Apple announcement

Photo by Leslie Samuels 

The Lost Girl in Paul McCartney's back yard

On July 12, 1967 when Leslie Samuels and Donna Stark were invited into Paul McCartney's backyard, they were in for such a treat!   Paul showed them his 2 month old kittens (one was named Mary...isn't that interesting?), they drank lemonade made by Jane Asher, Paul read from John's book, he joked around with them and signed a ton of stuff.   They ask Paul if they can take pictures and he asks if there is a nice background.  They fret over wondering if the pictures will turn out because Leslie had left her nicer camera at home.  Paul assures them that the photos will turn out.    And here it is 2013 and I see a clear color photo from that day for the first time.  Yes girls the photos did indeed turn out!  

That color photo has been floating around the internet for the past few days without any explanation.  But I know what it is because I have listened to the "Lost girl Tapes" so much that I ended up transcribing them.   (If you want me to email you a copy just let me know!)  That color photo of Paul has seriously brought tears of joy to my eyes. 

Tune in!

This is from the Antique Road Show's facebook page.   A little closer look at Leslie's Paul photo.

Another reminder for those of you in the U.S.A. that the episode that features Leslie (Samuels) Healey and her John Lennon autograph will be on PBS at 8 eastern (7 Central).   Make sure to tune in if you can.   It is awesome to have one of our own showcasing something Beatle-fan related on T.V.    Let's all hope for Leslie that Paul is watching as well.   

Rick Smith from the Standard-Times wrote a wonderful article that is well worth reading.   I am also posting the photos from the article (with Leslie's permission) because they are so great.   

Leslie's autographed photo of George at Kinfauns (in color!)

Leslie with Ringo in 1967 at his home at Sunny Heights

 Leslie Healy's "Beatles story" begins like this: "I have always been in the right place at the right time, and I've been blessed," began the San Angelo Realtor.

Who can argue with her?

As a 14-year-old New Yorker, she screamed along with a crowd of other teen girls in Ed Sullivan's auditorium as the Beatles performed.

"They were amazing," she said. "I couldn't hear anything they were singing for the screaming. I don't even know why I was screaming, but I was."

After that she knew what she had to do.

"From that day on, I said when I graduated I was going to England to see the Beatles."
Some friends called her crazy, but she planned her strategy carefully.

"I was the head of one of many New York Beatles fan clubs," she explained. Her club "had a whole bunch of kids in it, and I got to know people."
At age 17, she flew to London for a "study abroad" program.
Her first stop was to study the Beatles. Thanks to her Beatles fan club contacts, she figured out how to find the Fab Four.

"I knocked on their door, and they let me in," she said. "It was so cool."
Now, decades later, Leslie has dozens, maybe hundreds of stories about her Beatles days.
She also has scrapbooks full of pictures of the Beatles and Beatles-related keepsakes.
Recently she took several of her treasures to Corpus Christi for an appraisal by the experts from the "Antiques Roadshow."

"I love watching the show on TV," she said. "It's fascinating."
PBS's highest-rated series, "Antiques Roadshow," travels to different cities each season. The show's experts appraise items brought to them by people who flock to the taping. Almost 10 million viewers see the weekly show.

Traveling to Corpus Christi last summer to be part of the show, Leslie again was in the right place at the right time.

One of the show's appraisers studied the Beatles items. What she said surprised Leslie.

The memorabilia included a book written and autographed by John Lennon, a picture Leslie shot of Paul McCartney reading to her from the book, and a taped recording she made of Paul's reading.
Leslie said she's familiar with the prices of vintage records and autographs, but she wasn't certain what her Beatles souvenirs might bring.

"I thought the book might bring $2,000," she said.

Instead, the appraiser said it might fetch thousands more at an auction. Even though many Beatles autographs are counterfeit, Leslie's autographed book had the ring of truth, thanks to the photo and recording of Paul reading the book.

I asked her if she would be willing to sell her treasured book at an auction.
"I don't know," she told me, shaking her head.

Leslie's story took an interesting turn in the early 1980s when she once again found herself in the right place at the right time.

In 1981 she moved to San Angelo to buy a kennel and start a business. Almost immediately she met another Texas transplant, Matt Healy.

"We came from totally different backgrounds," she said. "We fascinated each other."

They married in 1982, and the couple now run their own real estate business, San Angelo Homes Realtors.

"Spouses Selling Houses," their business card reads.

The Beatles once changed her world, she said, but "Matt changed my world, and still does, every day.
"And that's my Beatles story, in a nutshell."

The episode with Leslie is scheduled to air at 7 p.m. Monday on PBS stations.

