Paul in Chicago 1976

This is a cute story!  This is the type of encounter with Paul and Linda that just makes me smile because it was just a small thing, but obvious made one fan extremely happy.  

Paul arriving in Chicago in 1976

Paul in Chicago 1976

By Steph Meek

McCartney Ltd

July-August 1976

The May 31^st concert in Chicago stated about 8:15.  As everyone knows or has heard all three Chicago concerts were fantastic!   Thanks so much to George Tebbons for getting me tickets.  Well, the real experience happened after the concert.  George had told me to go to the Whitehall Hotel and I might get to see the other Wings members.  Well, as soon as I got out of my car a limousine pulled up and who gets out of it?  Paul McCartney and Linda.  A bunch of fans hurriedly rushed toward Paul, but the guards and hotel managers kept everyone away.   God only knows how I quietly slipped through the double doors.  Paul and Linda were standing by the elevator.  I walked up slowly, I couldn’t say anything.  We just stood there looking at each other for about one minute.  Then Paul smiled and said, “hi.” I answered, “hi, I just want you to know that I just love you.”  They both answered “thank you” and smiled.  And then Paul reached out for my hand.  That moment was unexplainable.  He and Linda then went into the elevator, smiled, and up it went to the last floor suite where a party was going on.  A bunch of people and I waited outside until 2:00.  Paul, Linda and two guards then ran out onto the open doors of a waiting limousine.  Cameras flashed; people were giving Paul and Linda flowers, pictures they had drawn or painted, wine, and other things.  It was an experience of a life time.

Things as they are as a dream

Here is a piece written by Holly Price for McCartney Ltd. in 1976.   It is interesting and a little thought provoking.   It is written a little bit too "far out" for my tastes, but I understand where Holly is coming from.   

Things as they are as a dream

By Holly Price

McCartney Ltd.

July/August 1976

 Okay folks, own up.  How many of us still wear our watches on the right hand?  I still do—I’m just too used to it to switch!   And no, I’m not left handed; although in 8^th grade I launched a campaign to become so.  You might say I was insane.  I spent hours writing with my left hand because he did.   What one will do for love!  I recently found the script of A Hard Day’s night and realized I had sat down with a cassette tape of the film and transcribed each word onto paper!   And not so many years age, either. 

I remember meeting John.  He was in Philadelphia for a month to tape the Mike Douglas show.  I came to each taping, cutting Algebra II and ended up flunking the class.  I stood next to him and my mind was numb with trying to realize – yes---here he is, John Lennon!  Say something, stupid, this doesn’t happen every day!   But I couldn’t think of anything to say.

I saw George and Ringo at Madison Square Garden, the Bangladesh Concert, about two miles from the stage (or so it seemed).  I stayed glued to binoculars and my arms were cramped for hours afterwards.  I got up at one point to take pictures and found that my knees seemed to have turned to water.

Arriving at the premiere of "Live and Let Die" July 5, 1973

And—of course—Paul.   Finally made my way to England, telling myself it was over, I didn’t care.  Sure I’d go and see his house, why not, I practically bought it! Beth and I ventured to St. John’s Wood and were told by Rose that the next day he would be leaving around 5 o’clock for the Live and Let Die premiere.   This was 1973, he’d just finished the British tour and the papers were all full of stories about how nice he’d been to the fans.  Well, we came back the next day and it was all grey and rainy, naturally.   We saw Denny Siewell and Denny Laine go inside and Linda got on the intercom and told us to leave, “It’s a private home.”  We didn’t leave.  (Did she really expect us to?).   At one point, through the half open gate, I saw Mary on the steps in a little white nightgown and nearly fainted.  “Hold on, it’s only Mary.  You’ve still got Paul to content with,” said my objective side.  However, must have decided to spare me that.  They got in a chauffeur driven car inside the gate and drove out.  Someone got out to close th gate and I saw him talking and laughing through the smoked glass window.  He never turned around.  Linda did, thought and she and I indulged in a sarcastic waving session.  “Have a good time!” I yelled.  “Thank you!” she called back.  He never looked at me. 

Seeing a Beatle is a strange thing because, instead of reading about Paul going to the premiere there I was watching him leave for it.  I had made myself a part of the legend.  Although our realities were completely different, we shared the same reality and were part of each others lives.   I had woven myself into his life after years of him weaving into mine.  I was there.  For once, and maybe never again, we shared the same moment.  What I remember most is the wait.  Seeing him lasted on a few minutes.  It all came down to waiting at that gate, teeth clenched, heart beating fast, mouth dry.  Our time meets theirs.  We really are in the same world. 

