Wayne N. Aspinall Colorado River Storage Act of 1956 What was the Colorado River Storage Act of 1956? The bill, sponsored by Wayne Aspinall and several western allies, called for damming several areas in the Upper Basin of the Colorado River. Was the bill easy to pass? because of increased environmental awareness around the country, the majority of the public opposed the project. Was Aspinall eventually able to get the bill to pass through Congress? The bill passed the House 256-136 in March 1956 and then-President Dwight Eisenhower signed it into law soon thereafter.
What was Aspinall political position during this time period?
What was Aspinall political position in 1956?
Aspinall favored dams and water reclamation projects for several reasons: (1) the power they generated; (2) general recreational use; and (3) he felt the key to Western economic prosperity lay in obtaining permanent stored supply of water for economic purposes. In Aspinall's mind, Americans had many opportunities to enjoy scenic areas, so damming a few of them would not hurt the country. After his career, he boasted that he had brought over $1 billion worth of water projects to his district. According to his observers, he "never met a dam he didn't like." The Colorado River Storage Project (CRSP) came before Congress in the early to mid-1950s. The bill, sponsored by Wayne Aspinall and several western allies, called for damming several areas in the Upper Basin of the Colorado River. It included the Echo Park Dam proposal, located within Dinosaur National Monument. This became a volatile issue between environmentalists and water project advocates. Located just below the Green and Yampa Rivers, the proposed 525-foot (160 m) high dam would have created a 43,000 acre (170 km2) lake, flooding the Green River Canyon for 63 miles (101 km) and the Yampa River Canyon for 44 miles (71 km). However, because of increased environmental awareness around the country, the majority of the public opposed the project. In 1954 alone, the Department of the Interior received 20,000 pieces of mail about the plan, and one insider estimated the letters ran 80 to 1 in opposition of the project. In 1954 and 1955, environmentalists defeated the controversial aspects of the CRSP. In '55, Aspinall conceded that for the bill to pass, he needed to sacrifice the Echo Park plan. Several more compromises between the two sides gave way to the Colorado River Storage Act of 1956 (Public Law 485, in chapter 203), which called for the creation of other irrigation projects and several large dams, including the Glen Canyon Dam in Utah, which created Lake Powell. Other projects created from the CRSP included the Flaming Gorge, Navajo, and Curecanti reservoirs. For his compromise, Aspinall gained five other reclamation projects and three hydroelectric dams for the Fourth District. The bill passed the House 256-136 in March 1956 and then-President Dwight Eisenhower signed it into law soon thereafter. CANNOTANSWER
he needed to sacrifice the Echo Park plan.
Wayne Norviel Aspinall (April 3, 1896 – October 9, 1983) was an American lawyer and politician from Colorado. He is largely known for his tenure in the United States House of Representatives, serving as a Democrat from 1949–1973 from Colorado's Fourth District. Aspinall became known for his direction of the House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, of which he was the chairman from 1959–1973. Aspinall focused the majority of his efforts on western land and water issues.

His actions supporting resource development often drew the ire of the increasingly powerful environmental lobby in the 1960s. David Brower, a prominent executive director of the Sierra Club, said that the environmental movement had seen "dream after dream dashed on the stony continents of Wayne Aspinall."  The congressman returned the animosity, calling environmentalists "over-indulged zealots" and "aristocrats" to whom "balance means nothing."  This battle shaped Aspinall's congressional career.

Biography
Aspinall was born in Middleburg, Logan County, Ohio in 1896 and moved to Palisade, Colorado in 1904. He studied at the University of Denver until World War I, when he enlisted in the armed services (the Air Service of the Signal Corps). He returned to DU after his discharge and graduated in 1919. After several years of teaching around the state, he enrolled in law school in Denver and graduated in 1925. In 1930, he won a seat in the Colorado State House of Representatives, serving as Speaker in 1937 and 1938 before moving to the State Senate from 1939 to 1948. He served in World War II as a captain in Military Government during 1943 and 1944 as well. In 1948, he chose to run for national office, hoping for it to be a stepping stone to Colorado's governorship. However, he would stay in the U.S. House for 24 years.

