Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Bel-Air meeting


One way several young people were able to meet the boys was at the Garden Party the Beatles held for a charity while they were in Los Angeles in 1964. The Beatles sat on stools and shook hands with the children of the rich and famous in L.A. Andy Gold (a singer in the 1970's) was one of those kids.




The Beatles story. 1964. My Dad is a Film Composer and My Mother is a singer for the movies. So, my Dad knows I'm a Beatlefan, to say the least, and hears thru the showbiz grapevine that The Beatles will appear at the head of Capitol Records house one Sunday to shake hands and greet people, at $75 a pop for charity. I immediately tell him and my Mom it's curtains for them if we don't get to go! (Me and my sister, Martha...Melani was only 2) So... It's a house in Bel Air....we go there and park and walk in the ivy gates of a huge house....security is UNBELIEVABLE..hundreds of screaming fans all around the house....Anyway, lots of Celeb Kids and reporters and whatnot..Dave Hull from KRLA....(The Ol' Hullabalooer, remember all you El Aliens?)....and everyone figures they're comin in the front entrance in about 10 minutes...I am hangin back..I overhear 2 police talking: "Everything ready at the back gate?"..."Yeah"...



Ok I'm no dummy. I go and sit right near the relatively person-less back gate. SUDDENLY the gate explodes open and in striding so cool...The %#!* Beatles! I'm like going....Oh..hi...John..Hi..Paul...They're kind of thumbs up, nodding walking to their posts on 4 stools for and hour and a half of people walkin past them, each getting a photo (bless the cameraman!) and shaking their hands...and/or..just plain shaking. The Beatles are acting particularly Beatle-like today...with Paul jumping up suddenly and starting to shake the others hands...that sort of thing...very funny...Brian Epstein, Mal Evans, Neil Aspinal...they're all there..with the same sunglasses...The Beatles look so very cool. I remember noticing how dark Pauls hair was, especially on his face, well shaven, of course..but the 5 0'clock shadow is there..but God he is so cute even I, a red blodded hetro male want to faint...And the other thing I remember was how RED Johns hair was in real life. VERY Auburn. Very few photos capture this, but I've seen a few. He had sunglasses.

Anyway, it's my turn and I'm like jelly. Paul's first. I walk up to him..and shake his hand and mutter (because of nervousness, I mutter too low for the human ear): "Hi, I'm Andy Gold."..Paul goes "Huh?" I try again "Hi, I'm Andy Gold."..He still can't hear and leans way in (John is now kinda cracking up at this)..I "Sorry, What?" I muster all my courage. "I'm ANDY GOLD." Paul kind of looks like...BFD! and goes "Hm! really" (I'm guessing he still didn't hear me)...smiles and I move on..feeling like a total idiot.. But it was a wonderful day. The picture is during mid-McCartney moment...you can see me totally petrified..slack jawed....what a day.



2 comments:

  1. Wow!! What an all-star party. It's pretty funny that all of them were made to sit on chairs and shake hands like that! Who can blame poor Andy for being a little freaked out during this moment!

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  2. LOL at a male fan wanting to faint because of Paul's cuteness :D

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