They mean so much to me.  It’s frightening to realize it.  Why should they?  Music is music, right?  I like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, the Rolling Stones; but they aren’t in my blood.  Beatlemania—if it can still be called that is love once removed.  Knowing the Beatles and knowing the Beatles sounds quite similar when in actuality it is light years apart.  We may know hobbies, addresses, birthdays, shoe sizes even, but we don’t know THEM.  Not knowing them puts us in a very strange position.   Do we love the image?  The vibrations?  The music?  Or the man?  It is a hard and painful question to ask, let alone answer.

I suppose there really are no explanations.  There is a fondness and a glow when I hear them on the radio.  The flow will always remain. Even when I’m 83 I’ll probably still catch my breath at the thought of “The Fool on the Hill” sequence in Magical Mystery Tour.  And for sure it isn’t over, because something like that doesn’t end.  If it ends, then I’ll know it never began.

 

Miracle meeting with McCartney

I love this!   I love that 1973 was a time when fan could just literally ring the buzzer at Cavendish and ask if Paul could come out and he would!    This story also answers my question about when did Paul have his house painted yellow.  It looks like 1973 is the answer!  

Photos by Pat Dees

By Pat Dees

McCartney Ltd. 

Nov-Dec 1973

Friday, September 21 (1973)

It was my last day in England and the next day Paul was returning from Africa.  So it was with a heavy heart I stood in line at the Air Terminal that Friday, my mind hoping and praying for a miracle to happen.  But when it did, it was a shock.  After we checked our luggage through we were turned away because my mother didn’t have a certain card on her that allowed her re-entry to the United States (she was born in Ireland).  So we had to stay in England for a few more days.  We (my mother, my sister and I) were at Paul’s just before noon, Sunday as Rosie had told us the day before that Paul would be in late Saturday.  Two girls from Maine that we had met before came along.  Some character who looked a sounded exactly like Peter Lorre came down the street telling us to knock as they certainly would have us in to eat.  Around five he was walking down the street and saw us and came down to the house again.  He told us lots of girls used to be there before Paul got married and they used to never leave. 

Heather occasionally opened the gate looking up and down the street but never across at us.  One time she was wearing huge orange earrings.  We thought perhaps she got them in Africa and was showing them off.  Once Mary and Stella were with her.  One of Paul’s dogs, Poppy, had run off and two kids found her, bringing her home.  They were looking for his house so we pointed it out, telling them to ring the bell which they did.  The gate opened a minute later and the dog went in.  We yelled at them to keep the gate open, as we ran across the street.  We looked in and saw Martha sitting on the steps and Linda looking out the door, telling the children to shut the gate.

That gave us the idea to ring the bell and ask if Paul would come out.  So my mother was the brave one.  She rang and a women’s voice answered.  She asked if Paul would come out because she had been there all day with the girls and was famished.  The voice said they were still in bed because they hadn’t gotten in until 5am.  Well, we knew Linda was up because we had just seen her.  So we waited a bet and decided we would try again.  My sister said that she would ring and ask, but she kept chickening out so finally one of the girls from Maine decided to do it.  We were told they had just gotten up to which the girl said, we had to go back to New York the next day.  She asked if Paul and Linda would come out and they said yes.

So they came out a few minutes later, Paul wearing dark pants, a blue and white striped shirt, Wings button.  Linda wore a blue shirt with 50’s lace on it and a knee length orangish-skirt.  Paul was unshaved and hair a little tossed; he looked super good and sexy.  My mother said something about us waiting all day to see him; he answered with “And now you can’t think of a word to say can you?”  So I asked him how the recording went in Africa and Paul said good.  “Will you have another album out soon?”  “Yes.”  We aksed how Africa was and they said quite hot but they were beginning to like it.  Paul was shivering as he only had a sleeveless top on.  Then he commented on how he had just gotten out of bed.  Then I asked if we could take some pictures to which they answered yes and posed.  I love looking through a camera then that face is on the other side.  They were asking where we were from and when she heard the others were from Maine Linda said she used to be a counselor in Washington, Maine but we had probably never heard of that place.