Little Girl tapes continue

Anyone who follows this blog should know that I tend to obsess over Beatles things.   I get stuck on one particular topic and I have to found out every bit of information there is about it.   A few years ago my topic of obsession was the "Little Girl" tapes.    I have talked about them a million times before on this blog.   These are the tapes that Leslie Samuels and her friend Donna Stark made when they visited the Beatles at their homes in 1967.    The bootleg is of Paul and George.   They are fascinating and I transcribed the entire thing at one point.  I also went into a deep search to find out more about Leslie and Donna and their meeting with the Beatles.   This was all before I had this blog, although it might have began my passion for Beatles and their fans.

So anyhow, over the years I have chatted with Leslie online and shockingly enough I didn't scare her away!   She is going to be featured next week on the PBS show, the Antique Road Show.  She is showing her book of John's writings autographed by John and a photograph of Paul reading the book.    You can see the segment here:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/video/episode-preview-8pm.html

It says you can hear Paul reading the book on the site.,  I didn't see a link for that up yet, but I would check back after it actually airs.

I wonder if Paul remembers this happening.   And what if he just happens to be watching the Antique Road Show and sees it?   Oh the way my mind wanders.

The segment was taped this past summer.  Here is Leslie with her book and photo

Paul in his garden chatting to Leslie and Donna

Can we all say, busted?   Yeah...obviously from the video clip, Leslie owns the rights to these photos.

Paul reading the book:  scanned from a teen magazine

Leslie Samuels in 1969

I have often wondered who exactly heard the Beatles rooftop concert in person. So far I know of: Mal Evans, Chris O'Dell, Yoko Ono, Maureen Starkey, and  Ken Mansfield. Do any of you know of anyone else who was up there? I am sure more people are known, but that is all I could think of off the top of my head. But I did find someone else who heard the concert from down below. And that is someone who is a familiar name on this blog, Leslie Samuels. Leslie is the girl behind the "Lost Girl" tapes who visited all 4 Beatles at their homes in 1967. Halfjapanese from the Bootlegzone located this letter that Leslie wrote in to the Letter section of Beatle Book Monthly. Great find!

Little Girl photos in color!

For the past several years, the fan story of Leslie Samuels and Donna Stark, who came to London from the U.S. to meet the Beatles and succeeded, has totally interested me. The only photos from their meeting has always been some dark black and white photos from a fan magazine. And while several of us bloggers have worked to lighten up the photos, they have always been grainy and hard to see. But I have recently found some colored photos from that day, including the one that shows Paul reading a John book (as mentioned on the tapes of the meeting). In the black and white photo, you can't tell what Paul is looking at. And while they are not the best quality, I am very excited about these!

Little Girl Tapes (part 2)

I especially love this because George is holding the microphone for what would become the "Little Girl Tapes" bootleg.

I really hope that no one out there has been checking this blog for part 2 of this series to appear on this blog, because part 1 was put on there on June 12, 2009. (Here it is)


And for well over a year, I have been searching for my transcript of the second part of the article. I couldn't find it on any of my discs and was trying to re-locate the original magazine, when I remembered that I once had a Beatles blog on myspace and that I had posted it on there once. And while I no longer remember my log in information for myspace, I was able to find the article and copy it! Whoo hoo!

Since I first went crazy of the "Little Girl Tapes." I have spoken with Leslie Samuels in an Internet chat. Over Beatlefest weekend this year I had to come home on Sunday. The Fest was still going on, so I got on the webcast of it and Leslie was in that chat room! She gave me her phone number so that we could talk, but disorganised Sara lost it. She wasn't familiar with this blog, but was going to check it out. So anyway..here is the 2nd part of the article about when Leslie and Donna meet George Harrison.

At home with George

By Leslie Samuels



Last issue you read how my friend, Donna and I got to visit Paul's house. Well, when we left St. John's Wood, we made our way to Waterloo Station, London to catch a train to Esher, Surry, where George lives.

Getting to Esher was one thing, but finding George's house, quite another. So we asked a girl where he lived. She told us to take a bus to Four Mile. We did. And immediately got lost. We walked around and around looking for some likely person who would know where George Harrison could be found.

At last we saw two girls on horseback. We asked them—and they told us we were two miles away. We took another bus and finally found the road that leads to "Kinfauns." Even then it wasn't easy. We went round a golf course and followed a road until it forked. We chose the right hand fork and followed it around to the end…we were wrong…back to the left hand fork.

You won't be surprised to learn that it took us two hours to find George's house. But it was worth it. Because that kaleidoscope of colors met our eyes as we walked through the gate. And to think it used to be just a plain white bungalow!

