Paul Invades the U.S. – New York
By Pat Deese
Believe it or not, walking down Park Avenue in NYC, I
actually spotted someone I knew – Jennie, so I rushed across the street, caught
up with her, and asked if she knew where Paul might be. She said she had just seen Trevor go by in
the limo and was trying to figure where he was going. She then told us that she had heard that Paul
was supposedly going to do an interview with “Entertainment Tonight” at the
Carlisle Hotel on 76th Street.
So Kathy and her friend LouAnn and I headed off to look. We saw a group of fans there as we arrived.
A little while later we saw some “ET” people arrive, so we
thought he must be coming. The security
got ready to some cops arrived. At about
1:20, Paul arrived. As he got out of the car, he was besieged with the fans,
handing him boxes of flowers and presents.
Some were really shoving and he said, “Please don’t crowd.” I stood back and snapped a few photos. He proceeded to go in as it was a bit
wild. He wore dark pants and a jacket.
As we waited to see him leave, we were across the street
when someone yelled, “Julian!” and we looked to see him bouncing out of a
car. After that, we decided to wait
across the street. A while later, Linda
arrived, and still later, Heather came (to see Julian perhaps). They left later and I got a photo of Julian
leaving, but he would not slow down for anyone and basically everyone let him
be.
The security started joining forces and the cops arrived
once more, so we knew that Paul would be leaving soon after. It was about 4:15 when he left. This time
Linda was with him, and he had changed and was wearing a red jacket. This time he did not even attempt to stop,
just walked towards the car. The crowd
waiting was quite large and passersby were also waiting across the street in
hopes of catching a glimpse.
We were then told he was attending a party at a club on 60th
Street at 6pm, so we headed off in that direction. IT was much more crowded with fans and
photographs alike. Kathy and I managed
to get close to the entrance and proceeded to wait as various celebrities,
including most of the MTV crew, arrived.
We were rewarded finally around 7:30 to the sight of Macca bouncing out
of his car and proceeding to entertain the fans and photographers with a lot of
bouncing and smiling and posing and jumping about! I caught a fabulous glimpse of this as I was
standing not 10 feet away and the photographer directly in front of me was bend
down leading on a table they had earlier put up as a barricade. I took a few photos at first but was unable
to tell if I was in focus, plus I was being jostled by the crowd. I switched to
my movie camera. I was rewarded with a
wild pose and a knees down arms outstretched pose right at my camera. Needless to say, I nearly dropped the
camera. He looked gorgeous and wore a
dark suit and tie.
Some of the people left there then and headed for the
premiere, but we decided to wait at the exit as we would be much closer to him
there. I got up and kneeled on the
table for close to an hour. Kathy
eventually stood on it along with Louann.
I was so sore, but I was not about to let that stop me from catching a
glimpse. He came out somewhere after
8:30 (which of course made him late for the premiere!) and after snapping a few
photos and getting a good look, we headed for the theater, which was about 5
blocks away. We sure had a feat ahead of
us, and that was to get there ahead of Paul.
So, everyone was running. Picture
maybe 50 of more fans setting off running up the street, across streets,
probably in front of stunned drivers, yelling, laughing, passing bewildered New
Yorkers casually strolling down the street, turning, looking, staring,
wondering why was everyone running, what was happening, who did you see? I could barely breathe after the first two
blocks, so I slowed to a fast walk.
Actually, the only thing that had kept me going was that he was going to
be there. It was like the chase scene in
“Hard Day’s Night.” We had not sat down
or eaten in over 12 hours, and had walked and run all over New York.
We got to the premiere and there were tons of people. Luckily, we did beat Paul there, although
with all the people there, we did not see him.
I did however see his hand go in carrying roses and giving a victory
sign to the screaming crowd! It was wild and I guess he really enjoyed it and
did a whole number of the crowd and press.
After that we decided to watch him leave from across the
street at McDonald’s, where we could actually see him in the distance. Jennie and her friends stayed there and saw
him arrive, so that’s how we knew he “milked” the crowd. We saw the mounted police arrive on their
horses and knew he would be soon departing.
He left ahead of everyone else and waved wildly to the enthusiastic
crowd. We walked across the street and
managed to get copies of the programs and some girl gave us tickets that had
been handed out for the premiere.
The whole thing was an exhausting experience, but I would
do it all again for the man.
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