I Met the Beatles in the Bahamas

This isn't the photo Nancy took because she said Ringo wasn't in the photograph, but it must have been taken the same day. 

 

This post is in memory of Nancy Oaks, who passed away in 2022.   According to her obituary, Nancy "loved the Beatles, and  her most exciting memory as a diehard fan was meeting them in person on Paradise Island while they were filming 'Help!'"  

This is Nancy's story as she told it in 1965 of when she met the Beatles.  

I met the Beatles in the Bahamas

By Nancy Oaks (as told to Bob Buyer)

The Buffalo Evening News

March 27, 1965

I am 15 years old, and I have seen A Hard Day's Night five times.  My mother says that she can't remember when she last saw the wallpaper in my room because I must have about 1000 pictures of the Beatles pasted and pinned to it. I have every single record the Beatles ever made and all their albums, too. So if you think that I was excited a couple of weeks ago when I found myself almost all alone with the Beatles on Paradise Island in the Bahamas while they were making their new movie, you are absolutely right.

 My mom and dad took me and my kid sister, Anne, who's 10, along when they flew to Florida to see our grandparents before flying on to the Bahamas. My dad is a manufacturer's agent who travels around New York and Pennsylvania and his own Cessna 195 plane. It's great for going on vacation, too. 

In the Bahamas, we stayed with Harry Kline, whom my parents knew when we all lived in Buffalo. He has a boat he calls a dragger, that's anchored near Paradise Island. 

They used to call it Hog Island before Huntington Hartford spent all that money trying to make it into a resort. He's gone now, and the island is just there. No one is allowed on Paradise Island now, except if you live there or are a guest, like we were, of someone who does. I guess that's why the Beatles picked it to make some scenes for their new movie. 

We had heard, of course, that the Beatles were in the Bahamas, but we never expected to run into them, I mean, face to face and just a few feet away. Mr. Kline picked us up at the airport, and we were dying to ask him about the Beatles, but we didn't.

 Just after we landed on Paradise Island, we saw them. They were seated in a little ferryboat just about to leave the island. They were covered up with straw hats and lots of clothing because someone told us later their directors didn't want them to get sunburned. I knelt down on the dock to get a closer look at the Beatles. So did Anne. We stared at them, and they looked at us, too, and then their boat went away. I think I cried a little.

The next day, we saw them on the other side of the island. They were rehearsing. George Harrison was dancing. Ringo Starr was on a motorboat. When Ringo came on the beach, I went over to him and asked for his autograph. "Not at the moment," Ringo answered in his dreamy accent, "I'm too busy." I didn't mind.

 A little later, I saw Paul McCartney, John Lennon, and George coming down from the club where, I guess, they had lunch. I went up to them again and asked Paul for his autograph. "Later, luv", he said to me.  Again, they went away, and again, they came back. 

Later, they stood near me, looking mad and glaring in one direction. John stopped and looked at me, still glaring. I asked John for his autograph, and he obliged. He's great. Then I asked Paul. He signed twice, once for Anne; he's great, too, and so cute. I never got Ringo or George because they started filming a scene on the beach.

 The makeup men made up the boys and did their hair. John tried on hats. One was a funny little baseball cap. It really wasn't funny, but it was on John Lennon, with all that hair! I was about 10 feet away from him and started to laugh. He looked up and, in his gorgeous accent, said, "What's so funny?"

 Then they shot a scene where the boys go charging down the beach, chased by a group of policemen. Ringo comes running up, covered with red paint, and stops to talk to them. 

After a couple of takes, Paul sat down on the beach nearby. I crawled over and knelt down about three feet away. I whispered to him to turn around so I could get his picture. He didn't hear me. John was standing near, and I looked up and said, "Would you please ask him to turn around?" John looked at Paul and said, "Hey, Paul, turn around now". Paul turned and gave me a real funny grin. Then I got a beautiful picture of George, John, and Paul, but I accidentally cut out Ringo. Then a man came charging over and said, "No pictures, ladies!" I didn't care. I'd already taken them.

When I think about it, which is pretty often the case, I remember Ringo as a lot skinnier than in his pictures. John is much cuter, and so is Paul. Paul's gorgeous. I didn't get to see George very well. My pictures came out very well, I thought. Everybody I know once copies of them, I can understand this.