What's more, when we marched up, we saw artwork being done on six cars which stood in the driveway. Before we got to George's door, his housekeeper, Margaret came out to meet us. I introduced myself and was told to wait a moment. While Donna and I watched the car painting, who should join us but George!

"Hello." He really startled me. He was wearing a bathing suit and had red paint on his hands.

I run a Beatles fan club in the states, and many of my members gave me stuff to give George. As I started to hand it over, George said in awe, "What's all this?" I explained that my friends wanted me to deliver stuff to him personally. He said to tell them all that he loves them but could they hold off a bit on the paper. He tries to read all of his fan mail, but it builds up so much.

Then George turned to me and said, "thank you Leslie for all your letters and badges and everything." I was amazed that he actually did know me. (Well I have been writing faithfully to him for about three years and have sent him things that I have seen him wear. But to that that he associated my letters and me together at that time!)

I had some more badges (buttons) for him—a Love button, and additional Yellow Submarine—peace buttons. He promptly started pinning them on his bathing suit.

By this time it was getting late, and George said he was getting chilly. Would we mind going around to kitchen to get something to drink while he put some clothes on. Of course we didn't mind!

As we walked around the house, we bumped into Patti, who was wearing an Oriental blouse and purple hip huggers. She asked us where we were from and how we liked England. Then she took us into the kitchen for some orange juice.

Some Indian music started up in the other room and George re-appeared in some faded jeans and a knitted top. It was at that point that Donna and I realized that we were hungry. George came out with a classic line, "Rockinghorse people eat marshmallow pie…want a marshmallow?"

We asked George if he'd mind if he took some pictures of him and the house. He said no, in return he asked us why we were at Oxford. (I was able to come over with a study group and was headquartered at Oxford). I explained the situation and he laughed. I told him how much I loved England and I how I planned to come back to stay permanently as soon as I legally could. He began to sing a bit of "She is leaving home."

Now it was really late, so we decided to leave George in peace. We bid him a fond farewell and said we hoped to see him again before we left for the States.

I love it when things come together....

You all know that I am obsessed with the "Little Girl Tapes." That is the two seperate interviews Leslie Samuels and Donna Stark made in 1967 at Paul and George's homes. I am so crazy about the tapes that I sat down and transcribed them the best that I could. I am such a geek! Anyhow...in the George interview, Leslie shows George a photo that a friend of hers took of Klaus Voormann and George painting Kinfuans. Here is that part of the tape....

Leslie: My friend was here last month. Hahaha. From Chicago. I don’t know. My friend was here last month.

George: Yeah.

Leslie: You got to get this signed for me.

George: Look we’d just started painting then.

Leslie: Yeah, my friend said you’ve got to go back when it’s done; I’ve got to come back or something. I guess I’m here and I guess it’s done.

George: Yeah.

Later in the conversatin, Klaus Voorman comes in. That part of the tapes is like this:

George: Have you met Klaus? Good and Tall Klaus.

Leslie: No—hi. Maybe you can sign something we brought.

Klaus: like what?

Leslie: letters.

George: Say hello to people in New York.

Leslie: I knew you were here painting the house cause Eileen told me. It looks fantastic.

George: Oh yeah—his picture is in the photo. She has a picture from when we were painting. Show him the photo. Oh yes—remember that day?

Klaus: Oh yes!

George: And look there—

Klaus: Nice

George: Lovely

Klaus: Yeah.

Leslie: Glad I had this picture and…

George: Absolutely fantastic

Leslie: My friend from New Jersey took it.

Klaus: I said hi to some American girls.

Leslie: She stopped by one day.

George: Yes, she talked about you.

Leslie: She did?!?!

George: Yes cause I remember your name anyhow because of the so many letters.

Leslie: Oh! Wow!

George: And the badges you send.

Leslie: Oh wow! I can’t believe it! You remember me you just said it. (George laughs). And I haven’t fainted. Aren’t you proud of me? I didn’t scream. No one will believe me. Thank you for it.

Well never did I actually think that I would ever SEE the photograph being discussed here of George and Klaus painting Kinfuans,but what do you know! Here it is!!!

John at the NYC press conference

Guess who took this photo? Give up? Leslie Samuels! At least that is who credit is given to for taking the photo. If you remember, Leslie is the girl in the "Lost Girl" tapes who met Paul (which I have posted about) and George (who I haven't posted about yet, but will as soon as I find the story in my files). So in 1967 she met the Beatles in England and in 1968 she was at the press conference announcing Apple and saw Paul and John! And what a great photo! It is even in color. I am impressed

Little Girl TapesPart1

Behind all of the shrubbery- a glimpse of Paul's house




Once through the gate, Paul's reall close!





