She Knew the Beatles When... (1966)

Photo by Thornton

 

"The Beatles were really very friendly at first," according to Roslyn. "One of my friends had a date with George, but it really wasn't so much fun because she just sat in the audience while he played on stage. George's sister took a lot of pictures of the Beatles for us. That is, if we bribed her a bit." Photo by Thornton

Short-haired Beatles, sporting leather jackets and trousers as they performed in the Cavern, from left to right, are John, Pete Best (no longer with the group), Paul, and George. Their wit reflected the wit of Liverpool, says Rosalind, whose friend managed to snap this picture one crowded lunch hour in the Cavern.

She Knew The Beatles When....

By Dannye Romine

The Durham Sun

October 8, 1966

    Roslyn Owens is a girl with a past. Lurking behind those big, mysterious brown eyes are scenes she'll never forget. Scenes the whole world is talking about today.

     Yeah, yeah, yeah. Back in 1962, when Roslyn was just a slip of a 14-year-old, she witnessed the rise of one of the most famous singing groups in history: the city Liverpool, the place the Cavern, the group the Beatles. 

    Today, Roslyn lives with her parents on Marion Avenue in Durham, while her father serves a year's exchange professorship in Duke's engineering department. Now she's a sophisticated young lass who vows she wouldn't be caught dead in the Cavern. But she hasn't forgotten the thrill of being there, and her eyes shine as she talks of the whole, the most unique place in the whole world, and the group of whailng millionaires who've been dubbed "the most popular entertainers in history."

     "It's really quite a dump, this Cavern. It's in the cellar of an old warehouse, and it's so hot down there that the sweat rolls off the walls and clogs up the guitars, and it's so loud that no one tries to talk. If a boy wants to dance with you, he comes up and sticks his elbow in your back.

     "But the place is unique. I've never been in any other like it. When you first walk in, it smells of disinfectant. Then, as you go down, it smells of old soup.  My parents didn't like me going a bit, but they didn't understand what it was really like. It wasn't wicked; it was just dirty."

     And there, in the midst of the dirt and the smell of stale soup and powerless disinfectant, were the Beatles strumming their guitars, singing, joking, and pushing their way through the cavern to chat with the patrons. Roslyn sums up their appeal this way: "We really didn't have the time during school days to visit a lot of clubs in Liverpool, so the best thing to do was to hear the Beatles because they had good music and a good personality too.

     They were really friendly at first, and the people liked them as well as their music. Mainly, we liked their wit. John made straight jokes, while Paul was quite suave and subtle in his humor. George could say the most funniest things with the most deadpan expression, and Ringo, well, he was new to the group then, and he never said a word. Now his sense of humor has developed into sort of twisted jokes."

     And the patrons of the Cavern back in '62, those young Liverpudlians, who recognized the uniqueness of the Beatles and packed the house day after day, paying just one shilling a piece. "It was quite a high social class that the Beatles appealed to at first, but the kind of people who were trying to displease their parents and liked to give a show of not caring about anybody or anything. But as the Beatles became more and more popular, a whole cross section of Liverpool society came to hear them."

     They came for different reasons too. Some came only to hear the Beatles. Some came to see what the "talent" was-that's Liverpudlian for checking out the good-looking boys or girls-and some were there simply because they didn't have any other place to go. Yet there was a definite unity to the crowd in the Cavern; their attire was amazingly alike.

     "There were certain things you just had to wear to the Cavern. One was a black polar neck sweater, and I shudder to think of those 100 black sweaters dancing to Beatles music in that tiny space. And of course, you wore either blue denim dungarees or blue denim skirts. Girls wore their hair very long and very, very straight"

    . Although Roslyn still wears her hair very long and fairly straight, and although she still likes the Beatles' records, she's a little too old to be at the height of the Beatles' craze. In fact, she has a quite dignified position at the University of North Carolina. She's secretary to the dean of men there, but when she returns to Liverpool, she says she'll not be there long. 

    She's representative of her generation who wants to be on the go. "We don't like restrictions. She says it would be the worst thing for a girl in Liverpool to be married before her 21st birthday. To be engaged, maybe, but married would be the end.

     "When I return to Liverpool, I'll go abroad. I'd rather do dishes in Denmark than do typing in Liverpool."

     Roslyn Owens is a girl with a future as well as a past. 

T

3,400 View Yoko Ono's Exhibit (1971)

 

3,400 View Yoko Ono's Exhibit

No writer listed

The Post-Standard

October 11, 1971

P    oor weather could not keep an estimated 3400 persons away from Everson Museum yesterday, as Yoko Ono Lennon's art exhibit went into its second day of public display.