Living on Colorado's Western Slope defined Aspinall's political ideology. His family had traditionally voted Republican, but the party's in-fighting in 1912 between Theodore Roosevelt and William H. Taft disillusioned Aspinall. However, despite becoming a Democrat, his rural roots shaped a relatively conservative philosophy. He believed in limited federal involvement in western land and water issues; to him, localities could better decide the uses of their resources. "When I was young…I lived outside the little town of Palisade, and the townspeople always seemed to call the shots. Then I moved to Palisade, and the bigger town of Grand Junction always seemed to call the shots. Then I went to the state Legislature, and the Eastern Slope…seemed to call the shots. And in Congress, the big metropolitan areas seemed to hold all the marbles."

His service in the U.S. House ended in 1972 with his loss in the Fourth District Democratic primary. However, Aspinall remained active in politics. He voiced his opinions on the need for the United States to become self-reliant for its energy needs, pushing oil shale development until his death in 1983.

Colorado history remembers Aspinall as one of the state's most influential politicians. Known as "The Chairman," he led the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee during a period that defined future water and land policy in the United States. Colorado governor Richard Lamm, a Democrat who had several ideological differences with Aspinall, remarked that "[N]o one in our history has done more to win Colorado a place at the table in Washington." He had a son, Owen Aspinall, who went on to become Governor of American Samoa.

Colorado River Storage Act of 1956
Aspinall favored dams and water reclamation projects for several reasons: (1) the power they generated; (2) general recreational use; and (3) he felt the key to Western economic prosperity lay in obtaining permanent stored supply of water for economic purposes. In Aspinall's mind, Americans had many opportunities to enjoy scenic areas, so damming a few of them would not hurt the country. After his career, he boasted that he had brought over $1 billion worth of water projects to his district. According to his observers, he "never met a dam he didn't like."

The Colorado River Storage Project (CRSP) came before Congress in the early to mid-1950s. The bill, sponsored by Wayne Aspinall and several western allies, called for damming several areas in the Upper Basin of the Colorado River. It included the Echo Park Dam proposal, located within Dinosaur National Monument. This became a volatile issue between environmentalists and water project advocates. Located just below the Green and Yampa Rivers, the proposed  high dam would have created a 43,000 acre (170 km2) lake, flooding the Green River Canyon for  and the Yampa River Canyon for . However, because of increased environmental awareness around the country, the majority of the public opposed the project. In 1954 alone, the Department of the Interior received 20,000 pieces of mail about the plan, and one insider estimated the letters ran 80 to 1 in opposition of the project.

In 1954 and 1955, environmentalists defeated the controversial aspects of the CRSP. In '55, Aspinall conceded that for the bill to pass, he needed to sacrifice the Echo Park plan. Several more compromises between the two sides gave way to the Colorado River Storage Act of 1956 (Public Law 485, in chapter 203), which called for the creation of other irrigation projects and several large dams, including the Glen Canyon Dam in Utah, which created Lake Powell. Other projects created from the CRSP included the Flaming Gorge, Navajo, and Curecanti reservoirs. For his compromise, Aspinall gained five other reclamation projects and three hydroelectric dams for the Fourth District. The bill passed the House 256–136 in March 1956 and then-President Dwight Eisenhower signed it into law soon thereafter.

Frying Pan Arkansas Project of 1962
This plan, originally proposed in 1951, called for water diversion out of the Frying Pan and Roaring Fork Rivers on the Western Slope of Colorado to the Arkansas River, which flowed to a drier climate in the southeast part of the state. Because the Front Range (Boulder, Denver, Colorado Springs, and Pueblo) had a tremendous population advantage over the Western Slope, most of the state favored the project. Precedent for this maneuver had been set in 1937 with the Colorado-Big Thompson Project, which transferred Western Slope water to farmers in northeast Colorado.

Because he wanted to focus the House's efforts on the CRSP in the mid-'50s, Aspinall tabled Fry-Ark until 1960. However, when the issue resurfaced, Aspinall's opinion created controversy in his own district. Many of his constituents disapproved of sending their water to the Front Range. Aspinall, however, pushed the plan through because he realized that as a strong proponent of public water development, it seemed contradictory for him to block reclamation projects that benefited others. The bill passed in August 1962 when Aspinall attained a plan calling for the construction of a  reservoir on the Roaring Fork River near Aspen, which would compensate the Western Slope for its loss of water.

Fry-Ark demonstrated Aspinall's resolve to proliferate the amount of publicly funded water projects throughout the West, pitting him against the wishes of the majority of his constituents in the early 1960s. He quickly regained favor with them, however, when its precedent eventually brought more dams and reclamation projects back to the Fourth District.

