Epstein wrote to Patrick Kelly of the Tampa Tribune on 12.10.64. Kelly had been corresponding frequently with Coleman about the possibility of The Beatles visiting Tampa. Bess seems to have had to let him down gently. Epstein's letter of October resulted from Kelly's efforts to boost Tampa's claim for a place on the 1965 itinerary:
Bess later became TV department head with
Solters, Sabinson and Roskin before joining Tony Barrow International in 1970, where (as Tony Barrow Management) they eventually represented the New Seekers, Lyn Paul and Bay City Rollers (
Billboard, 27.1.73 and 20.4.74). In 1975, she
co-wrote the Rollers'
1975 US Tour Souvenir.
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