Any info?

 

Can someone help me out with this one?  1968?  Where was this taken?  Who is the other guy with Paul?

Looking for a photo....

 

Joe Hagan and Paul 

I was listening to the podcast "Another Kind of Mind" podcast the other day.  They were talking to the author of Sticky Fingers, Joe Hagan.   He wrote the biography of Jann Wenner.    While on there, he talks about the photograph of John and Paul from 1974.  

In 1974, Wenner received a mysterious cream-colored envelope in the mail, care of “Johann Weiner” and postmarked Los Angeles, California. Inside was a single Polaroid picture of John Lennon and Paul McCartney hanging out on a garden patio with friends: Linda McCartney, hoisting a pool stick; Keith Moon, in shorts and Roman sandals; and May Pang, Lennon’s then lover, holding McCartney’s daughter Mary on her lap. On the white strip below the image, dated “Palm Sunday 1974,” was the message “How do you sleep???!!!”

This was a reference to the John Lennon song from 1971’s Imagine, a notorious attack on McCartney in which Lennon snipes, “The only thing you done was yesterday.” Now the message was being re-purposed to attack Jann Wenner. Wenner said he never understood the precise meaning of the picture, but it was obvious it was a bitter joke from the Beatle he had betrayed. At the time, Paul and Linda McCartney had just appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone, while Lennon’s latest album, Mind Games, was torched by Jon Landau in the magazine for having “his worst writing yet.”

— Joe Hagan (biographer), Vanity Fair: Jann Wenner, John Lennon, and the Greatest Rolling Stone Cover Ever. (September 29th, 2017)

 While talking to the girls on the podcast about this photo, Joe says that he has shared this photo before.  The girls all acted like they had seen the photo.   I searched the internet and could not find it.  I must find this photo!  Has anyone seen it?

Wrong camera

 

Someone please tell me who is with Ringo -- it is driving me crazy!   I think if they were looking at the camera facing them, I'd have a better idea. 

Who is this lady?

 

These photos were taken on November 15, 1976 in Chicago.    According to the fans that were eyewitnesses to this event, they say that George grabbed Olivia and started dancing.  Previously I only had the bottom photo, but now that I have the top photo, I am doubting that it is a photo of Olivia.  Admittedly I am not familiar with how Olivia looked in 1976.   This very well could be her since that is what the people that were there said.   They would know better than a photograph.    What do you think?   Is it obviously Olivia or some mystery girl?  

John Lennon did NOT crash a wedding!

 

Time to squash a story that has been spreading around the internet for the past few years.   The story goes like this:

The story behind this photo is very interesting. John was doing one of his daily wanderings around New York when he came across a Wedding Reception in progress. John, being John, invited himself in and no one complained. He enjoyed the reception buffet and even joined the band playing for the wedding and performed a number of songs at their request. The bride and groom even had him join them for a wedding photo.

That is a nice story.   Just picture it -- John Lennon crashing a wedding and playing with the wedding band!   Wow!   Too bad it is just that -- a story.   There is absolutely NO TRUTH to this story!   Please do not believe this made-up story.   

The truth is still pretty cool, but John didn't eat a buffet or play with a band. 

This photo was taken in Philadelphia in May 1975 while John was in Philly for the  Helping Hands marathon.  This was written by one of the girls that worked for WFIL at the time.   

 

Jay Cook, WFIL-AM Program Director brought us all into the recording studio to answer the phones for the telethon. We posed for pics with John Lennon & the following nite was Marple-Newtown's Jr. Prom. Sue Cook, Jay's daughter, is far right. Those were the days. Mrs. Cook had to tell us to stop following him as he was headed to the bathroom! 

So there you have it --   there was no wedding.   There WAS a prom.  The program director of WFIL was at the prom and that is why John posed for the photo.   Yes -- I do think it is strange that the girls at the prom have bouquets instead of corsages, but it was the 1970s.  I don't get it.  

The Beatles with Davy Jones

Photo for sale on Ebay by Tracks

 

Tracks is selling interestingly enough part of a "new" photo of The Beatles performing at the Cavern Club.  Somehow I can just picture a girl that loved George tearing George out of the photograph to tape onto her wall or scrapbook. 

