Autographs in India

George and Magic Alex were in India to make the Wonderwall album in early 1968. 

George's first trip to India in 1968

I always wondered if Patti went with George on this trip in January 1968.   From the look of things he took Magic Alex and Neil with him. 

Kicking around the ole football

The days of fur

Photo taken from an old negative.  From the collection of Sara Schmidt 

Off to see the Wizard

Just thinking about buying an island

Beatles Going Broke?

Beatles going Broke?  Not a chance, Apple boss tells "Go"
By Loraine Alterman

A wire service report form London that the Beatles are going broke has been categorically denied by Ron Kass, head of Apple Corps Ltd.

In a statement to "Go," Kass said that the story was completely fake.  The story said that John Lennon told an interviewer that if Apple keeps losing money at the present rate, they would be broke in six months.

According to Kass, who was in Los Angeles last week, the Beatles and Apple have cornered the market on bad publicity and everything they say is twisted.

"The money is backed up to such as extent it's frightening," Kass stated.  The real problem is that the huge profits from Apple are causing a big tax problem.

Kass made three points to show that Apple is very much in the black.

In the first place, a two-million dollar profit is coming from "Yellow Submarine" to Apple which owns half of the film.

Secondly, The Beatles' royalties from America as of December 31 were over four million dollars.  This is just royalties from Apple which has been in existence only since early last summer.

Thirdly, Apple in America alone has already shone a half million dollar profit on the record company operation.

Kass believes that the false stories originated because teh Beatles have been spending a lot of cash in London lately to acquire property.

For example, they spent about 1.2 million dollars to purchase the building on Saville Row [sic] for Apple headquarters.  They spent another $240,000 for a cutting lathe for the headquarters.

Kass told "Go" that the reason the Beatles are spending so much money is because they have it.

They need to spend a lot for tax purposes - AND THERE IS NO DANGER THAT THEY ARE GOING BROKE.

Meanwhile from London, /"Go's" correspondent Richard Green reports that John Lennon is making a film for Austrian TV called "Rape" and it stars his companion, Yoko Ono.

Nearing completion now, the film may be offered at a later date to other TV companies.

Green also reports that George Harrison and Derek Taylor, press chief at Apple, are planning to write a musical together based around life at the organization's London offices.

They plan to present it in New York next fall, but no details of cast or whether or not any of the Beatles will appear in it are available.

Remembering Magic Alex

You may have heard that Alexis Mardas, who we all know as Magic Alex passed away on January 13, 2017.      Magic Alex was quite a character in the Beatles story.   From the time he became close friends with the Beatles in 1967 (he was friendly with them much earlier than that, but he didn't appear to hang around them until 1967) and he suddenly was appearing the background of many Beatles events.   He took the Beatles to his homeland of Greece when they wanted to buy an island there.   He was in the Magical Mystery Tour film.   He traveled with John and Paul to New York for the Apple announcement.   I could go on and on.   Really---look in the background of Beatles photos from 1967-1968 where the Beatles were out and about and you frequently see Magic Alex lurking about.

Magic Alex 

Besides becoming close friends with John and the other Beatles, Alex is most known for being the head of Apple Electronics.    From what I can tell, Magic Alex had a ton of great ideas, but the technology hadn't caught up with his ideas yet.    One of his ideas was for each shopping cart at the store to have a scanner.   You scan the item before you put it in your cart and it keeps a running tally of the price.  When you get to the check out, you show your total and pay.    Sort of like how self-checkout is today.   However, in 1967 that would have been sort of a crazy idea.    Alex had lots of those crazy ideas and John (and therefore the others) just fell in love with all of them.    Many people believe that Alex scammed the Beatles out of money by stringing them along with these wild ideas and not showing any product.    It does appear that way.     In 2010 Alex,  in a very rare "appearance" wrote a letter to the New York Times defending himself.    I am not sure how much of it I believe, but it is interesting to read things from his point of view.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/arts/Mardas.pdf

Alex leads the bus on the Magical Mystery Tour 

Magic Alex's biggest task was to build a state of the art recording studio for the Beatles at Apple.   Alex failed miserably at this task.    He made 16 tiny speakers and nothing was sound-proof. There wasn't even a way for the studio to communicate with the engineers and producers.    George Harrison said it was" the biggest disaster of all time."   George Martin had to step in and get a 4-track for the guys to use, but was so fed up with the Beatles falling for foolishness, he pretty much stayed away from the "Get Back" sessions.    And by the time Allen Klein came around, Alex was fired.   However, he still was social friends with John Lennon for a time before he sort of disappeared into obscurity.    He never made money from his Beatles connection, although I am sure his book would have been interesting!   I don't recall him ever even appearing at any Beatles conventions.    I think he just lived his life in Greece.

So Magic Alex is a person that many fans don't seem to like, but the way I see it is that he was there.  He is actually a big part of this whole crazy Beatles story and without him, many of the Beatles decisions would have gone differently.     I am sorry to hear of his passing because I think he left without sharing enough of what he experienced as an insider in the world of the Beatles.

Leaving Greece

Enjoy a meal in Greece

Hanging out in Greece

The colorful cast of characters at Magic Alex's wedding

This is the first time I have ever seen a color photo from Magic Alex's 1968 wedding.  How he got someone to marry him is beyond me!   That man was just really strange and had the strangest ideas.   But he sure invited some great people to his wedding:  John and Yoko, Mal Evans, George and Pattie, Peter Asher and Donovan are all there.  

Walking

John and Paul announce Apple Corps in NYC May 1968