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John, Paul, George and Ringo all marked birthdays, as mortals tend to do. Although the Beatles celebrated their B-days in London, Liverpool and even the Bahamas with their families and friends, we Beatlemaniacs wanted to get into the act, too A birthday party--without the guest of honor--was our solution.
| On June 18, 1964, Paul McCartney turned the ripe old age of twenty-two. We were not sure where our Paul was on that particular celebratory day, but I planned to host a party for him in my parents’ Southwest Philadelphia dining room. No catered feast, no limos, no air conditioning; only a group of teenage fans eying the cake from Wagner’s Bakery. Written on top of the white cream icing in fancy blue script was “Happy Birthday Paul.” As a final touch, I plopped my Remco Paul doll on the cake making his tiny boots sugary. Something was missing. I designed an original party hat for plastic Paul. |
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| The room needed a new look for such a festive occasion. I tacked Beatle posters on my mom’s new wallpaper, and borrowed her best polka dot glasses. I was ready. No Paul? No worry. My guests and I snapped away with the Instamatic huddling around a lifelike photo of our missing McCartney. The perfect teen hostess, I also served butterscotch Tastycakes, chocolate chip cookies and pretzels. Too bad Paul missed the sugar high that afternoon. |
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Since our honored guest was not present, I decided to call him in Liverpool to send birthday wishes using our family’s telephone. My Beatle friends shook their heads in disbelief. I carefully dialed the overseas’ operator, and placed a “person-to-person” call to a number I found in a fan magazine. The operator, who must have heard this same drill a thousand times, chirped, “He’s not in. Try his fan club, luv.” |
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Just talking to Liverpool made the party—and not paying for the call made it even better.
I also threw a wonderful birthday bash for John, too, when his October 9th birthday rolled around. My brilliant idea: Handwritten place cards with our “married” Beatle names.
What would Emily Post have done? |
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