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A sweet John encounter posted by The Examiner on this sad anniversary:

“They came towards me and I froze. I couldn’t speak, I was in shock. John says ‘Hello.’ All I could manage was a meek sounding ‘hi’ (and) nothing more. So he paused and said, ‘Goodbye.’ Hello, Goodbye ‘ as they walked away I snapped this photo, then cried tears of joy.

More at the link.

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Meet the Beatles for Real posted a series of photos over the weekend from a fan convention in 1963:

One of my all time favorite fan meeting moments occurred 50 years ago today!   That is of course the fan club convention held at the Wimbledon Palais on December 14, 1963.   I love how the Beatle sat there and signed autographs, allowed fans to touch their hair, posed for photos, and gave kisses to the girls in the fan club.   They say that 3,000 fans got to meet the Beatles that day, but it might have been slightly smaller because it was also said that some girls from the front of the line got back in the line and met them a second time!    After the meet and greet session, the Beatles held a concert for those fans.   What a day that must have been for those fan club members!   And what a truly amazing occurrence the Beatles had.   Today something like that would cost thousand upon thousand of dollars.  

Links: 1 2 3

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Examiner interview with Jere Hester, author of Raising a Beatle Baby, plus promotional video. Terrific story of how his daughter met Paul:

Q: How did your daughter meet Paul McCartney ?
Jere Hester: “In October 2005, shortly after we took Charles (Rosenay’s) ‘Magical History Tour,’ he tipped our group that Paul would be signing copies of his (then) new children’s book, ‘High in the Clouds’ at the Barnes & Noble at Rockefeller Center. The night before the signing, after finishing a long shift at the New York Daily News where I was the city editor at the time, I decided to go sleep on the sidewalk and save a place for my wife, Theresa, and our daughter, Ella, then 8 and a Beatle Baby from birth.

“Well, I should have known better. The sidewalk was jammed with fans, some of whom had been camping out for a couple of days. Defeated, I went home to Theresa who suggested we pull Ella out of school the next afternoon and just stand outside the store – who knew, maybe she’d get a glimpse of him. We got into the store before lockdown, and bought Ella a copy of the book, which she promptly began reading. She caught the eye of Paul’s publicists who apparently noticed that for the huge crowd outside and inside the store for the signing of a children’s book, there weren’t any kids around – save for one.

“They approached and asked if Ella want to meet Paul. She immediately began shaking and sobbing like a teen girl out of ‘A Hard Day’s Night .’ She shook her head no – she was awed and terrified at the thought of meeting her idol. They told us to give a shout if she changed her mind. Theresa and I told Ella, basically, that you only regret the things you don’t do in life, and, over the course a few agonizing minutes calmed her down, until her ‘no’ became, well, a ‘yeah, yeah, yeah.’ Ella was escorted to the front of the line and put in front of the New York press corps — 50 strong. Paul came in, and joked with her — when he shook her hand, he wouldn’t let go and kept saying in mock exasperation, ‘Let go! Let go!’ They talked briefly about the book and our trip to Liverpool. Theresa and I both got to shake his hand and thank him for being a part of our lives.

“When it was all over, we were, of course, ecstatic. Then I had a moment of panic — my daughter was the photo-op for the event and her image would be everywhere, including, potentially, the competition. I called my boss and explained the delicate situation. He said, ‘We’ll they’ve all got the picture – we’ve got the story.’ So we rushed to the newsroom and helped Ella craft a first-person piece. Photos of Ella and Paul, and her story got picked up all over the world.

“The kicker is a couple days later a photographer pal shooting the next stop on Paul’s tour told Paul’s publicist, Stuart Bell, that he knew Ella. ‘Tell Ella Paul loved her story,’ Stuart told my friend. I tell it better in the book, of course, but it still gives me chills to even think about it.”

 

[shorter version x-posted to the new books thread]

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