Paul remains on his couch/swing as he talks to Leslie




Paul reads a book by fellow Beatle, John Lennon




Paul's sheepdog, Martha, takes it easy




Leslie (r) gets Paul's autograph

I believe this was taken at a different time that she met Paul....







What might possibablly my all time favorite fan meeting of the Beatles is "The Little Girl," Leslie Samuels and her friend, Donna Stark. For those of you who dont' have the "Little Girl Tapes" bootleg, let me fill you in on these girls. Leslie and Donna are Beatle-crazed teenagers from New York City. They have their own Beatles fan club and are obviously in the whole pen-pal Beatles network that was going on. They get accepted for a summer school program at Oxford, which they used just as a way to send the summer in England. They skip out on class and head out to meet John, Paul, George and Ringo. And the succeed in meeting all 4 Beatles! The bring with them tons of gifts and things to be autographed along with a cassette recorder. The "interviews" with Paul and George have surrived and are what makes up the Little Girl Tapes bootleg Cd. I actually have sat down with the Cd and tried to transcribe the whole thing if anyone is nerdy enough to want to read it.

But besides the tapes (which weren't originally meant for us to hear anyhow), Leslie wrote about her Beatles adventures for Teen DateBook magazine. I have a lousy copy of a few of the articles. I typed out what Leslie orignally wrote for you all to read. I am trying to get better photos than what I currently have. Does anyone know Leslie? Last I heard she was writing a book about her times in England. She seems like a really neat woman. At the age of 17 she tells Paul McCartney that he sticks his foot in his mouth too often (no offense)! How funny is that?

At Home with Paul
By Leslie Samuels, 17, American University Washington
D.C.

Number 7 Cavendish Avenue St. John’s Wood, England is a
magical address – at least for me – because that’s where Paul McCartney
lives.

Well last summer I finally got to England, and almost
immediately a friend and I started off for St. John’s Wood.

Once there, we
nervously rang the bell on Paul’s gate and waited. About a minute passed
and then the gate was opened by Paul’s housekeeper, Mrs. Mills.

“Hello.
My name is Leslie Samuels. I am from New York and I have a fan club
at home, and I’d like to see Paul,” I said.
“Well he’s sleeping now.
Got in late from a recording session.”
“What time will he be out?”
“About
4pm, I should imagine.”
We thanked her and told her we would wait (it was
about 1pm then). Some girls who lived in the area came around and we
started chatting with them. As we did so we noticed workmen going in
and out of Paul’s house.
“Oh…he’s having the electricity redone,” said one of
the girls.

My friend Donna and I looked at each other. How, we thought,
could Paul possibility sleep with all that racket going on? So we decided to do
something. We wrote a note telling Paul our story, and put it with
the flowers we had brought for him, and waited for a nice workman to come
along.
“Hey would you deliver thee to Paul, please?” Said in our best
New Yorkese accent.
“I’ll do me best, luv.”
About 15 minutes later, the
gates open.
“He’ll see you now,” Mrs. Mills said.
Four lovely words!

We
followed Mrs. Mills through the garage where Paul keeps his black Aston Martin,
to the garden.
There was Paul sitting on a sort of couch-swing. He wore
white and red striped pants and red socks. No shirt, no shoes. He twisted
around curiously. I was almost overcome—I think I was shaking.
“Oh
you’re the hysterical one,” jested Paul.
Martha, Paul’s large gray and white
sheepdog began barking and Paul told her to be quiet.
Donna and I sat down on
some canvas which was spread out on the grass and just started to chat with
Paul. After a few minutes it seemed like we all had been friends for a
long time. Paul was very hospitable and offered us Cokes
which were served by Jane Asher.

Donna and I were stroking Martha when Paul
asked “Did you see the kittens?” Of course we hadn’t and in one hop Paul
was up and into his house. He came out a moment later holding two small
bundles of fur and handed them to us. We joked with him –
could we borrow them for the summer because we missed our pets – but of course
we couldn’t.

After about an hour of conversation, Mrs. Mills
interrupted us, saying that Paul had a phone call. As all good things come to an
end, so did our afternoon with Master McCartney. We thanked him for
seeing us and then departed.

New York 1968 in color

Photos take by Leslie Samuels 

Paul and the dogs

There seems to be a lot of fan photos out there of Paul and a dog. Most of the dog photos are Paul with his famous beloved sheep dog, Martha (my dear). But the last photo shows Paul holding a pup that is unknown to me. The photo of Paul and Martha in the grass on a sunny day goes with the photos I posted yesterday of Paul with 2 fans.