Wilderness Act of 1964
One of the first comprehensive pieces of environmental legislation during the era faced a lengthy battle in Congress between Presidents Kennedy and Johnson and western politicians like Aspinall. When the Wilderness bill first came to the House in 1961, Aspinall employed various stall tactics to never allow the popular bill out of the Interior Committee. He continued this through 1962 and into '63, earning him the wrath of the country's environmentalists, preservationist politicians, and a large amount of the public.

However, in November 1963 Aspinall made a deal with John F. Kennedy. Aspinall greatly desired a public land review commission (see below), while one of Kennedy's primary goals was the passage of the Wilderness Act. Aspinall agreed to release the bill in exchange for the administration's cooperation with the land commission. (Also, Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963 created an ethos in Washington that essentially made Kennedy a martyr. Lyndon Johnson took up and pushed through many of his legislative goals because of public empathy.)

Before Aspinall let the Wilderness Act of 1964 pass, he dropped the original request of 55 million acres (220,000 km2) of protected wilderness to only 9.1 million acres (37,000 km2). He also inserted a clause, called the "1984 clause," that allowed mining interests to still have access to many of these areas until December 31, 1983. Despite these concessions, the House passed it 373-1 and Lyndon Johnson signed it in September. The act also refused to turn over exclusive power to the executive branch, keeping some power in Congress for public land oversight. Ironically, the National Wildlife Federation named Aspinall their "Conservationist of the Year" in 1964 for his role in the eventual passage of the bill.

Colorado River Basin Act of 1968 and the Central Arizona Project
From 1966 to 1968, Aspinall took on the final significant water project battle of his congressional career. The purpose of the Colorado River Basin Project, according to supporters, was to build dams to generate revenue and energy for communities in the Lower Basin of the Colorado River without using much of the Upper Basin's river water. The primary focus of the project was the Central Arizona Project (CAP). CAP supporters, among other demands, wanted to build two dams, one that would flood Grand Canyon National Monument and part of Grand Canyon National Park (Bridge Canyon Dam), with the other on the edge of the Grand Canyon (Marble Canyon Dam). Aspinall originally supported this, claiming it would generate revenue for all Colorado River Basin states. In turn, however, he demanded that his district receive five reclamation projects for his support. Several congressmen, including Arizona senator Carl Hayden, saw this as action as a move that held the state hostage, and many would come to resent Aspinall for it.

Environmentalists vehemently opposed the CAP because of its detriment to the scenery of the Grand Canyon. Aspinall would later say "We viewed the development of the river as the only reasonable, practicable, safe, and logical way for millions of Americans and visitors to enjoy the canyon bottom which to date so few have had an opportunity to visit or view."  However, during the debate, the Sierra Club mocked that philosophy, purchasing an ad in national newspapers in July 1966. "Should we also flood the Sistine Chapel so tourists can get nearer the ceiling?" it asked.

Sensing that he couldn't break the stalemate, Aspinall dropped the Grand Canyon dams from the CRPB in late August 1967. The bill eventually passed in the middle of 1968, creating the Colorado River Basin Act. However, in exchange for this compromise, Aspinall did receive five projects for Colorado (the Dallas Creek, Animas-La Plata, West Divide, San Miguel, and Dolores projects).

Of those five, only two were eventually built (Dolores and Dallas Creek). The Animas-La Plata project is currently under construction, and is one of the last major water projects in the West. Jimmy Carter declared a "Hit List" in 1977 on what he felt was wasteful spending on "pork barrel" water projects, eliminating the other three (among others). Furthermore, no new major reclamation projects were approved during the rest of the era, partly because Aspinall's heavy-handed demands that constrained the legislation broke apart the western coalition of politicians that supported the construction of water projects.

Public Land Law Review Commission
Kennedy's concession in 1963 to enact the Wilderness Act gave Aspinall the go-ahead to organize his pet project, the Public Land Law Review Commission (PLLRC) in 1965. The PLLRC reviewed all federal regulations affecting the control and uses of the nation's public lands and recommended changes that would help the federal government manage these areas more efficiently. Aspinall served as the commission's chair for the entirety of its existence, from 1965 until 1970.

