Paul Arrival

 

Tale of Four Teens on Beatle Hunt (Chicago 1965)

Tale of Four Teens on Beatle Hunt

By Mary Maher

The Chicago Tribune

August 27, 1965

 

Four 16-year-old Louisville girls went home last week with treasured relics, four crumbled, stained paper napkins that touched the lips of the Beatles after their morning meal. At least that's what one woman said. The salesperson charged the girls only $1 a piece and made them promise not to tell anyone of the favor she had done them. Just a shadow of doubt crossed Carol Francisco's mind. “My napkin had icing on it, and I didn't see any sweet rolls on the breakfast tray, but Lib said she thought John might have had a sweet roll.”

 “Every hero becomes a bore, at last”, said Emerson, so it's possible that someday John and Paul, George and Ringo may be reduced to disposing of their napkins, soap scraps, cigarette butts and discarded newspapers, in the manner of most mortals. At the moment, their debris is probably the fastest-moving commodity on the teen market.

 Carol, Lib (Olivia Morris), Alana Nash, and Louise Carsten were among the 60,000 fans who came up with $5.50 tickets last Friday to watch the Beatles writhe thu performances in Comiskey Park. Hundreds more broke curfew laws and police lines, on the chance that they might somehow make more personal contact with the demigods.

The girls from Louisville spent $250—6 months of planning on their project. But for them, as for the others, it was fruitless. A Beatle hunt is one of the most unrewarding junkets a human can participate in. It requires long-range scheming and devious strategy.

Last February, Carol sent for tickets to both Beatles shows. She and her friends began writing for reservations in Chicago hotels, eliminating only those that asked for deposits. They ended up with rooms reserved in 13 hotels and were reprimanded for their tactic only once. Two hotels under one ownership, apparently, compared letters and refused to cooperate.

 The Hilton Hotel’s replies snagged plans, too. Carol's father, the Reverend Clyde T Francisco, is a faculty member of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville. The girls wrote to the hotels on his official stationery, identifying themselves as seminary students, and when the Hilton politely offered them reduced student rates in the dormitory section, the girls decided not to pursue the matter.

 But they needn't have feared resistance from Hotel Management. The hotel where the Beatles stayed was accepting reservations from teenagers without question, only asking that one of the party be 18 years old. Carol's group brought along Sylvia Bohannon, a college senior, as a chaperone.

From Thursday afternoon until Saturday morning, the girls joined several 100 other fans in befriending porters, police guards, waitresses, and bellhops in an effort to get to the fifth-floor suite where the Beatles were ensconced. Nothing availed, but they did get a close look at the idols once, when they arrived at nearly 4 a.m. on Friday.

 “I touched Paul”, said Olivia, “I  asked him if I could touch him, and he nodded.” Carol was close enough to their limousine to toss her gifts through the window. They were large, framed, carefully done sketches of the Beatles' famous faces. “They fell in John's lap. He just glanced through them and left them there. He didn't care. They don't care. And they didn't nod at us or even look at us. They ignored everyone.”

 With 500 others, the girls waited for five hours to glimpse the Beatles. The next day, when they left the hotel for their afternoon concert, The Beatles finally crept out the back door, where only a small group were privileged enough to rush them and witness the terror on their faces.

 They stayed up all Friday night without success. “The whole hotel was like a dormitory”, said Carol. “All the kids were up all night visiting and trying to get to the fifth floor, but the Beatles press agents and the hotel managers were as mean as ever, yelling at us to stay in our rooms.”

 They were disappointed, but not as disappointed as the girl from a town in Indiana who told her mother she was staying at the home of a friend and diffused her bankroll on an $18 single hotel room.

 Carol says she wouldn't do it again. “I don't like them as much as I did, but it was fun just trying to get to them. And we did get closer than a lot of kids, and the shows were great, of course.” Carol admitted you couldn't hear much over the screening, “but what you could hear them, they weren't off key, like they were last year.”

At the Speed of Sound

 

Pattie in her car

 July 14, 1970 

Back Seat rider

 

MTBFR Flashback: Driving on Cavendish

 

August 8, 1975

This article was originally posted in 2009, and I believe it may have been overlooked by many people.  It has been 50 years since the event happened, and I thought it was time to repost it.  Enjoy!  

John Awarski; Lakewood, Ohio
Article written in the Oct/Nov 1975 Issue of The Write Thing

    When we arrived in England, at the beginning of August, my wife Winnie and I didn’t really believe that we had
a chance to see, let alone meet, any of the Beatles. We knew that John would be in the States, and that George and Rich were in California. Paul, we were told, was somewhere in England or Scotland rehearsing the band. But
where exactly we didn’t know.

    On our fifth day in London, we made our way to St. John’s Wood. We stopped at the church where Paul and Linda had their marriage blessed, then we went down Abbey Road and stopped at EMI studio. I asked one of the guards about going on a tour of the building and if Paul had been around lately. He said, “Yes, he was in most of last week doing some mixing.”

