Their Day in Court

October 19, 1968

Fans took advantage of John and Yoko's court date for an opportunity to see them.   Yoko looks scared.  
 

Arriving in D.C.

 

It is Shea Day!

 

August 23, 1966

Getting ready for another press conference

 

Not Social Distancing here either

With much thanks to Benoit! 

Walking the halls

Cleveland Rocks

When these photos from Cleveland 1966 are posted, I will have spent three out of five days in Cleveland as the winner of a grant to do research with the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.       I thought these great photos from the crazy concert that was Cleveland 1966 was appropriate.

Guarding John

Going Crazy at the Court house

Another one for Paul's photo album

KRLA brings you the Beatles

I love the security officer looking at the Beatles and not the crowd.    Good for him!

Beatles off Guard

This is a great story about Christ and Moses and the Beatles in L.A. in 1966.   I love John's humor throughout this story, and I find myself wondering what was up with Ringo that day.    Unfortunately, the last page of the story is missing, so I couldn't type it up.   If anyone has the last page---could you please email it to me?

Jim guards George 

Beatles off Guard

By Ann Moses

From NME 1967 Annual

Christ watched over John Lennon and the Beatles when they were in Hollywood during their American tour earlier this year.  Moses was there, too!  No, I’m not kidding—Jim Christ and Jack Moses were employed by the U.S. Guard Company of Los Angeles to look after the boys during their stay.  They have some fascinating memories.

Jim and Jack (my brother) were Beatle fans long before they took their part-time summer guard duties.  Both were summer employees at Disneyland and served as guards for the excitement involved. 

But neither could have imagined the commotions, the excitement, the terror that resulted from their assignment to guard the Beatles!

A plan had been worked out for the Beatles to speedily enter and exit from Dodger Stadium.   Jack told me, “About an hour before the concert Jim and our two supervisors and I drove up to the house where the Beatles were staying.  Within two miles of the house, the road was solid on both sides with kids standing on their cars, standing all around.

“We entered by way of a one-lane winding road up a hill—all of which was blocked off by the city police.   There were security men surrounding the house and we entered after the giant electronic gate had been opened.  There were trails through the shrubbery all around the house and part of the back fence had been broken down.

“When we first saw them they were eating dinner.  There were very few people there – Tony Barrow, David Crosby and the Beatles’ road managers.   After about a half an hour I left in the armored car without the Beatles.   We were followed by a limousine full of security men and people from the house.  As we drove out almost all the kids followed us.

They were screaming, honking their horns, making wild turns and almost getting in accidents at every corner!

“When we turned onto the freeway the limousine stopped so none of the cars could enter.  About seven cars found us, and when we reached our designated spot, which was about two miles from the stadium, I opened the door to the armored car and showed the kids that the Beatles weren’t inside.  They got really angry!

“A lot of girls started crying.  Then they left.  Within eight minutes the Beatles pulled up in a beat-up Chevy van and jumped into the armored truck.”

Jim, meanwhile was at the house, waiting for J,P, G and R to leave in the van.  He said, “While I was waiting, John Lennon came out and he had a little rubber ball and was bouncing it against the wall while he talked to David Crosby.  Then they got into the van with their road managers and I rode ahead of them in the limousine. “

The van met with the armored truck in the parking lot and Jack and Jim helped the four into the truck.  Jack continued the story:  “There were no chairs, so they just sat on the floor.  As we approached the stadium, they got really bugged because as we passed through the barriers, girls were getting through.

“George said, ‘That’s right, let ‘em through.  Don’t hold that one back, let ‘em get us and rip us apart!’  Finally we made it to the back of the stadium where it was secluded and they went in to their dressing room.   The first thing Paul, John and George did was pick up regular guitars.  Each went to different corners of the room and played them.

“Then they picked up the instruments they use on stage, plugged them into small amps and began to play through the songs they were going to do.”

Jim interrupted, “It sounded fantastic!  They were just working out, it was groovy!  The whole time Ringo just sat in one corner not saying a word.”

“After they were dressed,”  Jack continued, “we led them to the tunnel where they would enter.  On stage they were introducing the radio station disc jockeys and John would say, ‘Here’s the guy who made it all possible, Rodney J. Feathersmith’ or ‘And in the six to nine slot, Henry B. Swindlehoff!’

“Finally he got disgusted because it was talking so long and he said, ‘Well, I’m going on!’ and he started to walk out onto the field.  Paul and George pulled him back.