The final report came out on June 23, 1970. Titled "One Third of the Nation's Lands," it gave 137 recommendations to Richard Nixon and Congress. Among its suggestions: 
 States should have a greater say in how public lands are managed
 Congress should have greater say in the uses of public land because the executive branch exerted too much singular influence
 All public-land issues should be concentrated under a new Department of Natural Resources, with committees in the House and Senate
 The Secretary of the Interior's power to withdraw public lands from development without Congressional approval should be limited
 Regional mining, timber, and grazing needs should be supported to increase economic growth in local communities
 The federal government should help stimulate the oil shale industry

Environmentalists blasted its findings. The Sierra Club accused the study of being "oriented toward maximum immediate commercial exploitation..." predicated upon a world with an "ever-expanding economy and unlimited resources."  Others stated that the report only considered studies and opinions favorable to Aspinall's political ideology. Many citizens were also still unhappy with Aspinall for blocking the creation of the Redwood National Park in California for half of the decade until its passage in 1968, and they saw this as more evidence that he served as a mouthpiece for the extractive industries' interests in Congress.

Aspinall proposed HR 9211 in his final session in Congress to implement many of the PLLRC's recommendations, but it failed to pass. During the height of the environmental movement, many of these suggestions were unacceptable to the public. However, later bills spawned from the ideas in the PLLRC, such as the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976.

1970 and 1972 Democratic primaries
After over two decades in office, the turbulent forces of the 1960s and early '70s caught up with Aspinall. With liberalism gaining strength throughout the country by protesting the Vietnam War and advocating civil rights for African Americans and equal rights for women, reformers gained control of the Democratic Party. They jumped on the opportunity to remove one of the party's most conservative members.

In 1970 a young Democrat named Richard Perchlik challenged Aspinall in the Fourth District Democratic primary. Although Aspinall won by over 11,000 votes in his first primary challenge since 1948, Perchlik's campaign portrayed Aspinall as old (74 at the time) and out of touch with the ideals of liberals on the war and the environment. The challenger also accused "The Chairman" of being too connected to the extractive special interests and railed against him for his role in what reformers viewed as a flawed seniority system in Congress.

Aspinall's friend and colleague, Democratic congressman Byron Rogers of Colorado's First District, did not survive 1970's primary season, however. A young liberal lawyer from Denver, Craig Barnes, defeated Rogers (although Barnes himself lost the general election). Rogers had a similar philosophy and legislative record to Aspinall, seemingly foreshadowing Aspinall's fate in 1972.

The degree to which Aspinall appreciated the challenge of liberal Democrats is debated. He did say that "this drive toward liberalism, organization of committees, etc., is causing me to wonder if I haven't reached the place where I should let some younger and more militant person take over."  However, he never altered his campaign message in 1972, even after the Republican-controlled Colorado General Assembly redrew the state's district lines to include largely liberal precincts in the Fourth District. "Wayne Aspinall represents all the interests because all the people have interest in our resources," his campaign said, continuing to target the miners, ranchers, and loggers that lived on the Western Slope. He never attempted to alter his message to assuage the concerns of his new liberal constituents.

His opponent in the 1972 Democratic primary, Alan Merson, employed the same strategy that Perchlik and Barnes used two years previously.  Merson attacked Aspinall for being slow to recognize developing energy problems, promoting policies that fed constant growth, building needless water projects, and being a tool of special interests. Merson received extensive external aid, accepting endorsements from The New York Times, Field and Stream, and even Reader's Digest. The environmental lobby provided most of the support to Merson's campaign, with $20,000 coming from the League of Conservation Voters. Environmental Action, having named Aspinall to their 1972 "Dirty Dozen" list of biggest congressional enemies to the environment, also endorsed Merson.

Using the young, liberal vote on the Front Range, Merson defeated Aspinall in the primary 53% to 47%. History credits Aspinall's loss to his age, the strength of the environmental issue in 1972, and the redistricting that cost "The Chairman" much of his conservative support on the Western Slope.

However, redistricting still favored Republicans, despite the liberal Merson's victory. Moving urban voters into the Fourth split the Democratic vote and consolidated Republican strength. Merson lost to James Paul Johnson, who had been Aspinall's unsuccessful Republican opponent in 1966, in the general election in November 1972.

Post-Congressional life
Aspinall stayed relatively active after leaving office in January 1973. He crossed party lines and endorsed Gerald Ford for president in 1976. He also pressed for further exploration of oil shale in the late 1970s, serving on the board of directors for the Paraho Oil Shale Demonstration, Inc., hoping to lead the country to an alternative energy source to end American reliance on oil during the energy crisis caused by the Arab Oil Embargo.

He proudly took part in the Sagebrush Rebellion, a western philosophy popular from 1979–1982 that attempted to reclaim some federally protected land for determination by states and local governments.