Two girls who had been hanging around in a car nearby came over.  Paul looked at Linda saying one of the girls had on a shirt like hers.  It seemed to me that he said it to cover up the fact that he’d been giving the girl “the eye” or so it looked to me.   The girl asked for an autograph, so while he did that I asked Linda for hers.  The other girl asked Paul for one for her husband who as sitting in the car.  Paul looked surprised that she was married and asked her how old she was.  She replied 16.  Very surprised and still staring he asked how old her friend was and she answered 20.  He replied, “Twenty? My you are getting up there in age.  You better watch it. “Linda, upon hearing this remarked, “Yes, you are almost getting as old as I am.”  I got my autograph, and my mother told my sister to get one saying her name was Janet.  Paul, hearing the name Janet, said “Janet, Janet, oh Janet.”  He noticed my sister POW bracelet reading the name and asking who it was.  I told him it was for a guy in Vietnam to which he replied, “Oh is that when you pick a serviceman and root for him?”  While saying “root” he swung his fist through the air.  The girl said they thought the war was over, and Paul added, “Oh it’s on in Cambodia.”

Ni the meantime, one of the girl from Maine was going slightly insane and Paul noticed her.  “I think the English weather is getting to her, yes, the English weather is getting to her and she’s cracking up.”  He gave her a whack across the shoulder and she looked as if she were going to pass out.  She wanted an autograph yet she didn’t quite know how to ask since she didn’t have any paper.  “Don’t go daft just because you have no paper.  Come on…” Taking my pad and pen once again.  I continued to take pictures and ask questions.  Anything to keep him there.   Someone asked if he were wearing a wedding band, as he had a band on that ring finger.  “Yes,” he replied where upon he showed it to us, turning his hand over showing the other side that had little green hearts on it.  He said Linda had one also like it.  Then with a grin he put his other hand out, up to my face saying “I have a have, see?”  He’d drawn a horse on it.  The guy’s crazy.

He asked how we liked his house, since they’ve had it painted quite wildly in yellow, red, pink and blue.  We all said it looked quite nice.  He turned to my mother with that mischievous look in his eye and asked her if she were going to paint her house like it when she got home.  She replied, “Sure!”  He laughed.  During this time my mother had also mentioned that she was from Ireland, to see his reaction.  He only rolled his eyes back just like at the end of “Help” and I just happened to have my camera taking a picture.

He glanced down the street seeing a gang of people coming, and then said it was time to go in.  One girl made it in time to ask for an autograph so he stayed out, signing for the newcomers.   Then after a few minutes and comments, said it was time to go in as it was chilly.  The poor boy looked like he needed some warming up as he was shivering.   The gates opened and they went in, stopped to say goodbye.  He started to close the gates then pulled them open saying, “Now, you’re not going to hang around the house all night, are you?”  Looking at my mom as if to get us going.  We had already begun to walk away, so she said 

‘We’re leaving” he gave us one of those sexy smiles and closed the gates.  So we left quite content on our time with him.

Wings over Houston

In 1976, a fan could wait for Paul McCartney at the airport and watch him and Linda depart from the airplane and greet him at the gate.    I know that for security reasons it is impossible to do something like that these days, but wow.....just wow at the thought of it. 

That is how a fan named Jo Beasley and her sister, Karen got to meet Paul when the Wings over American tour traveled to Houston, Texas.   According to the story, Karen took a bunch of photographs, but none of them were published with the story, so I tried to locate a few from my files to go along with the story.

This story was published in the August / September 1976 issue of McCartney Ltd.

Wings getting off the "Wings over America"plane (one of the first photos I ever purchased, but I do not know where it was taken)

Linda and Paul in Houston 

Paul in Houston

By Jo Beasley 

Now at 24 years of age, I thought I would never get to meet Paul.  Not that I hadn’t tried before.  I saw Paul with the Beatles in New Orleans (1964), Houston (1965), and Detroit (1966).  In all 3 places, I tried my best; but, in those days every other girl tried as well, which leads to my former statement of never thinking I’d really get to meet him.

Well, on May 4, 1976, it happened!  My older sister, Karen (who had become a Beatles fan about six years ago), and I had waited for that day for what seemed to be a century.  When the day finally did arrive, I don’t think I was really ready for it.    We had no real plan other than maybe see Paul before the concert at the airport.  An airport employee, who happened to be a friend of our mother’s, found out about what time Paul’s plane should arrive.