“Then the DJ’s shouted ‘And here they are—the Beatles!’ and John began to sit down.   Ringo and George picked him up and we ran out on the field behind them.”

The stadium scene was typical – absolute pandemonium.  The Beatles dressed in green sharkskin bell-bottomed suits with velvet lapels.  The coats were six button, double breasted jackets over shirts of white with green printed flowers.  John and Paul wore boots, Ringo and George wore loafers.  The lines of security were stiff and no fans got near them.

During the show, they would wave to different sections and one would see a wave of human bodies rise and scream until temporarily exhausted.   But when John continued to wave to a section behind him, there was no reaction.

John couldn’t understand it until Jim explained that the entire section was for blind children.  “That’s all right,” said Paul, “Someone out there probably told ‘em ‘he’s waving at you now’”  “John thought that was groovy,” said Jim.

Planned procedure noted that the Beatles were to exit the centerfield gate.  Inevitably, there was a mix up and as the Beatles rushed to the limousines and proceeded out of the stadium, as the gates opened hundreds of girls surged toward the car!

Jack said, “We were told to run alongside the cars, which we did.  When they opened the gates, the cars couldn’t get out because a bus and two cars were blocking the way.  Then about 1,000 kids swarmed in and all around the car!”

“Girls were laying down in the front of the car!” Jim exclaimed.  “They were tearing the car apart and we had to grab them and pull them off.  The car couldn’t back up because a second limousine was right behind it!

“Finally the other limousine moved and they closed the gates.  The driver sped back to the third-base dugout.  We were running beside the car all this time!  When they pulled back into the stadium Paul and George waved white towels out the windows.  The crowd was going completely crazy!”

The Beatles rushed down to the dressing rooms and prepared for a wait.  Jack explained, “The Beatles just sat down and began opening Pepsi’s.  They handed each of us one before they had one.  Every time they’d offer us a cigarette, light out and then theirs.  They were really friendly!

“I walked over to John and said, ‘I thought we’d be able to get out of here.’ And he said, ‘Why is that?’

“I asked:  ‘did you notice my name?’  His eyes almost popped!

“I said ‘If you think that’s good, you ought to see Jim’s!’”

“John got up and looked at Jim’s name tag and he shouted, ‘It’s Christ and Moses!  I’ve been waiting to meet you both for a long time!’   Then he turned to Jim and said, ‘I didn’t mean it.  I really didn’t!  I didn’t mean a word of it!’

“John, Paul and George were sitting next to each other and we sat in front of them on a bench.  Ringo was sitting on the other side of the room, all alone.  For almost 45 minutes he didn’t say a word.”

Before long, the conversation centered on devious plots to help the Beatles escape.  Everyone kept repeating the idea that a helicopter would have been the smart thing, but George wanted to leave in the armored car and just slowly force its way through the crowd.  This however, was impossible since the crowd outside was bigger now and because someone had let all the air out of the truck’s four tires!

Paul turned to Jack and joked, “You should be able to get us out of Dodger Stadium since your great, great, great grandfather could part the Red Sea.”

John is wearing the "Moses" name-tag Jim gave to him in L.A. 

John looked at Jim, “and how about you?  Shouldn’t you be getting some dishes so you can start breaking the bread and bringing on the wine?”

Both boys said the Beatles were talkative and inquisitive.  Someone had told them that Los Angeles Police Chief Parker had died recently and they questioned their guards on how a new police chief was chosen and how the local government worked.  

Jack recalls, “John and Paul were asking us what it was like to work at Disneyland.  ‘How are the birds out there?’ John asked, ‘Chicks, ya know.’  I told him they were very good looking.

“I asked Paul if he’d been to Disneyland since there was a rumor that he’d visited there.  He said not, but wished he had.

“They all seemed disappointed that they didn’t get out more.  They were extremely disgusted with the radio station that broadcast the address where they were staying.  Their neighbors were watching the house with telescopes.  “John went to one corner of the room and I asked him he was working on his third book.  He said he did every now and then, but mostly when he was alone.”

Coming into the Plaza

Let it Be premiere

When Let it Be Premiere on May 20, 1970, the Beatles were officially broken up as a band.    However, fans still weren't sure if at least some of the band members would make an appearance.   Of course none of the Beatles came to see Let it Be on the big screen, but let's take a look back at who WAS at the premiere.  

The press in Pittsburgh

The Beatles rock in Boston

Arriving at midnight

Beatles Arriving at Midnight
Toronto Daily Star
August 16, 1966

The Beatles will arrive in Toronto at dead of night, but they'll be assured of a reception committee numbering at least 200.