The photo was taken on December 8, 1961, and shows the Beatles backing a soul singer named Davy Jones.  Davy performed at the lunchtime session at the Cavern Club the day and it was noted that he had brought cocaine with him and it is quite possible that members of The Beatles tried some backstage.     The two songs we know that they performed for sure were Amapola (a song that Jones had a released as a single) as well as Mighty Man (which was the B-side).   The Beatles added Mighty Man to their own set.  

In regards to that new photo, it is interesting that Paul is no sitting in the chair, but his Hofner is in his place.   Now there is another photograph that I have posted on this site before from this date that has Paul playing his bass standing up near George.   Where is Paul?   Is he in the part of the photograph that was ripped off?   I'd say that we'd never know -- but someday we will.   The full photo is out there somewhere because it was sold in an auction.  Unfortunately, we can't see the full photograph in the auction listing either.   One of these days it will surface.   

Broadway & 88th St-- a John and Yoko Mystery

There is a video on Youtube called "Broadway and 88th St NYC -1971"  This little film is a time travel back to New York City in the early 1970s shot by Nicolas West.  He says, "When I was a teenager I took my movie camera down into the middle of Broadway in New York City (I grew up there) and filmed the neighborhood."


His film shows the shops around the areas while cars drive by and people walkabout, doing their business.  

Among the people walking around, there is a couple that looks a lot like John Lennon and Yoko Ono.  You can spot them at :53 seconds into the film.     West says, "What I didn't realize at the time was that as I was filming, John and Yoko walked right in front of me. You can see them crossing from right to left starting at :53 seconds into the film. This was 1971, they had just moved to New York and were living in the Village, but spent a lot of time in my neighborhood because there was a macrobiotic restaurant there, Souen, that they loved."


Of course, being the Beatles nerds that we are, this information can't be taken at face value.  Is the question is:  do we really see John and Yoko walking casually in this homemade film?    I want it to be them.    I love the idea of things being just as John said about how he can walk around the city and people don't bug him.    

Here is what a Lennon friend and I found out:  

• The movies showing at the New Yorker were "The End of St. Petersburg" and "Bwana Toshi".   According to the New York Times, those two films were shown together at the New York beginning on November 23, 1970.  (NOT 1971 as the filmmaker thought).
• John and Yoko arrived in New York City to work on some films on December 1, 1970.
• One of the addresses of a shop nearby was 2906 Broadway.  That was quite a walking distance from the St. Regis Hotel where they were staying at the time.  (Two E. 55th Street)
• The restaurant the filmmaker thought they might have been going to, Souen, did not open until 1971.   (although they did really eat there frequently).
• The man in the film is wearing glasses and seems to have facial hair.  The woman next to him is the same heigh difference as we see between J&Y.   

Here are  photographs of John and Yoko from early December 1970

I really can't' decide what my final decision on this is.  I keep going back and forth.   On the one hand, it is possible for it to be them because they were in New York City at the same time as those films were being shown.    The jacket looks sort of like the one John is wearing.  One the other hand. why would they be carrying what looks like groceries far from where they were located?   You really cannot see the woman in the shot.   Everything is so grainy on these old films that it is hard to make out details.   

So we thought we'd throw it out to you -- the Lennon fans of the world.  What is your take?

Who is it?

This photo was in a magazine as a contest.  If you figure out who this is,  you could have won a Beatles dress.   I have been looking at it and I am not 100% sure if I have it figured out.

The girl who filled out the page from the scrapbook I scanned this from had put down "Paul" as the answer.     

We have had some fun with this in the past -- who do you think it is?  (sorry the Beatles dress prize is not available). 

The Plaza

This has been a discussion going on between some of the great minds in Beatleology-- alright just a group of us on Facebook talking about it.    I said that I would post it out on this blog and see what everyone else thinks. 

This is the John Lennon photo in question.  We are trying to figure out when and where it was taken.  John wore this jacket and shirt a lot during November of 1980.        In lightening the photo, we can make out some of the things in the background.    We spot a clock that is at 4:00, a pillar, some luggage and what seems to be a luggage cart.     