     The Lennons left Syracuse about 4p.m. but not before paying a visit to the Onondaga Indian Reservation in the morning; they met Chief William I Lazor. The chief was unavailable for comment on the meeting because of the beginning of a week-long religious ceremony.

     Museum spokesman said it was difficult to estimate the exact attendance since persons under 16 are admitted for free. James Harithas, director of Everson, said almost 9000 people had seen the exhibit over the weekend.

     Umbrella-toting youths huddled under the overhangs of the museum yesterday, waiting to get in. The line continued outside until the 5 p.m. closing time. At Hotel Syracuse, about a dozen youths kept a vigil, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Lennons, apparently unaware that they had left the city. 

    The exhibition This Is  Not Here was scheduled to open Saturday at noon, and at 11 a.m. the crowd outside the museum was so large it overflowed into South State Street. As expected, the majority of the early birds were of high school and college age, but what surprised museum security personnel were the many who were carrying knapsacks and sleeping bags.

     "Some of these kids were here as early as 8o'clock this morning," a security guard said. In fact, the first people to arrive were a group from San Francisco in a VW bus. Kathy Singleton, a well-tanned UCLA coed with sun-bleached blonde hair, said, "I came up here yesterday with nine other UCLA students. We heard about Yoko's show a few weeks ago on the Cavett Show." John and Yoko Lennon plugged the exhibit during a taped interview broadcast coast to coast September 21st to September 24th on the Dick Cavett Show by the ABC Television Network. 

    It was about 12:30 p.m. Saturday when the building opened. City police manned the doors to regulate the flow of spectators. By that time, many spectators entered with a sneeze and damp clothing, for they had been met by intermittent showers, overcast skies, and chilly temperatures while waiting outside.

     Peace marshals volunteered from Syracuse University were posted throughout the museum to keep the lines moving and safeguard against the theft of exhibition pieces. Many of Saturday's museumgoers were primarily there to see the Lennons. "If I don't get to see him, my four hours of hitchhiking from Rochester will be worthless," claimed 16-year-old Bev Johnson.

     Some caught a glimpse of the couple, who for a time were seated at one exhibit, a garden court with white chairs and a table, and could be seen from the museum balcony.

     Other notable personalities appeared at the show throughout the day. Cries of "There's George" or "Hey, it's Ringo" were common.

     About 240 peace marshals told spectators that the museum was temporarily closing and that they had to leave. Some spectators, many of whom paid the $1 admission price, greeted the news with four-letter words and left. Others who saw the action as a ploy to empty the museum to make room for the hundreds still outside remained in the building and continued their tour when the exhibitions reopened minutes later.

So this is 50

 

Today (October 8, 2026) is my 50th birthday.  Yes, I am a bicentennial baby.   I think this photo of Paul from the Apple Anniversary concert earlier this year is a good one to celebrate with.  Hope you all are having a good day.   What am I doing for my big day?  Nothing.  I am working somewhere near the Chicago area and tutoring.  It is just another day....

John's busy birthday

 

October 9, 1971 

Happy Anniversary Paul and Nancy

 

October 9, 2011

Happy 15th anniversary to Paul and Nancy!  

John & Yoko's fued with the Post Standard

 

On September 27,  1971 the Post Standard posted an editorial by an unnamed person who did not want Yoko's art to be exhibited at the Everson Museum of Art.   This was the beginning of a fued between members of the community, Everson Museum and John and Yoko themselves:

Here is the original editorial:

Art or Hokum

No Writer Listed

The Post Standard

September 27, 1971

    The Everson Museum of Art, which has been heavy on modern art and light on traditional, will go one step farther next month with, get this:  the artwork of Yoko Ono, current wife and former other woman of ex-Beatle John Lennon, and as an added treat for today's Bobbysoxers, both Yoko and John will appear at the show. Lennon will also have some work shown. 

    Yoko, the artist, is described as part of the early Andy Warhol contingent. One of their works includes a ladder on which one climbs to reach a painting on the ceiling, to which a spyglass is attached. Looking through it, one sees the word "yes." Another is hammer a nail in. For five shillings, a person could hammer a nail into a block of wood. 

    The Everson says most of her works here will invite active participation by the viewer. This includes a water event in which participants provide the containers while Yoko Ono provides the water. 

    The art museum promises newly conceived pieces executed specifically for the exhibition. Lennon, for his part, has a work he has exhibited, consisting of a toilet, which, when flushed, plays one of his songs.