That's how many policemen will be at Toronto International Airport at midnight to guard the teen idols against over-enthusiastic fans.

There'll be at least 200 on duty again tomorrow when the foursome puts on two shows at Maple Leaf Garden and the Gardens' management has taken some security measures on its own.

A half inch steel cable will surround the stage and a steel wire net behind will protect them from potential souvenir grabbers and worshipers who just want to touch them.

Flying here straight from a show in Philadelphia, the Beatles party will be drive to the King Edward Hotel in three Cadillacs, with two trucks for instruments and luggage  and 45 passenger bus for the supporting acts -  Ron Ettes, The Cyrkle, The Remains and Bobby Hebb.

The Mersey-siders wills stay in the Gardens between the afternoon and evening performances emerging from a private suite for a press conference at 6:30 p.m.

Their route from the airport is being kept a secret to prevent any demonstrations en route.

The evening concert in Chicago

This might not be a big deal to most, but I just figured out by reading some old articles that the Beatles wore the green suits with yellow shirts in the afternoon in Chicago and the green suits with red shirts in the evening.  

The boys in blue

Why did Paul take pot into Japan in 1980?

Why did Paul take pot into Japan in 1980?

     Marijuana became part of Paul McCartney’s life during the summer of 1964 and he didn’t turned away from it until after his fourth child, Beatrice was born in 2003.    During his entire marriage to Linda, marijuana was part of their life together and neither one of them seemed to think too much about it.    Their first run in with the law over pot occurred in Sweden in 1972.    They claimed that the drug was not theirs and was given to them in a letter from a fan.    They paid a fine and were free to go.     The following year, they were in trouble with the law because cannabis was growing on their farm.  Once again, they used the “fan gave it to us” excuse and said that a fan had sent them some seeds through the mail and they had no idea what type of seeds they were.    They were charged a light fee and were free to go once again.   In March of 1975 the McCartney family was traveling along in a car in Los Angeles when they ran a red light and was pulled over.     The police noticed the smell of marijuana in the car and Linda, thinking it would be easier for her as an American citizen, took the blame and was arrested.     She was let go after once again paying a fine.

     In 1975, Wings was planning the “Wings over the World” tour and Japan was part of the plans for the tour.     Paul was unable to obtain a work visa in Japan because of the marijuana charges from 1972 and so the Japan part of the tour was canceled.    Fast forward to the end of 1979 and Paul has a new lineup for Wings.    A new tour is planned for the beginning of the new year and Japan is going to be the first stop on the tour.     I have read that Paul asked to sign a affidavit that he no longer  did drugs in order to be given the work visa---no idea if that is true.  

Ticket to the Wings concert that never happened.  

   We all know that whenever Paul and his family arrived in Japan on January 16, 1980, the officials at the airport opened up Paul’s suitcase and looked inside of the hood of Stella’s coat and discovered 200 grams of marijuana.     This much pot would make over 400 joints, which is an awful lot of smoking!   Paul spent 10 days as inmate #22 in a Japanese jail.    But the big question that was asked of him then and remains now is WHY.   Why would one of the biggest music stars of all time carry so much marijuana in his suitcase in a country that has strict pot laws?    Let’s look at some of the choices.

1.       1.     Paul didn’t realize that Japan had such strict laws.     This is the reason he gave once he was released.     He said  in an interview a few months later, “I didn’t try to hide it. I had just come from America and still had the American attitude that marijuana isn’t that bad. I didn’t realize just how strict the Japanese attitude is.”   I personally have a hard time accepting this statement.   Paul had to have known that Japan had strict laws.  He wasn’t allowed in Japan in 1975 because of their strict laws regarding marijuana.  His father-in-law is a lawyer and he had all sorts of people working for him.  Surely someone informed him before they left for Japan that they had strict laws.   How could he not have realized it?