So it would seem that John and Yoko were outside of a hotel in New York City.     We know that Ringo and John (along with Barbara and Yoko) met at the Plaza Hotel on November 15 (or was it the 26th?  Ringo says on the Barbara Walters special that it was on November 15.   Other sources say it was November 26.    I personally am going to go with Ringo's date on this one, even though Ringo is typically the worst person to trust on dates simply because you don't forget the last day you saw your best friend.).   

Ringo and Barbara on the day in question 

So the mystery question is:   Could the John photo have been taken on the same day that he last saw Ringo?   

It appears to me that John IS at the Plaza in the photo.    When I look at a modern photo of the Plaza, I see the round clock on a pillar.  The clocks don't seem to match, but I don't know of any other hotel in NYC with clocks like that in the front.    Also, the marble on the building appears to match one another on both photos.

modern photo of the Plaza Hotel in NYC 

Was the John photo taken the same day as the Ringo photo?    As Miss Tammy points out, the clock is at 4:00.   Was that 4pm?    John and Ringo supposedly spent the evening together so 4pm would have been early to call it a night.    Was it 4am?   That would have been way more than just spending the evening together and why would paparazzi be outside a hotel at 4am? 

Is there another time when John and Yoko were at the Plaza in November of 1980?   

What do you think my fellow Beatle fans?   

Questionable photo

This is an unusual photo.   When I found it, it stated that it was John and Cynthia outside her house in the Whirral.    I don't think the girl really looks like Cynthia at all, and the photo is so dark, how could anyone tell where it was taken?      The clothing don't look typical of what John would wear in the early 1960's and I even question if John's head wasn't "photoshopped"  (more like cut and paste) on the body.    But then again, I look at it and think it looks like a photo of John and a fan.    So I figured I could put it up on this blog and we can all figure it out together.


Just for the record:  I am not lying or trying to be deceptive here.  

The Mystery Photo of the moment

This photo is currently for sale in a lot of Beatles photos at Sotherby's  Auction House.     It has been causing quite a stir among Beatle fans.   No one can pinpoint where the photo was taken.   From the best we can tell the photograph was either taken in very late 1967 or early in 1968.     Suggestions as to where the photo was taken?   India?  A night club with a Moroccan theme?   A secret trip John and Cyn made to Morocco?

What do you think of this mystery photo?  

Mystery Boys

Beatles fan, Peter Hodgson made a fantastic discovery last month when he was going through some archived photographs of Liverpool by the Liverpool Echo newspaper.     The photograph was taken by near Speke on the Oglet Shore in the late 1940's.    

The photo itself shows a group of kids playing on the beach.   And in the background, which has been zoomed and cropped from the original, shows some young boys wearing shorts and braces along with a girl with a bow in her hair.

Peter is convinced that the two boys (the one looking at the camera being Paul and the short one turned is Mike) is the McCartney brothers.

Mike was shown the photo and said it was a 50/50 chance as he and his brother did play on that beach in the summers and their mum often dressed them in shorts and braces as well as they had a neighbor girl that palled around with them.

But can we know for sure that this is Paul and Mike and not just some other ragamuffin kids from Liverpool?  No---the image is too far away to really make out the facial features of the boys.  

Here is the photo that has convinced many that it is Paul and his neighbor friend.    As you see the little girl has a bow in her hair, just as the girl in the beach photo has.    The clothing and hairstyle of the little boy in the beach photo does look identical to little Paul's in the photo below.

However, a lot of little girls wore bows in the hair and a lot of little boys looked similar to how Paul looked at that time.   I don't think we will ever know for sure---but it really was a great discovery!

Look at the man in the mirror

The ebay auction for this photo  says that it was taken in Pittsburg, PA, however the Beatles performed in Pittsburg in the summer so why would there is a Christmas card in the dressing room?   Anyone have any clue about this photo?

Too cool for Beatles graffiti

I am not sure what the back story of this photo is.   Two guys who look very fashionable are standing against a wall filled with Beatles graffiti.    Do you think this was an ad for something?  Are these guys models?  

