WI: Beatles killed during their 1966 tour of Manila

Here's an article on the premise of this scenario.

TLDR: The Beatles go to Manila for concerts. Accidentally snubs wife of local dictator. Said wife happens to be a drama queen. Gets super pissed and vows revenge. Presumably hires a bunch of goons to scare the living daylights out of the Fab Four. They all GTFO and vow never to return to the PH.

So, IOTL the Beatles managed to get out of the Philippines in one piece. But what if the (presumably Imelda Marcos-hired) thugs at the airport had been rougher and ended up beating all 4 of them to death?

What happens now? What's the international reaction? What knock-on effects can this possibly have on the Marcos regime?
 
Here's an article on the premise of this scenario.

TLDR: The Beatles go to Manila for concerts. Accidentally snubs wife of local dictator. Said wife happens to be a drama queen. Gets super pissed and vows revenge. Presumably hires a bunch of goons to scare the living daylights out of the Fab Four. They all GTFO and vow never to return to the PH.

So, IOTL the Beatles managed to get out of the Philippines in one piece. But what if the (presumably Imelda Marcos-hired) thugs at the airport had been rougher and ended up beating all 4 of them to death?

What happens now? What's the international reaction? What knock-on effects can this possibly have on the Marcos regime?
Fangirls and the American public call for scant ions on the Marcos regime.
 
( https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/soc.history.what-if/AjVCMUfDYew )

Since the Marcoses control the media, they'll just blame it on whoever they like. "They were such nice boys. Why do the Communists hate our young people so much?"

Fangirls and the American public call for scant ions on the Marcos regime.

LBJ ignores their call. He isn't going to do a damn thing to annoy the Marcoses, because we can't afford to lose Subic Bay in the midst of the Vietnam War. It also helps our narrative to go along with the story that Communist agitators did it.

LBJ and PM Wilson don't get along anyway; America's refusal to condemn the incident will just solidify the rift.
 
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Geon

Donor
There are likely to be survivors from the group that tell their story. Then things WILL get ugly!

This will result in a major backlash from the UK and US governments at the very least. Beatles' fans throughout the world will demand boycotts by their respective governments of any goods from the Philippines. Likely, many other entertainers scheduled to perform in Manila that year would cancel their appearances out of solidarity with the Beatles.

You would have several protests in major cities by fans demanding an apology from BOTH Ferdinand and Inelda Marcos on behalf of their government.

The Fab Four and Brian Epstein would be mourned throughout the world.

International pressure would reach the point where it is likely the Philippines government must issue some sort of apology. Given the furor caused by the incident it is unlikely you will have any "name" entertainers going to Manila until after the Marcos regime falls.
 
Big cultural affects. Yesterday and Today and Revolver would be their last albums.

No Sgt. Pepper's. No Magical Mystery Tour, the White Album or Yellow Submarine. No Abbey Road. No Wings.
 
Cultural effects aside, what ramifications will this have on the Marcoses? Can they hold on to power as long as IOTL or would the death of the Fab Four (on the orders of Imelda nonethelss) indirectly lead to an early fall of the dictatorship? Assuming that Ferdinand can get away with Martial Law ITTL.

Also, well - ITTL the Philippines will forever be remembered as that country that murdered the Beatles. What a lovely reputation to have. :(
 
It probably leads to Cold War kleptocracies being less commonly used for international entertainment events. I don't think you're going to see famous boxing matches happening in the Phillipines as a result of this.
 
Cultural effects aside, what ramifications will this have on the Marcoses? Can they hold on to power as long as IOTL or would the death of the Fab Four (on the orders of Imelda nonethelss) indirectly lead to an early fall of the dictatorship? Assuming that Ferdinand can get away with Martial Law ITTL.

Also, well - ITTL the Philippines will forever be remembered as that country that murdered the Beatles. What a lovely reputation to have. :(
Not necessarily, of course, but can we se the fans actually having a tangible effect on the upcoming elections?
 
The U.S. might run out of patience with Marcos' antics sooner; they did so IOTL after the Marcoses blatantly cheated to deny Aquino's widow her victory in the election...

A parallel might be seen in the deaths of the Mirabal sisters in the Dominican Republic. After Trujillo had them killed and staged their deaths to look like an accident (which fooled no one), the U.S. government (not to mention most of the Dominican people (1)) stopped supporting him, as the sisters were very popular in the Dominican Republic; he was assassinated six months later...

It's one thing to kill someone and make their deaths look like an accident; it's quite another to have a mob literally beat the most popular singing group in the world to death at the behest of the First Lady...

The Philippines will see their bookings for international acts go...down. Dramatically (this would be like what happened to Dallas' reputation after JFK was shot, only worse)...

(1) Those who weren't already being oppressed by Trujillo, of course.
 
The U.S. might run out of patience with Marcos' antics sooner; they did so IOTL after the Marcoses blatantly cheated to deny Aquino's widow her victory in the election...

Not during Vietnam we won't. IMHO the U.S. didn't start getting tired of Marcos' shit until 1979 when he unilaterally changed the deal on Subic Bay (which by this point we didn't need all that badly).
 
I agree, during Vietnam, we won't do too much. After Vietnam, though...

And, again, @Mad Bad Rabbit, I see many musical acts (and other international entertainment acts and sports, for that matter) boycotting the Philippines (no musical group is really going to want to go a country that was responsible for the deaths of the most popular musical group in the world up to that point) until Marcos is out of there...
 
Here's an article on the premise of this scenario.

TLDR: The Beatles go to Manila for concerts. Accidentally snubs wife of local dictator. Said wife happens to be a drama queen. Gets super pissed and vows revenge. Presumably hires a bunch of goons to scare the living daylights out of the Fab Four. They all GTFO and vow never to return to the PH.

So, IOTL the Beatles managed to get out of the Philippines in one piece. But what if the (presumably Imelda Marcos-hired) thugs at the airport had been rougher and ended up beating all 4 of them to death?

What happens now? What's the international reaction? What knock-on effects can this possibly have on the Marcos regime?

This happened in early July 1966. Could it butterfly away England winning the World cup later that month?
 
This happened in early July 1966. Could it butterfly away England winning the World cup later that month?

They probably go on win in like OTL, but they also dedicate their victory to the band, similar as what the Brazil team did for Ayrton Senna after winning the World cup in 1994
 
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