Beatles Film 'Yellow Submarine' Touched Music, Fashion — And Religion
The Beatles weren't always simpatico with organized religion. But "submarine churches," inspired by the band's "love is all you need" gospel, emerged in the U.S. shortly after the 1968 movie release.
When the phantasmagorically weird Beatles film Yellow Submarine premiered 50 years ago, its psychedelic colors and peace-and-love sensibility quickly influenced fashion, graphic design, animation and music.
But the 1968 movie also influenced organized religion — a fact lost in the hubbub over the release of a restored and remastered version in American theaters on July 8.
Not long after the British-made film landed in the United States, "submarine churches" attracted urban, young people. They adopted the outline of a on its periscope as their symbol and displayed it alongside peace signs, flowers and other popular emblems of the 1960s.