Aspinall resumed the practice of law, was a resident of Palisade, Colo., until his death there October 9, 1983; he was cremated, and his ashes were interred at Orchard Mesa Municipal Cemetery, Grand Junction, Colorado. The United States Post Office and Courthouse in Grand Junction was renamed the Wayne N. Aspinall Federal Building in 1972.

References

 Aspinall, Wayne N. Papers, Election Files and Grand Junction Office Files. 1948–1973. Boulder, CO: University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries, Archives. Accessed February 27, 2006.
 Schulte, Steven C. Wayne Aspinall and the Shaping of the American West. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2002.
 Sturgeon, Steven Craig. Wayne Aspinall and the Politics of Western Water. Doctoral Thesis. History, 1998, University of Colorado at Boulder. Directed by Prof. Patricia Nelson Limerick.

External links
 http://digital.library.du.edu/findingaids/view?docId=ead/m008.xml;query=;brand=default Guide to the Wayne Aspinall Papers at the University of Denver, retrieved 2014-09-25. 
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Albert Wood Aspinall (27 December 1839 – 15 December 1903) was an Australian stonemason and builder.  He was an expert in constructing round towers and buildings.

Early life 
Aspinall was born in Exley Bank Bottom, Southowram, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. He came to Australia in 1857 with his parents, John Aspinall and Sarah (née Ingham), and siblings, aboard the Mary Ann. He was their third, but second surviving son.  In 1864, Albert married Mary Jane Bennett with whom he had thirteen children, seven of whom lived into adulthood.

Early constructions
Aspinall moved frequently to wherever his building contracts took him. Much of his early work was done in the Sydney area. For about one year in 1865 he was building in the Maitland district. It is unknown whether any of the stone buildings still standing in the area were built by him.

Penrith
Aspinall moved his family to Liverpool for about five years from 1876 while he constructed stone buildings in the vicinity. During this period Albert constructed the Police Station and Lockup at Penrith. For many years, the building was regarded as a historic building by the Nepean District Historical Society. Recent expansion in Penrith resulted in the demolition of the buildings but archival material remains.

St Peters brick kilns
In the mid-1880s, Aspinall was contracted to construct the brick-firing kilns of the St Peters brick works. Some kilns were located  beside the quarry next to the Illawarra railway line (now filled and transformed into the Camdenville Oval). These kilns have been demolished. It is not known whether the historic brick kilns at the north-west corner of Sydney Park were also his construction.

Building Green Cape Lighthouse and the Eden Post Office
Aspinall's longest project was the partial building of the Green Cape Lighthouse on Green Cape, at the northern tip of Disaster Bay, south of Eden. The Eden Killer Whale Museum and Historical Society has information concerning this project and the suicide of Aspinall. The precinct of the lighthouse is now a historic tourist site.

Building the lighthouse started in the late 1870s, with the construction of a jetty and storehouse at Bittangabee Bay. Aspinall then spent five months building a seven-kilometre wooden tramway from Bittangabee Bay to Green Cape.  Soon, he found that the soil and rock were unsuitable for the foundations of such a heavy structure. The foundations had to be made much deeper than he had expected. He also experienced difficulties with his hired labourers. Building the lighthouse took almost 3 years, a period much longer than he had anticipated. The construction drained him financially and physically. It became necessary for him to accept other contracts elsewhere during the period of construction. Then his health began to fail. At times, Aspinall was forced to spend time in Pambula Hospital. He committed suicide in Eden in 1903.  He is buried in the Eden Cemetery. The Eden newspapers contained lengthy articles about his death.

Graphic details from the period are still held by the museum. His creditors completed the lighthouse.

In the late 1880s, Aspinall also constructed the post office at Eden. It was officially opened in 1891. It is now an historic building.  In the early 1890s, Aspinall carried out the renovations of the New Brighton Hotel to adapt the building as a boarding school for his brother, Arthur Aspinall.

Ill-health and a patent
Aspinall found drinking a herbal tea made from an infusion of the leaves of the coastal sea box  Alyxia buxifolis helped his medical condition. He applied for and secured the patent for this herbal tea.

Family
Aspinall's only son did not have children. Mary died in 1886. In 1887 Aspinall married a widow from Eden, Eliza Silk (née Marshall). The marriage did not last. A grandson, James Goyen, and a great-grandson, Charles Mannins, also became builders.  Both had a suburban Sydney street named after them.

John Ingham Aspinall
Albert's elder brother, John, was also a stonemason of note, both in Australia and in New Zealand. His early constructions were in the Newtown-Camperdown-Enmore area. Some of the stone buildings still standing in these areas may have been constructed by John, but rarely is the name of a builder retained for a building.