     James Herithas director of the museum, says Yoko's work has long deserved major recognition. He called it an international form of art of which she is one of the earliest and most brilliant exponents. We wonder, however, whether the Everson is presenting her first one-man museum show because it is great art, or whether the exhibition was merely the means of bringing to the Everson a man whose former group he once described as "more popular than Christ." If the latter is the case, the Everson will add greatly to its normal attendance, but as a tremendous loss of good taste and the respect of the art world.

The next day, the Everson Museum of Art sent a response into the newspaper

Everson Staff Defends Yoko's Show

Written by the Staff at the Everson Museum of Art

The Post Standard

September 28, 1971

     We are glad to publish the following letter, received yesterday afternoon, from the staff of the Everson Museum of Art in response to yesterday morning's editorial. It is good to note the loyalty and staunch support of the staff to the new policies of the Everson Museum.

     Director James Harithas has said that he intends to make the Everson the most talked-about museum in the country. We hope he does, but not through sensationalism at the expense of good taste. Skyrocketing attendance figures are not necessarily the best basis for judging the worth of the museum. This letter comes not from an irate individual, but rather from the entire curatorial, research, administrative, and support staff of the Everson Museum of Art (EMA):

     As you and your readers are well aware, EMA has undergone some fairly substantial changes since the appointment of Mr. James Harithus as director. Accompanying a basic change in the definition of a museum role, the museum has been taking great care to expand its scope of services to the entire community, i.e. our expanded educational function encompassing both the newly formed neighborhood art center as well as a revitalized in-building program. 

    In terms of reaction to our new exhibition schedule, our attendance figures have skyrocketed, membership figures have steadily climbed, and the feedback from the community has been favorable. The air show, for example, pointed out the vital connection between art and environment, as well as the correlation between artists and the environment. Internationally, the show has been met with great acclaim. Locally, the show broke all attendance records at EMA.

     What we are getting to is this: we feel that out of ignorance, EMA is being unjustly and prejudicially defamed by your newspaper, and we take strong exception to your tactics. Further, we are both insulted and angered by your obvious lack of regard for artists and the ideals of art in general. Your comments on Yoko Ono's personal life strike us as being a very nadir of poor taste and judgment. This aspect should be of no concern to you or your readers. Her art is her statement. Your blanket condemnation of modern art is an outrage to any sensibility. We are truly embarrassed for you. 

    Finally, we would like to add that we stand 100% behind the goals and plans of the Everson Museum and its director. I would like to feel that the entire community understands and supports our institution as well. Towards that end, we shall endeavor.

Between the printing of this and the start of the exhibit, various people in the community wrote into the paper on both sides of the debate.  Then John and Yoko became involved.  Here is the next editorial by the paper as well as the letter John and Yoko sent. 

They Thrive on Publicity

No Writer Listed

Post Standard

October 7, 1971

    Yoko Ono and John Lennon, and not incidentally director James Harithas of the Everson Museum of Art, certainly know how to get publicity. Her one-woman show, This Is Not Here, which opens Saturday at the Everson, might have attracted attention only to the many 1000s of idolizing youngsters who want little more out of life than just the chance to see Yoko and John. Some of them were paying $50 each for autographed posters at the museum yesterday, but a critical editorial in these columns about 10 days ago had the audacity to question whether what Ono does is really art. Suddenly, the famous pair became controversial, even among adults, and the Post Standard began to get "you, cur," and "we love you" notes from artists. 

    Ever since staffers, oldsters, and youngsters of every degree of knowledge and ignorance of art, Ono and Lennon dashed off their sentiments in no uncertain terms as soon as they arrived in town Tuesday, and their paper epistle is reproduced on this page. Wonder how much we could have gotten for those two signatures?

     We are not too excited about all this, except that we hope, as Chief Sardino and members of the Everson board do, that the mobs of worshippers won't mutilate that handsome Ieoh Ming Pei building when they invade it for John Lennon's birthday party. 

    Like many other Everson supporters and members, we wonder a bit where all the cash is coming from for the flood of expensive printing that has heralded Yoko's show. Perhaps they'll take enough at $1 a head from non-members to pay off last year's $125,000 museum deficit.

     Oh yes, for the comfort of the friends of the museum, who have been enraged by the provocatively scandalous titles of the Ono-Leenon films, which will be shown between October 15 and October 22, we talked with someone yesterday who had seen them. Don't be fooled by these titles, he advised. The films may not be good, but they're not dirty.

The  next day, October 8, John and Yoko used the Post Standard to place an ad in the personal's section to thank everyone. 

Meanwhile, more editorial letters kept pouring in both for and against Yoko's art.   

Love the Beatles With All my Heart

 

Tour America in 1965

 

Back at EMI

 October 1971 

Engaged

 October 7, 2011