So Beatle George Did it! (1966)

 

So Beatle George Did It

By Phyllis Battelle

The Plain Dealer

January 30, 1966

    "Dear George," a New York City teenager, wrote Beatle George Harrison. "Please try and understand that I don't love you because you're a Beatle, but because you're you. Now you are probably saying, 'oh, all the girls tell me that', but I don't want you to call me now. You better wait till you fizzle out. Always and forever. Lois "

     Poor Lois. George could neither fizzle nor wait. He was married last week to a young model named Pattie. While 1000s of American girls mourn the loss of their idol to the forces of Cupid and conventionality, pity Alice of Chicago, who pleaded with George, "Marry me, and I promise I won't be a drag."

     Those who have met and listened to the philosophies of The Beatles cannot help but rejoice that Harrison has himself hitched. He is a likable young man, probably the most amused and least bemused of the famous foursome. And I thought after spending four days with The Beatles, the one most likely to succeed at matrimony.

     "I've got no girlfriend," George said coolly last March, "but you know, I'm not ready to do anything about it yet.

     "Life was pretty complicated for us. For a time, we had so much on our plates. All at the same time, it was really confusing. You don't want to involve a girl in that kind of confusion. When we start making more films and doing less traveling, that'll be the time, maybe, to well, you know, I'll just get married when I feel like it. "

    Not only did Harrison sound sensible for a suddenly famous young man, he was modest, a realist. Asked if his marriage, when and if it took place, wouldn't hurt the image of the Beatles. He looked surprised. "Maybe it would, come to think of it, but I'm more worried about personal happiness than world happiness. And anyway, I shouldn't think anyone would get hysterical about such a great event."

     George was equally unimpressed with his talent, though many critics have called him the best musician in the quartet. "Musicianship? Just average, I suppose. As a group, we're good, but if you break us down, there's much better musicians around."

     I was amused to read that at his wedding, Harrison wore a black Victorian-style suit. It reminded me that one day when we were chatting, he was wearing an unusual chamois jacket. "You like it?" He asked when I remarked it looked unusual. "I got it in the Canary Islands, and then I dug it up after about three years and started wearing it. I guess it's a little unusual, but you just get bored with wearing the same thing all the time, don't you?

     "And it's a hard thing finding different things to wear, different lapels, different epaulets. I know I'm called 'the quiet one'. It isn't that I'm really shy, not at all. It's just that I get bored easily. You would too if people kept asking you, 'How do you comb your hair?'

     "But I'm getting better at coping with boredom. I've learned how to sit around airports and dressing rooms and having people I don't know always around us, although I must say, I like to get away and have a bit of privacy." Once in a while, that meant he admitted privacy from John Paul and Ringo as well.

     Well, George found privacy last week with the girl he dated for two years before taking the giant step. She should have a good life, because George Harrison doesn't intend to have anything less. 

    "I love luxury," he said, "and have yet to find somebody who doesn't. So I'll keep on working as hard as I can to keep it now that I've got it."

     He looked philosophical as he added, "It would be much harder, I think, to work up to wealth as the Beatles have, and then lose it, than to be born loaded and lose it all. At least a born rich man, if he gets poor, is trying something new for the first time."