#21dec

I couldn’t resist using that fab expressionistic pic, but no, I don’t think there was ever a love affair between John and Pattie. (I think there was an unwritten but respected rule about each others girlfriends/wives between the Beatles. …At least while the band was together…) 

If you do have a source saying something different, please let me know, because I’d love to read it! What I thought you might have read about was the events of 21st December 1967.

On the night of the 21st December 1967, the Beatles held a preview and wrap party for Magical Mystery Tour at  the Westbourne Suite at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, London. The party was fancy dress. You might have seen the photos before: 

Conspicuous in their absence from this photo are Cyn, Pattie and George, and maybe with good reason. For the party Ringo is dressed as a circus ringmaster, Maureen is an Indian squaw and Paul and Jane are a pearly king and queen. John is a teddy boy (and really, when did he ever stop being one?!) Here’s the story from John’s best friend, 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. 

“The most realistic impression of all, however, was achieved by Freddie Lennon, (with whom John was still on speaking terms), who appeared as a trash collector. That morning, I was told, Freddie had paid his dustman five pounds to swap clothes with him, and he hadn’t even bothered to wash the uniform in the interim. As a result, John’s dad literally reeked of garbage, and all the other party-goers did their utmost to keep him at a safe distance.”

There’s a couple of extenuating circumstances surrounding the party though. One, it wasn’t very long after Brian’s sudden and shocking death, and this was the first Christmas, as well as the first major Beatles project (MMT) without him. Also, John’s previously estranged father was invited to the party by John. (I don’t think these two things were completely unrelated). Plus it was during the period John and Cyn’s marriage was slowly falling apart. 

“It was an extravagant fancy-dress affair and I wore a crinoline dress, like something on a chocolate box, while John went as a greased-up, leather-clad teddy boy. He had invited his father, Alf, to come and they got very drunk together.”

[Cynthia Lennon]

“By the time we were seated for the screening, John had, in best teddy boy style, got himself smashed on good old fashioned booze. Just as in the good old days, moreover, the alcohol seemed to accentuate the more aggressive aspects of John’s personality.” 

[Pete Shotton]

George and Pattie were also at the party of course. George had come as a swashbuckling Errol Flynn and Pattie as an exotic and scantily clad belly dancer. 

“Another unpleasant scene developed toward the end of the party, when a band took to the stage and most of the guests paired off to dance. Totally ignoring Cyn (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 as far as to “dance”, probably for the first time in five years. Though Pattie had undeniably made herself especially desirable as a scantily clad belly dancer, neither Cyn nor George were the least bit amused with John’s open flirtation with her.”

[Pete Shotton]

“I became more and more upset as John openly flirted with other women, including Pattie, who was seductively attired as a belly dancer.” 

[Cynthia Lennon]

“In the end, however it was Cyn’s close friend, the diminutive pop singer Lulu - impersonating Shirley Temple, complete with an oversized lillipop - who elected herself to give the inebriated Beatle-cum-Teddy boy a good talking to.”

[Pete Shotton]

“Lulu was outraged on my behalf and shouted at John that he should be ashamed of himself. It made me smile, despite my wounded pride, to watch her, dressed as Shirley Temple, giving teddy boy John as dressing-down. The evening ended with John and Alf dancing drunkenly together, while I was thoroughly miserable. I had been about the only person John hadn’t danced with.” 

[Cynthia Lennon] 

…though I would wager George didn’t dance with John that night either. 

This story is also absent from Pattie’s book, which seems to skip from Brian’s death to the trip to India in Feb ‘68, so we haven’t got her take on it. Rumour is though, she wasn’t particularly trying to put John off when he was flirting with her and George was not the least bit amused. 

However, I think this is the extent of any love affair between John and Pattie. If anyone has more info, please do let us know!

Radio Times 21 December 1985 - 3 January 1986.