While sitting at the airport for about two hours (seemed more like eight!), a lot of little girls came in and started looking around.  I thought, “This is it; the whole world knows.”  I wondered if maybe we shouldn’t follow them, thinking they might know something we didn’t.   I must admit if all had been left to me, I would probably have gone after them, but Karen insisted we hang around a little longer.  Since my state of mind was one of complete confusion, I gave in to her demand.

About 30 minutes passed and I was losing faith but thank goodness Karen never gave up hope.  We were sitting near the restrooms, which neither of us wanted to use for fear of missing something.  Then, out of the blue appeared 3 men.  Now, to any normal people, they were simply 3 men, but to 2 Paul freaks, they represented manager, promoters, or whatever else one’s mind can imagine.  We watched them so closely, I think they began watching us, which in our minds made everything even more suspicious, we then decided we couldn’t sit still any longer, so we made a trip to the baggage department to see if we could find any  hidden clues.  When that fell through, we returned to the lobby.  Our 3 men were gone, which worried us tremendously.

We were about to really get upset when I spotted a guy walking in from the arriving flight wearing a Beatles t-shirt.  As Karen was staring out f the window, she felt fingernails in her arm.  Upon looking at me, she realized I had seen something.  She then saw that something and we both got renewed faith.  Thinking it was too good to be true, I tried talking us into the fact that a lot of people wear Beatle shirts.  She wouldn’t buy it, especially when she spotted another guy walking up wearing a Wing’s shirt and carrying a brief case.  I once again mentioned that it could be a coincidence.  She then said, “That may be a coincidence, but not the fact that his brief case had a sticker on it reading ‘Wings special pass.”  I then became a believer!  We toyed with the idea of following them, but decided upon staying awhile longer.  Approximately 45 minutes later, we began to think we had really blown it.  As a last resort, Karen called our friends again to check up on things.  It seemed as though she was on the phone for hours.  Finally, hanging up the phone, she informed me that Paul’s plane had been delayed and that we were also in the wrong arrival area.  So—off we went….

Arriving at the area we had been told to go, we saw 3 limousines and the drivers, along with a few real Wings people walking around.  I now knew that thanks tour friend and to Karen, it was finally going to happen.  No one bothered us, as we were the only 2 outsiders there.  Karen fixed the movie camera and the small camera while I rattled from excitement.  After a couple minutes, 2 more limousines pulled up.  Everyone that worked in the area asked us who was coming in, and to our surprise, the drivers didn’t even know who they were picking up.  When the plane was in sight, we saw “Wings Over America” written across the door.  I felt numb.  Karen was already snapping pictures and I was, by now, in shock.  Finally, Paul started down the stairs.  A few airport people gathered around to take pictures.  I just stood still in a daze while Karen was everywhere taking pictures.

Even though I wanted to do so much and say so many things to Paul, I still couldn’t move.  I could see him in front of me so close and yet so far away.   By this time, Karen was talking to him and taking close-up pictures.  Pau was very warm and nice to everyone.  Although I didn’t see everything that went on, Karen later told me she had held his hand while she walked beside him.  When I saw him get into the limousine and the door shut, I knew I had blown my 12 year old dream of really talking to him.  Then suddenly, Karen grabbed me, opened the limo door, and literally pushed me inside.  Now, when you are breathing into Paul McCartney’s face, you somehow make yourself speak.  So, I finally got words out and talked to him.  Karen later told me I also talked to Linda as I shook her hand.  It’s funny now, when Karen and   I both look back on it and speak of our adventure, we both always seem to bring up the feeling of Paul’s warm, soft hand his nice, caring smile.  As I was shaking his hand goodbye, Karen took a close-up of Paul.  This, of course, is my most treasured possession in the entire world.  As I look at it now, I know that smile and that outstretched arm was for me; and you can bet that thought has kept me awake many nights! 

As the car pulled away, we ran to our own.  We followed his car until we lost it on the crowded Houston freeways.  For a while in the car, neither of us spoke, then I did the stupid female thing of breaking into tears.  Karen tried to drive and stop me from crying at the same time by telling me I shouldn’t cry -- I had finally gotten what I had always wanted; but you know how it goes, and she really understood, too. 

Well, up until May 4^th Karen had really like the Beatles tremendously; but, after meeting Paul, she is now a devoted McCartney fan.  That night, after the concert, she told me she had never really understood my love for Paul throughout these 12 years; but, after meeting him, she honestly knew how I could feel the way I do about him.  So, McCartney, watch out, cos Karen has joined my team and together, we are faster than the Speed of Sound!