Tuesday, April 9, 2024

Beverley and Paul July 1967



 One of the first things I posted on this site in 2009 was the "Lost Little Girl" story.   The "Lost Girl Tapes" were a Beatles bootleg of a recording a fan named Leslie Samuels made in July 1967 when she went to Cavendish and Kinfauns with a tape recorder and spoke with Paul and George.   

I was obsessed with those recordings.  I couldn't believe that a fan could go onto the property of a Beatle house and talk to them.  I was amazed that Jane Asher served Leslie and her friend lemonade while Paul chatted away with them.   I listened to that Cd over and over again and even made a transcript of the recording.    

Toward the end of the Paul section, you hear a 4th female voice.   You hear Leslie ask the girl for her name, and she says, "Beverley."   She asks how she got there, and Beverley says, "My Grandmother."   Then you can tell that Paul and Beverley leave and then Paul returns to say goodbye to Leslie and her friend.  

So, for at least 15 years, I have wondered, "Who was Beverley? Why was she there that day? Was she a fan?"    I came across a photograph of a girl in pigtails that looked to have been taken on the same day Leslie met Paul.  I knew the girl was far too young to be Leslie or her friend (plus, she didn't look like either of them).  Was she Beverley?   The photo had more questions than answers.

Thanks to Guus at the Solo Beatles Forum -- I now know who Beverely is and why she was on the Lost Girl Tapes!  Thank you so much Guus for solving a mystery.  

Beverley  Sayers was Paul's housekeeper at the time, Mrs. Mill's granddaughter who came to London to visit relatives and stayed at Paul's house in July 1967.   She IS the girl in the photograph and she was at Cavendish when Leslie made her unforgettable trip.

Here is the news story from Herald-News from Passaic, New Jersey which was originally published on August 7, 1967.

Paul and Beverely Sayers 

Lions Head Lass Spends Week in Beatles Home 

Written by Bea Klacsmann 

Beverley Sayers, 11-year-old daughter of Audrey and Charles Sayers, 16 Claremont Terrace, Lions Head Lake, is the Envy of Beatle fans all over the world, for she not only met their idol, Paul McCartney, but actually stayed at his London home for an entire week. 

Beverley is the granddaughter of Mrs Lillian Mills (her mother's mother), who for the last six months has served as housekeeper for the bachelor member of The Beatles, who resides in a 29-room mansion in St John's Woods, London. 

Paul presented his small admirer with several presents, including five pounds in English money to do some shopping, many small gifts of dolls and the like, several autographs, and one of his latest recordings,  "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."   Beverley admits, however, that she liked their earlier recordings more, and this is a "little far out." 

The youngster, who was born in England, has just returned from a five-week visit to relatives and the London suburbs. She traveled on the plane with a family friend, Alan Hayes of Pompton Lakes, and alternately visited relatives: the Brian Mills and Peter Mills families of Ashford, Middlesex, the Leslie Flowers of Stanwell, and the Raymond Coleys of London. 

Beverley's first disappointment was when she took a whole roll of pictures of Paul and the family pets: "Martha," the English sheepdog, and "Thisbey," the cat and her three kittens. Something was wrong with the camera, and the pictures didn't turn out. However, Paul came to her rescue and had pictures taken of his young visitor with himself and his family. 

The young girl had already become used to the mod fashions of London, for her English relatives were right in style with their miniskirts and bright colors. According to Beverley, "Only the old people of London dress like we do here; all of the young people are in mod-style dress. The family attended a wedding where the groom wore a red shirt with orange flowers, bell-bottom trousers and sandals. I saw many of the young men with shoulder length hair tied with a ribbon in a ponytail and most have long droopy mustaches." 

McCartney, when he went out on an evening date, according to Beverley, wore a bright green velvet button-up jacket with bright orange velvet bellbottom slacks. One of his Hobbies is painting in the garden, but instead of scenes or portraits, Paul uses tubes of bright colored paint and pastels to draw geometric designs on his shirts ... no pictures, just different colored lines, dots, x's and squares. 

"His shoes he also paints and bright colors, and when he goes out he wears sunglasses with one purple and one yellow lens," she said. 

On the pictures with Beverley he is barechested and wearing light baby blue bell-bottom trousers with brightly colored designs of children playing all sorts of games. 

Beverley said there are at least 20 girls, ranging from 14 to 24 years old, who are always on the street outside the house. 

Mrs Mills has become a celebrity in her own right and receives her own fan letters and gifts as McCartney's housekeeper. 

Beverley reported that McCartney's home consists of four floors with two kitchens, one on the main and one on the second floor. There is a winding staircase and an enormous ballroom that Paul uses as his rec room, two TVs, a built-in record player and movie screen, and all sorts of recording devices. It was here that Paul showed Beverley home movies of himself and the other Beatles. 

According to Beverley, McCartney drives a dark green Mustang with black bucket seats. However, he also owns an antique Model T Ford which he is having refurbished and painted in various bright colors. 

Beverley was sorry not to have meant the other Beatles. She just missed Ringo Starr whose car was pulling up to the gate as she was leaving for her return to the United States. 

The Sayers family came to this country from England when Beverley was two and they resided at Lions Head Lake for the past 7 years. Beverley, who is entering the 6th grade at Schuyler-Colfax Junior High School in the fall has two sisters, Laurie,4, and Jane,1.


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