The cream sandstone house, "Arden Lea", which John Aspinall built for his son, still stands. The house is nestled at the foot of a cliff on what was a large property  at 8 View Street, Woolwich. When his daughter-in-law died the property was sold and sub-divided. Aspinall Place, off View Street, was named after the family. Access to the house was lost until stairs were constructed from Werambie Street whence the address was altered to 1a Werambie Street, Woolwich.

Notes

References 
 Andrew, Phillipa A Built To Last: the stories of John and Thomas Aspinall and their descendants. , privately published.  Available in the library of The Society of Australian Genealogists, Sydney and the State Library of New South Wales.
 Free BMD
 New South Wales Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages

1839 births
1903 deaths
People from New South Wales
19th-century Australian people
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English emigrants to colonial Australia Neil Stanley Aspinall (13 October 1941 24 March 2008) was a British music industry executive. A school friend of Paul McCartney and George Harrison, he went on to head the Beatles' company Apple Corps.

The Beatles employed Aspinall first as their road manager, which included driving his old Commer van to and from shows, both day and night. After Mal Evans started work for the Beatles, Aspinall was promoted to become their personal assistant, later becoming chief executive of their company, Apple Corps.

On behalf of Apple, Aspinall was involved in notable court cases against Allen Klein, EMI and Apple Computer. He supervised the marketing of music, videos and merchandising, as well being a director of Standby Films, which was run from his home in Twickenham, London. On 10 April 2007, Aspinall retired from Apple Corps and died of lung cancer in New York in 2008.

Early life

Aspinall was born in Prestatyn, North Wales, after his mother had been evacuated from the family home in Liverpool because of the air-raids on Liverpool during the Second World War, while Aspinall's father was away at sea with the Royal Navy. Aspinall and his mother returned to Liverpool later in 1942 after the bombing had subsided. Aspinall later attended West Derby School, where he passed his 11-Plus exams. When he was twelve years old, Aspinall gained a place at the Liverpool Institute in Mount Street, and was in the same class as Paul McCartney for English and Art lessons.

Aspinall later commented about his first meeting with George Harrison, who also attended the Liverpool Institute: "My first encounter with George was behind the school's air-raid shelters.  This great mass of shaggy hair loomed up and an out-of-breath voice requested a quick drag of my Woodbine. It was one of the first cigarettes either of us had smoked. We spluttered our way through it bravely but gleefully. After that the three of us did lots of ridiculous things together....  By the time we were ready to take the GCE exams we added John Lennon to our 'Mad Lad' gang. He was doing his first term at Liverpool College of Art which overlooks the Liverpool Institute playground and we all got together in a students coffee bar at lunchtime."  Aspinall took nine GCEs at the Institute and passed eight of them, failing French. Neil left school in July 1959 to study accountancy.  Aspinall worked for a Liverpool company for two years, receiving a wage of £2-10s–0d. (£2.50 decimal equivalent) per week as a trainee accountant.

The Beatles

The Beatles played at the opening of the Casbah Coffee Club on 29 August 1959, which was in the cellar of Mona Best's house. Aspinall later rented a room in the house and became very good friends with then-Beatle Pete Best. The Beatles had previously used public transport to travel to local bookings, however by February 1961, they were playing two or three concerts per night at different locations needing their own transportation. Best asked Aspinall to be a part-time road manager for the band, so Aspinall bought an "old, grey and maroon Commer van" for £80, and charged each of the group five shillings (25p) per concert. Harrison later said: "Our early van became the centre of attention every time it pulled up. It was brush-painted red and grey and from head to foot was covered in graffiti – girls' names, and things like 'I love you, John'. It looked interesting, but the moment anybody saw it they would feel free to write all over it." The Beatles returned from their second trip to Hamburg in July 1961, and Aspinall left his job to become their permanent road manager, as he was earning more money driving them around than he was earning by being an accountant.

The Beatles were driven down to London by Aspinall on New Year's Eve in 1962, for the now-famous Decca audition, but Aspinall lost his way, and the trip took ten hours. They arrived at 10 o'clock at night, and John Lennon said that they arrived "just in time to see the drunks jumping in the Trafalgar Square fountains." In 1963, Aspinall was joined by Mal Evans, who also helped set up the Beatles' equipment (and acted as a bodyguard) which freed Aspinall to concentrate on other duties, like arranging appointments or buying things for them, such as suits, boots, meals, or drinks.

