Read All About It

 

Primal Scream era

 

Ringo drumming in Australia

 

September 29 , 1982 

To find out what Ringo was doing in Australia 40 years ago, here is a link from this very site to cue you in.

http://www.meetthebeatlesforreal.com/2020/04/ringo-down-under.html

Free Time

 

I have written about the live broadcast of the Yoko art show called "Free Time" before.   It was a television show of typical Yoko Ono art from that time.   The story I told about before was about a guy who fell off of a ladder during the "Flying" section.  You can read that story here. 

Today is a happier story about a 16 year old girl who had the best Dad ever and got her in to see the show.  This story was found in the Instant Karma! magazine from February 1990 .

Free Time

By Sharon Eiger

Instant Karma!

February 1990

 

On October 11, 1971, I was lucky enough to be a member of the “Free Time” audience.  My wonderful father surprised me with tickets to WNET Channel 13 in New York City.  It was the first time I would see John in the flesh and I was ecstatic!  (A year later, my same wonderful father stood in line at Madison Square Garden while I was in summer camp and got me four 10^th row center seats for the One to One concert.).  Anyway, on the day of “Free Time,” we went early hoping to catch John and Yoko arriving.  Sure enough, their limo pulled up and my father fumbled in his pocket for a pen and piece of paper.  Al he could find was his business card but that was the best we could do.  John and Yoko came out of the limo and I rushed over to ask for John’s autograph.  Then I went blank.  When J&Y went into the building, I asked my father “What happened?” because I honestly couldn’t remember.  My father said, “When you asked for the autograph John said, ‘okay’ then you spent the rest of the time staring down at your shoes.”  I was so overwhelmed that John had actually spoken to me and had touched my finger when I handed him the pen, that I broke down and loudly sobbed for at least 5 minutes.  I could not control my outpouring of emotion at having been so close to him.  (When I got home, I actually peeled off the skin on my finger where he had touched me, so I could always keep it.  Little did I know it was eventually disintegrating - I was only 16 years old!)

 

It was an audience participation show of Yoko’s art.  There was a nail hammering piece, a ladder you jumped off, a sliding pond, a canvas you wrote on, etc.  I was too shy to slide down the sliding pond or jump off the ladder.  My father said, “Sharon, John will catch you in his arms!”  But I didn’t have the courage to get so close to John.  I was a very shy teenager.  During the question and answer period – not that they really ANSWERED any questions – my father kept pointing to my head so they would pick me because I wouldn’t raise my hand.  I am the girl who stood up and asked John what was Yoko’s influence on his album, “Imagine.” After the show, we went down to the stage.  I got the sanitary napkins that John and Yoko had been wearing, vase pieces, and pebbles.  Years and years later I bought a copy of the video of that show from someone who ran a Beatle video newsletter.  He had not heard of “Free Time” but he finally found me a poor, edited copy with hardly any sound and a foggy picture and I’m not in it!  I’m sure that was the best he could find at the time.  I’ve never seen it on TV because it was broadcast live that night and I didn’t know about the rerun until kids told me at school the next day that they had seen me.  

This song

 

February 2, 1977 --  George Harrison performs "This Song" on the German television show, "Disco."  It is great seeing George with his guitar, even if he is lip-syncing.    Someone recently uploaded a very clear version of it on Youtube.  I have never seen this performance so clear before.  

Multimedia Lennons

 November 23, 1971

Hearing the news

 

November 22, 1963 -  I would guess that Paul is watching the shocking news of President John F. Kennedy's death on that little televison backstage.  

One of Ringo's most embarassing moments

Personally, I don't think the John Davidson show interview with Ringo was THAT bad.  Yes, Ringo (and Barbara) were drunk.  But yet Ringo still made me laugh.  John Davidson was annoying and you get the feeling that Ringo didn't like him if he had been drinking or not.    Side note:  I once saw John Davidson play Harold Hill in the Music Man.  He did a good job.   He should have stuck to musical theater and no talk shows.  Just my opinion. 

June 16, 1980

the Mimes!

Watching yourself on television

Getting prepared

The Beatles connection to Laverne and Shirly

With the recent news of Penny Marshall's passing, I am reminded of why I used to love watching Lavern and Shirley as a child.      I loved the capital letter "L" in cursive that Lavern wore on her sweaters and Shirley stuffed cat, Boo Boo Kitty.     But more than anything else, I loved the Beatles connections on the show because they are a few of my early Beatles memories.

The very first time I remember hearing the song "Yesterday" was on an episode of "Lavern and Shirley" where they move out of there apartment in Milwaukee.    There was a montage of scenes from the past seasons while the song played.    I am not sure if it was the actual Beatles song or a sound-alike band, but I do remember automatically liking the song and connecting it to the T.V. show in my mind.

In season six, the characters all moved to Burbank, California.  This might have been bad for the show's ratings, but for a little girl in southern Illinois, it was the best!   The show was taking place in the year 1965 and each episode began by showing the two girls kissing a large cut out of the Beatles.   The cut-out poster was visible throughout the episodes because it was hung by the stairs that they used all the time.    I also recall them talking about The Beatles and Paul McCartney.   

I find it interesting that by the late 1970s and early 1980s The Beatles had become a huge part of our daily culture.     I am not sure if Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams were as big of Beatles fans as the characters they portrayed on television, however, I do know that Penny got a photograph taken with Paul at the Grammy awards a few years ago.

Thank you Penny for the laughs--- you will be missed.