2.        2.   Paul thought he was a rock star that was above the law.     Paul said during the Wingspan time, “I was out in New York and I had all this really good grass,” he said. “We were about to fly to   Japan and I knew I wouldn’t be able to get anything to smoke over there. “This stuff was too good to flush down the toilet, so I thought I’d take it with me.”  By 1980 was Paul McCartney so famous that he believed that he couldn’t get arrested?   Those things just don’t happen to him.  That while the laws were strict, the officials would turn a blind eye to him because he was Paul McCartney who was doing a huge tour in their country and therefore would bring a lot of money? Paul talks about when the official found the pot (which wasn’t really hard to find since was laying right on top of his clothing).   “When the fellow pulled it out of the suitcase, he looked more embarrassed than me,” McCartney recalled. “I think he just wanted to put it back in and forget the whole thing, you know, but there it was. “Unfortunately, this is the theory that I think might be the closest to the truth.    Paul had gotten away with traveling with drugs more than he had been caught.    When you get away with doing the wrong thing long enough, you get sloppy with it and figure that nothing bad is going to happen to you.  Add that mindset to a famous person and you have a recipe for disaster.

3.        3.   It wasn’t even Paul’s pot.  He was covering for Linda.      We know that Linda covered for Paul in 1975 in America, but did Paul cover for Linda in Japan?    I truly believe that the 200 grams of pot was for the entire tour---Paul, Linda and whoever else smoked it.     The stuff that was found in Stella’s hood (which was a terrible choice) was probably Linda’s, but the stuff in Paul’s luggage had to have been for everyone.    Why would Linda stash her stuff in Paul’s luggage?  Why would she have so much of it?    It was in Paul’s bag and therefore, Paul had to take the blame for all of it.     Linda sure didn’t keep quiet about how she felt about the ordeal,   “It's really very silly. People certainly are different over here. They take it so very seriously. Paul is now in some kind of detention place and I have not been allowed to see him. As soon as they get someone nice like Paul, they seem to make a field day of it!  I'll never come back to Japan again. It's my first trip and my last!”

 

Linda during a press conference in Japan 

4.      4.     Paul is just plain stupid.    Paul saying about himself in the Wingspan promo material, “I think I was just stupid and I paid the penalty.”   And his former bandmate, John Lennon seemed to have shared this thought with what he had to say about it when it happened   “If he really needs weed, surely there’s enough people who can carry it for him. You’re a Beatle, boy, a Beatle. Your face is in every damn corner of the planet. How could you have been so stupid?  The thing is that Paul McCartney is NOT a stupid man.   He had been dealing with pot and traveling for at least 15 years by this point.  

   

5.       5.    Yoko set him up.     This is the theory that I find to be funny.    This theory is that when Paul was in New York prior to the Japan trip, he came over to the Dakota and was talking about this great pot he had gotten ahold of.    He also talked about how he was staying at the Presidential Suite at John and Yoko’s favorite hotel in Tokyo.      Supposedly Yoko was so outraged that Paul and Linda were going to stay in HER suite that she contacted the authorities in Japan prior to the McCartney’s arrival and tipped them off about the pot in his bag.       I have also heard a variation of this story that says that Paul stopped by the Dakota and had his luggage with him and Yoko planted the pot in his luggage and then tipped off the authorities.       I find this theory to be completely foolish.    First, just because Yoko is Japanese, it doesn’t mean that she has any type of “pull” with the authorities at the airport in Tokyo.     Second, we know that Yoko can be eccentric and superstitious, but really why would Paul and Linda staying in the suite that her and John always use make her so mad?  It isn’t like they were going to be over there themselves and wanted to stay in it.   Surely, she would know and understand that the hotel allows other guests to use the room when she and John aren’t in Japan.    This seems like such a silly reason for someone to make someone go to jail, although the people that believe this happened also believe that Yoko was trying to keep John and Paul away from each other so that she would make an album with him and not Paul.   Give me a break!

6.       6.    Paul subconsciously brought the pot into Japan to break up Wings.   Paul himself was asked the question if he had brought pot into Japan in order to get out of doing the tour and breaking up the band.   He thought it could be a possibility,     "I think that it might, psychologically, it might have been that. There might have been something to do with that, because I think I was ready to get out of Wings. I think also, more importantly, we hadn't really rehearsed much for that tour, and I felt very under-rehearsed. I cannot believe that I would have myself busted and put in jail nine days just to get out of a group. I mean, let's face it, there are easier ways to do it than that -- and also having to pay a million (British) pounds to the promoters in default. I think the only thing; it might have just been some deep, psychological thing. It's a weird period for me."  I think that ending the group was an after-thought.    While he was sitting in the jail cell, doing nothing for the majority of the time there, he had time to think.  And maybe what he thought about was how he needed to end Wings and focus on his family and work solo for a while.   Who knows?

Regardless of the reason why, bringing marijuana into Japan was one of the dumbest things one of the Beatles ever did.  Paul himself doesn’t seem to understand why he did it, so I suppose we won’t ever really know either.