The Tielman Brothers .,

One of the early world-wide rock n roll bands was the Tielman Brothers from Indonesia.     This five member band of brothers started out playing folk  music in their home country in the mid-1940's  and eventually started adding songs that were more rock n roll.  When Indonesia became independent in 1949, the country's first president condemned rock n roll music because of the western influence and the Tielman Brothers took their band to Holland.

By 1959 the band had found a regular gig in Hamburg, Germany and had a big following on the Reeperbahn.   Well I am sure that you know where this story is going.     By the time the five Beatles arrived the Tielman Brothers were playing rock n roll songs in both German and English.  They had cut a record and they truly knew how to "Mach Schau."    The bass player would frequently play his instrument with his teeth, the other guitar players would lay down on the floor and perform among other crazy things.   The audience loved it!

The Tielman Brothers "Mach Shau" photo posted by Creative Commons law 

And the Beatles loved them as well.    It has been said that Paul first saw the Hofner Bass being played by a member of the Tielman Brothers, which made him want to play one in the Beatles.    George Harrison is quoted in Rolling Stone magazine when talking about his time in Hamburg about a great performer, "Andy, the Indo man," which was Andy Tielman the leader of the group.


All of this is nice and everything but then tonight I found this amazing photo.    In the 1960 photo, the Tielman Brothers are performing in Hamburg and who do you spot in the audience?   It sure looks like Paul McCartney and John Lennon to me!   What do you think???

Edit:   Alright---so I have been tricked and this has been manipulated to look like John and Paul were in the audience in the photo and it is not legit.    I was fooled.    I spent a lot of time making sure that the Tielman brothers really were in Hamburg at the same time as the Beatles and it never even dawned on me that the photo was a fake.    However--I most likely believe it was made as a fan piece to show what it might have looked like because the Beatles DID see them in concert.    Regardless of the photo (which I am leaving up), it is neat to learn a tiny bit about the other bands that were in Hamburg at the same time as the Beatles. 

The Photo bomber

Little Queenies emailed me the other day and sent along these great photos of Paul and Jane at an airport in London on May 28, 1967.   Paul is picking up Jane from her tour with the Old Vic of the United States.    However, Paul and Jane aren't the only ones in the photos.   A very obvious photo bomber is pictured with them.   This guy very nicely and strategically places himself in the background of these photos.    The question is---who is this guy and what was he doing there?   If anyone knows, please post a comment or drop me an email.

This just proves that photo bombing was alive and well in 1967. 

The photo bomber didn't make it into this photo, but it is just a great shot from the same day, plus you have someone looking out from the backseat of that car.

Apple Mystery

A very nice guy named Jim posted the following photos of people outside of #3 Savile Row (know to you and I as Apple) on the Apple facebook page.    The photos were taken in late 1969- early 1970 by his now wife, Karen who was one of the fortunate girls that got to hang around the steps of Apple and see people Beatle and Beatle-related come and go.   However over the years she has forgotten the names of some of these lovely Beatle-related folks and was hoping that someone could recall who they were.   I asked Jim if he minded if I posted these great photos on this blog and see if any of you out there know who these fine folks happen to be.   Jim was nice enough to allow me to post these previous photos.    So if you do happen to know any of these Apple people, please post a comment.

Breakfast with a Beatle

Someone named Sandy on twitter posted this photo stating that when her mom was a young girl , George Harrison had breakfast with her and here is a photo.    I am not sure what this is all about, but I just know that it is awesome sauce.  

Mystery poster

Does anyone know what country this is from?   Is the young man standing next to a poster for "A Hard Day's Night" in his country, or is it some other Beatles film?    It appears to be "A Hard Day's Night" to me from the little photos of the Beatles on the poster.    I think it is an awesome poster. 

Sweet nothings

This is an interesting photo.   Who is the barely dressed woman whispering sweet nothings into Paul McCartney's ear?   What occasion was this?  It must be 1965 because John is wearing his "Rubber Soul" jacket.    And also who is "Uncle Jack?"