Philly in '75

I recently obtained a book called "as "I Write This Letter" by Marc Catone. It was published in 1982. It is one of those books where Beatle fans around America contacted Mr. Catone and wrote letters expressing how the Beatles changed their lives. What makes this one interesting in comparison to the ones that are similar written more recently is that these letters were written in the late 1970's and 1980. It is interesting hearing from 1st generation fans while they were in their 20's and early 30's. It is a book worth picking up if you can find it.

In the book is a story written by M.W. of Edgewater Park, New Jersey (the author chose to only print people's initials for privacy's sake. I wish he had chosen to print their full names, but oh well). It is the only letter in the book that I could find that talks about meeting a Beatle in person. And like many other fans, M.W. was lucky enough to meet John during the Helping Hands marathon in Philadelphia in 1975. It really was amazing how many fans John met during this short event.

As for the photos, I found them online in what appears to be an abandoned myspace page (I have one of those myself...forgot the password to delete it). Someone named "Bill" had posted a handful of photos that he had taken of the Beatles! (I will post more of them at a later date) including two great ones of John in '75! The guy with John is Bill himself. You don't always see a fan posing with John, so this is great stuff!

I am a fairly good artist. To me, one of the biggest ego boosters was when I saw John Lennon in Philadelphia in 1975, when I was 18 years old. I gave him some hand-painted T-shirts and my hero said he liked them. I had handed them to him in a box and he said, "Is it illegal?" I (very paranoid) cut him off and yes, "Yes, but did you like them?" and he said, "Of course I liked them... of course I liked the T-shirts."