axolotl
Nunquam non paratus
[Posted Yesterday. Love was such an easy game to play.]
Today in 1964: with 17-year-old model, actress and future 'Mod Squad' TV star Peggy Lipton at the Bel-Air home of Capitol Records president Alan Livingston.
They were there for a Beatles meet 'n' greet with Hollywood glitterati to benefit the Haemophilia Foundation of Southern California; tickets cost $25 and raised $10,000.
”The Fab Four under a tree," Lipton would later write. "They looked cute. Just like the photos I had strewn across the walls of my bedroom. But I knew they weren’t the cuddly mop tops they were pretending to be. You knew that when you got up close.
"John’s twisted smile, for one thing, suggested a lot of strange thoughts could be going on in his head. Ringo, sporting a huge grin, seemed utterly bemused and nonchalant about it all. George was wiry and agile, adjusting his body to shake as many of the little hands as he could. I watched Paul. It felt like he was doing a sort of music-hall soft shoe routine for the crowd.
"He was being a showman, a carny. The nice one who could engage the multitudes. I didn’t know if I’d be able to talk when my turn came. What was there to say? My mind went completely blank. Okay, so John greeted me first, then George took my hand. I hardly remember them. Paul was the one I was watching and my heart was pounding too loud, sounding like thunder in my ears.
“'Look, Peggy,' I said, trying to get a grip on myself. 'He’s being really sweet with these kids.'
"I was admiring that while he was looking down and patting them on the head. All of a sudden I felt him looking at me and it was a totally different look. It was filled with promise and sexuality and I was stunned.
“'Come on, Peggy, you can do it. Shake hands!' Earl was shouting as he was photographing me. I was embarrassed. 'Please stop, Earl,' I thought. But this was a great moment for him, too. He actually saw his diligent work paying off. I wanted Paul at that moment as much as I had ever wanted anything in my life. I came face to face with him.
“'Hello,’ I said, and he shook my hand and looked at me. 'My God, you’re beautiful,' he said. 'You’re not so bad yourself,' I replied like an idiot. A year in the planning and this was all I could come up with?
"My knees under the pink silk skirt buckled. I was madly in love with Paul McCartney, or should I say even more madly in love, knowing full well that disaster lay ahead. How could it be otherwise? Every woman wanted Paul.
“'Well, move on. Next person,' said a disembodied voice from hell. I went to the next person who was George Harrison or whomever. I couldn’t have cared less. I had made the connection. Paul had looked at me with his puppy dog, long-lashed, beautiful eyes and that was it. Paul moved on with his conversation and charmed the next fan in line.
"Later, I was asked to come to a bash that evening. I arrived almost sick to my stomach with butterflies. I had only lost my virginity six months earlier and I’d been thinking about Paul for a year. He greeted me sweetly. He played the piano. The next thing I knew, we were on our way upstairs. The fantasy was playing out a little too fast. He took me in his arms and kissed me. May I say that this was the kiss of my dreams? As passionate, tender and exciting as I ever could have imagined.
"During our lovemaking, I caught myself thinking, how was this making me feel? I liked everything about Paul, yet when we walked downstairs together I wasn’t feeling too good. I saw myself as just a young girl he had taken to bed and that was it.
"Paul called the next night and I went back. I wanted to try to cement a bond. Once again it was sexy. But by that time our tryst was over and I wanted to go home to the safety of my parents’ house. I didn’t see Paul again that summer."
They’d get together a couple of years later.
Photo: Earl Leaf.