Tommy, Dick and George

Ringo didn't want to chat--he just wanted to play his drums

Simon Dee interview

Waiting for cameratime

Free Falling

I stumbled upon an interesting documentary (if you can call it that since it is only 3 1/2 minutes long).   You can see it for yourself here.

https://theaudienceawards.com/films/free-fall-with-john-and-yoko51496


The story is that on October 14, 1971, John and Yoko were on a television show called "Freetime"  This was on Channel 13 in New York, which was a public access program that focused on artists.   John and Yoko performed many of the pieces that they have performed during that time.   The one where a hammer is nailed, the one where they answer everything in question form and the one where people jump off of a ladder.  It was really avante guard stuff and I am not sure if anyone really understood it or if they just acted like they did.    The show starts with John being "born" out of a black bag and then he puts a kotex napkin (the kind with a belt) around his head (as if he had a toothache) while Yoko puts one over her eyes and she sticks another one in the host's mouth.

Proof that John was wearing Kotex well before the Lost Weekend

The focus of this little film is a man named Joe Badlotto, who was one of the participants in the ladder piece (called Flying).    The show's audience was by invite only, but Joe worked for a TV station at the time, so he could get in.   Joe was never a John Lennon or Beatles fan, but his girlfriend, Fran, was and she begged him to take her.   Being the good boyfriend that he was,  the couple along with a few friends that he sneaked in, all went to the taping.     Before the show, the friends waiting for John and Yoko to arrive and they took some pictures.

Yoko and John taken by Joe Badlotto

So the show goes along and John talks about the "Flying Machine" piece.   This is where a person climbs a white ladder and jumps off (to be caught by John!  Swoon!).   John demonstrates how to "fly."

Then people from the audience begin to line up to climb the ladder and jump off.   So there they go---climbing, jumping into the arms of John and John saying something along the lines of "nice flight."   It was all pretty light stuff and even a little funny.    And who wouldn't want to jump and have John Lennon help them?   Yes please.

So Joe goes up and he climbs the ladder and then everything goes terribly wrong.   The ladder falls out from under him and he hits the floor below.    Watching the video makes you cringe.    John goes over to him and asks if he is alright.   Joe says no.   Then John helps him up and guides him off the stage saying, "take this guy to the hospital."

John leads Joe off the stage after his fall.

This show was a live television broadcast, so everyone watching saw Joe fall live on television, but as they say "the show must go on," and so the ladder was set back up again and John told everyone to be careful and the jumping went on for a little bit longer.  

Meanwhile, Joe went to the hospital and his arm was badly broken.   He was in the hospital for several weeks.   He was told that he wouldn't have much use of his arm.      He was going through intensive physical therapy to get movement in his arm again.    During this time, Joe's girlfriend, Fran was trying to get a hold of John and Yoko to let them know what had happened.    Eventually a letter came addressed to Fran stating that when people are around John they get so excited, and jump around that injuries can happen.      Joe ended up suing John Lennon, Channel 13 and the owner of the building for medical expenses, but they had much better lawyers.  

In the end, Joe lost 15% function in his arm and cannot straighten it out all of the way.  

Should John Lennon or the TV station had been held responsible for the medical expenses due to the accident?   Or should Joe have known that when you go jumping off a ladder you could get hurt?   I am not sure, but I thought it was a very interesting little story.

The Thriller in Manila

When we left our four favorite guys, it was 4am and they were getting settled into their suits with six adjoining rooms at the Manila Hilton.   Ringo, John and George went straight to sleep, but Paul and Neil got into a car and drove around the financial district of Manila.    Paul recalls that on one side of the street it was like Wall Street and the other had  squallers.  

What the Beatles weren't aware of was that while they were in Japan, Ramon Ramos Jr., the promoter of the Manila concert had sent a telegram to Tony Barrow inviting them to a reception at the Palace with the Marcos family as well as various friends and family of the presidential family plus numerous children.    It seems like no one wants to take the blame for the miscommunication, but what I believe is that Tony read it and ignored it, as the Beatles frequently get invitations to these sort of things.  

So while the Beatles were sleeping, people were gathering at the Palace, expecting to have a meal with the Beatles at 11am.    Reportedly, the first Brian Epstein knew about this was when he was having coffee with Peter Brown (really--he was there???) at the hotel coffee shop and Vic Lewis (who involved in the tour) asked Brian what time the Beatles were going to leave for the palace.   Brian didn't know anything about it and said that the Beatles weren't going to attend because they needed to sleep and they don't do those sort of functions.  

The Ambassador to the Philippines then called Brian at his hotel room and advised him that it was in the Beatles best interest to attend the luncheon and he best not insult the royal family as they were the ones that provided the police security for the lads.   But Brian didn't change his mind and told him, no.


The guys must have woke up around 10:55a.m. because when they turned on the television in the suit, they saw news reports about how they hadn't arrived to the luncheon and they sat there and watched themselves not arrive.   The camera zoomed in on the empty plates and sad faces of the children.     All the while, police were banging on the door of the suit yelling for the Beatles to come out.     They were most likely scared and stayed in their rooms, or perhaps Brian had called them and said that he had taken care of it and not to be concerned.     Paul was under the impression at that point that Brian would apologize on their behalf and all would be fine.


So as they left the hotel to do two of the largest concerts they ever did, they had no idea that at the palace kids were saying things such as, "I'd like to pounce on the Beatles and cut off their hair!  Don't anybody dare me to do anything because I'll do it!"    And "there is only one song I like for the Beatles, and it's Run for your life."

Watching telly on the telly

Before the flirting began.....