    Well, with that encouragement, we headed down to Cavendish Avenue. Upon arriving there, I went into the
neighbor's yard to look over the fence, and noted that only one car was there, but all the windows in the house were open. We decided to wait until the next morning before any action would be taken. After dinner, we passed by Paul and Linda’s house again, and all the lights were on in the house, which convinced us that they were indeed home and that tomorrow somehow, we would at least see them.

    The next day was warm and sunny, not bad if we had to wait. We arrived in front of 7 Cavendish at about ten a.m. and sat down to watch the activities in front of the famed home. First, the mailman came by to deliver the morning mail. As he left, it came to us that if we wrote a quick note and put it in the mailbox, someone on the other side would at least see it. So we wrote out a note saying who (and where) we were and wished them luck on the upcoming tour. Shortly, Rose, the housekeeper, came walking down the street and stopped to open the gate. We introduced ourselves and asked for any help that she could give us in getting the note to her employer. She said she’d do it as long as we didn’t try to sneak in. She also told us that Paul had an appointment at two, so if we waited there we would at least see him leave. With this news, there was no way we’d leave. We watched the laundry man, the dry cleaner, and the messenger all come and go.

    Then the gate opened and out popped Heather’s head. It looked like she was checking to see what we were going to do. We just sat there and waved hello. She nodded and started down the street. About 20 minutes later she returned with the groceries for the day.

    About 2pm, a small blue mini-cab pulled up with Joe English and his daughter Chrisse. I introduced myself, Winnie, and Nancy to Joe and told him how much we like Wings and the album Venus and Mars. Before he
went I asked if he would mind if I took a picture of him. He said if I waited, I could probably get some of everyone as they were leaving for rehearsal.

    The excitement was building. The green gate opened, and Joe stuck his head out. He waved at us to come over. We walked with all of the self-control we could find over to the green gate. Joe told us that Paul and Linda got our note, but they were busy and hoped we understood. We said we did. He then handed us a “Wings” postcard, and on the back were Paul, Linda, Denny, and Joe’s autographs. He said Paul and Linda wanted us to have these. We thanked him again and again. He said to wait where we were, and Paul and Linda would be leaving to go to rehearsal shortly, and we could at least say hello.

    Joe let us take a quick picture of him before he went back in. A few minutes went by, and we could hear talking and Paul’s dog, Martha, barking. Any minute now, we knew we would see them.

    Finally, at 2:45, the gates opened. I could see Paul backing out his green convertible. In the front seat was Linda and in the back was Joe, with Mary on his lap, Stella and Heather, with Chrisse on her lap. As Paul got to the sidewalk, he stopped the car. We thanked him and Linda for the autographs and asked how they were doing. They said that everything was fine and asked how we were. Paul was wearing cut-offs, a tank top, and green sunglasses, and Linda had a blue dress. Winnie talked to Paul about the tour and the group, and I talked to Linda. She told me her book on rock stars should be coming out in November and hoped that everyone would buy it. She also told me about a new diary which would be offered to members of the Wings Fun Club, and that it would contain only Polaroid pictures. She kidded and said, “You better buy a copy when it comes out.” I assured her that we would.

    As we were talking, a little old lady who lives across the street came running over. She started to complain to
them about the dogs barking all night long, and if they would be sure to lock them up. Paul, being very diplomatic, apologized for the noise. I think the lady just wanted to see Paul and talk to him. Paul just took it all in stride.

    Paul looked around and said, “Well, we better be going, a lot of work to do.” Paul pulled the car back, and Linda shouted, “Be sure to send us a set of pictures, “ and Paul shouted, “Take care, and we’ll see you. Bye now.”

Richmond Jazz Festival

August 8, 1965
 

Sally Harris' wedding

July 2000 
 

Leaving the limo

 

Ringo in a white car

 

July 20, 1970

Linda's thumbs aloft

 

Paul drives by

 

City Hall in Sheffield

 

John, Ringo and Paul

 

The first trip to India

 

John's new car

 June 3, 1965 (this is the date John got the car and not the date of this photo since Paul was in Portugal at the time)

A quick moment with Paul

 

My favorite Lennon look

 

Life altering car crash

 May 19, 1980

Throughout the years, all of the Beatles were in some pretty serious accidents (if you count Paul's moped accident).  Ringo and Barb were dating when this one happened 45 years ago, and they ended up making star pendants out of the wreckage (wonder if they still have them) and decided after the whole ordeal that they were meant to be together forever and were going to get married.  Thankfully, as you see in the top photo, they walked out of the hospital without major injuries.  

Love to all the Mothers today!

 

I thought this photo was sweet and a nice one to share today on Mother's Day.   Wishing all of the Mothers a wonderful day!