Saturday, December 04, 2010

John Lennon, Pattie Boyd, and Lulu

On December 21, 1967, the Beatles held a party for Magical Mystery Tour at the Westbourne Suite at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London.

Pete Shotton: "I had originally planned to turn up as a Musketeer, but at the last minute, John suddenly exclaimed, 'Let's go as Teddy Boys, and dress the way we always wished we could when we were at school. Let's do it properly this time.' We both made a terrific impression at the party, but were nonetheless eclipsed by such inspired impersonations as Peter Brown's periwigged King Louis XIV of France, and Apple press officer Derek Taylor's Nazi-uniformed Hitler. Cilla Black and her husband, Bobby Willis came as, respectively, a Cockney labourer, and a nun. However, Freddie Lennon, who appeared as a trash collector, achieved the most realistic impression of all."

"By the time we were seated for the screening, John had, in best Teddy Boy style, got himself smashed on good old-fashioned booze! An unpleasant scene developed towards the end of the party, when the band, The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, took the stage and most of the guests paired off to dance. Totally ignoring Cynthia, who was decked out for the occasion as a fairy princess, John instead lavished all his attentions on Pattie Harrison, with whom he actually went so far as to dance, probably for the first time in about five years."

Cynthia Lennon: "John made a bee-line for Pattie, who was looking incredibly sexy in an eastern dancer's seven-veils-and-not-much-else outfit. John hogged Pattie for quite a time and I was left sitting primly and stiffly, very much out in the cold."

Pete Shotton: "Though Pattie had, undeniably, made herself especially desirable as a scantily clad belly dancer, neither Cyn nor George were the least bit amused by John's open flirtation with her. In the end, however, it was Cyn's close friend, the diminutive pop singer Lulu, impersonating Shirley Temple, complete with an over-sized lollipop, who elected herself to give the inebriated Beatle cum Teddy Boy a good talking to."

Cynthia Lennon: "It was such a lovely sight, Lulu cornering John and giving him what for. John was much taken aback by Shirley Temple's serious lecture on how to treat his wife."

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