Best was sacked from the Beatles on 16 August 1962, by manager Brian Epstein acting on behalf of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison. Accounts vary of Aspinall during this event. According to MerseyBeat editor Bill Harry, Aspinall was waiting downstairs in Epstein's NEMS record shop, and was the first one to talk to the by then ex-Beatle in the Grapes pub, across from the Cavern. Aspinall was furious and said that he would stop working for the band as well, but Best strongly advised him not to. Aspinall asked McCartney and Lennon at the next concert why they had fired Best and was told, "It's got nothing to do with you. You're only the driver." However, in a 2007 interview, Aspinall provided Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn with a distinctly different version of events, saying that he was physically present when Epstein sacked Best, that he told Best unprompted that he planned to continue working for the band, and that on his first subsequent encounter with the other band members, their first question to him was how Best had taken being sacked. Aspinall stayed with the band, ending his affair with Best's mother, a relationship that had led to the birth of baby Vincent "Roag" Best. Aspinall denied the story for years before publicly acknowledging that he was indeed Roag's father.

Aspinall worked closely with Epstein, who provided weekly notes for Aspinall to give to the group's stage act, their concert appearances, and the fees they would receive. The Beatles had to travel in Aspinall's van along with their equipment, but British roads in the early 1960s were notoriously pot-holed and slow to navigate. Ringo Starr remembered that the travelling never seemed to stop during the early tours of Britain in Aspinall's van, as they would be driven up and down Great Britain with one of the group in the passenger seat, but with the other three on a hard bench seat in the back.

Personal assistant

Aspinall's job as personal assistant consisted of driving to concerts and meetings, but mostly meant just being there whenever someone needed something. Aspinall went on the first trip to America, and when George Harrison became ill with a fever and had a temperature of , he was ordered to stay in bed, so Aspinall stood in for him for The Ed Sullivan Show camera rehearsals; however, Harrison was back in time for the final shooting. Before the cover of Sgt. Pepper's could be completed by Peter Blake, Aspinall was sent out to find photographs of all of the people that were to be shown on the front cover. Aspinall suggested the idea of Sgt. Pepper being the compere, who would introduce the group, and the reprise of the title song near the end of the album.

After recording sessions, Lennon, Harrison and Starr would be chauffeured back to their houses in the 'stockbroker belt' of Southern England, but Aspinall would often drive McCartney and Evans in an Austin Princess limousine to a late-night club to eat. The Bag O'Nails nightclub was one of their favourites, at 8 Kingly Street in Soho, London, as it also presented live music. They would eat steak, chips and mushy peas, but Aspinall would always take out a torch from his pocket (in the dimly lit club) to inspect the portions on each of their plates. This was to make sure that the portions were exactly as they had ordered, which McCartney always found amusing. While Harrison, McCartney and Starr passed their driving tests, Lennon didn't pass his driving test until 1965; however, he rarely drove himself due to being a notoriously bad driver by poorly navigating roads and failing to notice other traffic, and as a result, he was usually chauffeured to and from recording sessions and appointments by his own personal chauffeur.

Musical contributions

Although not a musician, Aspinall made minor contributions to a handful of the Beatles' recordings. He played a tamboura on "Within You Without You", harmonica on "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!", some percussion on "Magical Mystery Tour", and was among the many participants singing on the chorus of "Yellow Submarine".

Manager

Following the death of Epstein in August 1967, there was a vacuum in the management of the Beatles' affairs. The Beatles asked Aspinall to take over the management of Apple Corps in 1968, which had been founded in April of the same year. Aspinall later said that he only accepted the position after being asked, but did not want to do it full-time, and would only do it "until they found somebody else." George Martin (The Beatles' record producer) was against the idea, as he thought that Aspinall did not have the necessary social qualifications to be able to speak to the upper class executives at EMI. Aspinall accompanied McCartney and Lennon to New York on 11 May 1968, to announce the formation of Apple to the American Media. Apple Corps had five divisions: electronics, film, publishing, records and retailing. Aspinall later spoke of the Beatles' business arrangements:

Derek Taylor (Apple's press officer) said that Aspinall hated being stuck in the Apple office (at 3 Savile Row) all through the recording of The White Album and Let It Be album. Life in the Apple office, however, was improved by having a chef and various assistants at hand: "The liquor bill was £600 per month and the food bill was close to that." This was mostly due to Aspinall's and Peter Brown's four-course lunches with expensive wines in the dining room at Apple. After Allen Klein was brought in to be the Beatles' manager Aspinall was dismissed, but reinstated after complaints from the group, and because Klein realised that Aspinall was no threat to his control of the company. Klein lost a High Court action in 1971 (started by McCartney) but lawsuits between Klein and Apple kept Aspinall busy until 1977.

