Thursday, May 7, 2009

John in Philly 1975






















One of my favorite stories about a Beatle and fans is when John Lennon participated in a fundraiser in Philadelphia, PA in 1975 at a radio station. He took an Amtrack train from NYC to Philly and stayed there for 3 days raising money for the Helpinng Hands marathon. He even took his socks right off of his feet and auctioned them off! (I really wonder what ever came of those socks?). The cool thing is that the radio station welcomed fans to come and see John in person, and from the stories I have been told, John was extremely kind and funny towards everyone he met. I love these photos because John seems so happy and relaxed.

8 comments:

  1. Living not too far from the WFIL studios and being a big Beatles fan, I made sure I was there. The first day hardly any people showed up, maybe 20 or so. I had John autograph a photo I had taken of him off the TV and developed myself. I remember he made a comment about how short his hair was in the photo and I babbled some response..

    The second day, apparently word had spread, because many more people showed up. I got to take a few shots of John moving along the crowd line, signing autographs. As he was signing one in front of me, he saw me looking through my viewfinder focusing the lens on my SLR -- and he stood still looking at me until I had the camera set and snapped the photo. I'll never forget that!

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  2. Me and my best friend went Sunday, at noon time. John came out and he was GREAT!! He talked to everyone and must have signed hundreds of autographs (in the space of one hour)! I was able to talk to him and took about a dozen photos. Two were posing with him (all time favorite memory!). As he was going back into the studio I called out to him to wave at me and my camera, which he did! I'll never forget that day!

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    1. Oh what a wonderful memory you have! Thank you for sharing it with us. I love hearing about John at the Helping Hands Marathon. What a great time for him as well. I would love to see your photos if you ever want to share them.
      Sara S.

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    2. I was there that day. No one was there. My sister, my friend and I hitch hiked down to City Line Ave. I was in 8th grade. We volunteered to answer the phones. We had a great time. No pictures. I remember everything about that day. It was awesome. John Lennon sat next to me most of the time answering the phone. My sister had a disposable kodak camera and we sent the film through the mail. Never got anything back. We wrote a letter to the company and got nothing I have the memories. It was a great memory.

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  4. On 11/4/17 I found my John Lennon autograph that I got when I was 7! my parents took me and my Uncle to channel 6 for a telethon to meet him. It was The Sunday event. I personally met him, he talked to me briefly as he signed the autograph, rubbed the top of my head and said “there ya go Lad” and moved on. The funny thing is, my dad and Uncle had to stand in line to buy an album to get signed, my mom let me wander off to get closer to the area where he was signing. It was one of those things where she said “go ahead but don’t go anywhere else and come right back here.” I managed to weasel my way right up to the front. I was standing there dumbfounded, I really had no idea what was going on and suddenly I was face to face with him. I had no money or anything to have signed but luckily a nice lady next to me gave me a piece of paper and a dollar so I could get his autograph. So the autograph that is now valued at $5000.00 (priceless to me) cost me a dollar that I bummed off some nice lady!

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  5. What a weekend ! John was on with me most of the time, and was incredible. My 2 CD set of that weekend is a great recap of his on-air antics. Contact joe@bananajoeradio.com and order a real collecers item. Thanks. Banana Joe !

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  6. I was hitch hiking back from wildwood I was in the middle of the pines when a van with a bunch of kids stopped and asked if we knew were wfil was and told us Lennon was going to be there So we went and when he was coming around shaking hands I wanted to say something just for him to answer me so I said john make me a rockstar he stopped and said work hard I didn't become a rockstar but I applied that advise to driving a truck or whatever else I did

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