Paul invades the U.S. (New York) 1984

 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 76^th 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 60^th 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.