Apple Corps executive

In 1978, Aspinall instigated the first of three lawsuits on behalf of Apple Corps against Apple Computer, Inc. (now known as Apple, Inc.) for trademark infringement. The first suit settled in 1981 with an amount of £41,000 being paid to Apple by Apple Computer. As a condition of the settlement, Apple Computer was allowed to use its logo as long as it did not enter the music business. The second suit with Apple Computer arose in 1989, when Apple Corps sued Apple Computer over its Apple IIGS (which included a professional synthesiser chip) claiming violation of the 1981 settlement agreement. In 1991, a settlement of £13.5 million was reached. McCartney praised Aspinall for trademarking the Apple name worldwide, and called Aspinall "Mr. X" in the Apple Corps organisation.

In September 2003, Apple Computer, Inc. was again sued by Apple Corps, this time for the introduction of the iTunes Music Store and the iPod, which Aspinall and Apple Corps believed was a violation of the previous agreement for Apple Computer to not distribute music. The trial began on 27 March 2006 in the UK, and ended on 8 May 2006 in a victory for Apple Computer; the judge ruled the company's iTunes Music Store did not infringe on the trademark of Apple Corps. Aspinall was also involved in several court cases in which Apple Corps took action against EMI:

In the early 1990s, Aspinall became the executive producer for The Beatles Anthology; he, producer George Martin, and press officer Derek Taylor are the only non-Beatles seen in new footage for the documentary. He continued to advise the surviving Beatles, as well as Lennon's and Harrison's estates, and to supervise the marketing of music, music videos and merchandising. On 10 April 2007, it was announced by Apple that Aspinall had "decided to move on" and Jeff Jones—a longtime VP at Sony Legacy—was hired as CEO to oversee the back-catalogue. One of Aspinall's final tasks at Apple was to oversee the remastering of The Beatles' back-catalogue for an anticipated 2008 release.

Personal life and death

In 1961 and 1962, Aspinall had become good friends with Pete Best and subsequently rented a room in the house where Best lived with his parents. During one of the extended business trips of Best's father, the 19-year-old Aspinall became romantically involved with Best's mother, Mona Best, who was 17 years his senior. As a result, during this period, Aspinall fathered a child by Mona: Vincent "Roag" Best. Roag Best was born in late July 1962, and just three weeks later, on 16 August 1962, Best was dismissed from the Beatles.

On 30 August 1968, Aspinall married Suzy Ornstein at the Chelsea Register Office, London, with Magic Alex as best man. McCartney, Starr and his wife attended, and were also at a surprise party held later in the King's Road, London. Suzy Aspinall is the daughter of Bud Ornstein, the late chief executive of United Artists Pictures (UK). Aspinall had met her during 1964/1965 when her father was the United Artists representative overseeing the production of the first two Beatles' films: A Hard Day's Night and Help!. They went on to have four children: daughters Gayla, Dhara, Mandy and son Julian. As well as his work for Apple Corps, Aspinall and his wife were the sole directors of their own Standby Films Ltd. company, which is run from their home in Twickenham, London. In 1999, Standby Films released a film about Jimi Hendrix, called Hendrix: Band of Gypsys.

Aspinall died of lung cancer in New York City in 2008. His funeral was at the Church of St Mary the Virgin in Twickenham. Stella McCartney, Yoko Ono, Barbara Bach (wife of Starr), George Martin, Pete Best and Pete Townshend attended the funeral, with Townshend playing Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" as a tribute. The private service was followed by Aspinall's burial at Teddington Cemetery. Aspinall left nearly £7 million in his will in a trust, with the income going to Suzy, his wife of 40 years.

References

Sources

External links
Beatles' guru Neil Aspinall dies
Aspinall and his reasons for leaving Apple
Obituaries:
The Daily Telegraph, 25 March 2008
The Guardian, 25 March 2008
The Independent, 25 March 2008
The Times, 25 March 2008

1941 births
2008 deaths
People from Prestatyn
People from West Derby
Businesspeople from Liverpool
The Beatles
Apple Corps
Apple Records
British music industry executives
Burials at Teddington Cemetery
Deaths from cancer in New York (state)
Deaths from lung cancer
Grammy Award winners