Many of us have special memories of certain bus trips, whether heading home from elementary school, or later traveling to a school-sponsored event. Few of us, though, have spent two weeks on a bus with well known recording artists– especially the Beatles.
Leslie Cavendish found himself on that special bus in 1967. He was a 20-year-old hairdresser in the London area and one of his clients was Beatle Paul McCartney.
“I was cutting Paul’s hair at his home and he mentioned he was planning a film about a Magical Mystery Tour by bus,” Leslie said. “He asked a few friends to join him (including some actors), and (asked) would I like to join them and also be on call to do the hair if necessary.” The trip was designed to be a 2-week endeavor filming a loosely written script to be made into a television special.”
“We started by stopping to pick up John, George, and Ringo because they lived in Surrey, then heading towards the coast while stopping off at locations that had been vaguely planned by Paul and the director (Bernard Knowles – although the four Beatles were all also credited as directors). The four of them (Beatles) got on really well, lots of joking around with Mal (Evans) and Neil (Aspinall). Paul was the one who was speaking mainly to the director and the rest seemed to follow whatever they said.” He did have memories of John asking why they were doing certain scenes. “I’m sure behind closed doors they all said what are WE doing, but what a journey for me and the rest because we never knew what was going to happen next.”
Along the way there were many stops and chats with a number of local townspeople in disbelief that a bus with an entourage including the Beatles just pulled up. “When we stopped off (for example, to eat) at a fish and chip shop, they had a look of surprise but then they just got on with it . (The Beatles) also gave autographs when they could.”
But even on a two-week schedule to film a television special the group had to rest and relax. “We would stop off at hotels and especially the Atlantic Hotel because that’s where we were based. We went to the local pub one night with Paul, Ringo and some of the roadies, and as they walked in, people looked up and thought they were dreaming. But then they played a old English song called ‘Knees up Mother Brown’, and by this time everybody had quite a few drinks and the place was rocking!”
As the days passed and the filming schedule wound down, it was time to move on from the fabulous experience. “On the way, John, George, and Ringo were dropped off where they all lived and the rest –including roadies, Mal, Neil, and the rest of us –were dropped off at Alsop Place and we all said our goodbyes,” Leslie said. He later was invited to the Magical Mystery Tour launch party on December 21, 1967 held at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London.
“I went home and thought that this Magical Mystery Tour was for real.”

Another of those special days in music history is Sunday February 9, 1964. That was the day the Beatles first appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. The facts are clear: the auditorium in New York held 703 people. The Beatles stayed at the Plaza Hotel while thousands of adoring and curious fans waited outside mingling within the police presence. The performance took place on that Sunday evening

One person who actually was there and had a close view of music history being made was Louise Harrison, George Harrison’s sister. Louise graciously answered some questions about that fateful day.

“I had a room on the 6th floor of the Plaza Hotel,” Louise said, “but moved into George’s room because he had strep throat with 102-104 temperature. Brian Epstein (the Beatles manager) wanted me to stay there because he didn’t want the press to know George was ill.” Epstein recruited Louise to take care of George and to help him during the Saturday rehearsals. “George was still unsteady on his feet during the performances. You can really see this in his eyes during the shows. The band had to go in Saturday to rehearse in the theater. George had just had a temperature of 104 the day before. I called the hotel doctor, Dr. Gordon, and he said George could go for an hour. His illness is also why you see him wearing the polo neck sweater in the photographs. That was to keep him warm.”

On Friday evening before the performance reporters from all the local media vied for interviews with the Fab Four. “The press was all running around knocking on doors wanting interviews. George felt so bad that he asked me to try to do something to get rid of them. I had an idea because they had also been looking for someone to interview on the radio. So I let them basically hijack me and we all went down to the radio station. They had me telephone back to the hotel and get George on the phone. He talked to them and played a little music, and they ended up playing that clip every ½ hour on their radio station.”

George was very protective of his sister on that Friday evening. “He was actually mad at me for going off with the reporters. He wanted to know how I knew that they were good people. I said that was easy…they all had shirts that said (radio station) ‘WMCA – Good Guys’ on their shirts.” WMCA was one of New York City’s top radio stations at that time.

When Louise stayed in New York with the Beatles on that weekend, that was actually the first time she met the other members of the band. “It was great. They were on such a natural high from all of the excitement. They would run from room to room at the hotel between their suites. They had the TV’s turned on to the three major networks and they ran back and forth watching themselves arriving in the US on the different networks.” She attended some of the press interviews with them that weekend. “I remember one in a big room downstairs at the Plaza. Helen Thomas was one of the correspondents. She asked the lads a long convoluted question that ended with ‘what is the biggest threat to your career…a nuclear war or dandruff?’ Ringo answered, ‘a nuclear war because we’ve already got dandruff.’ This was their great Liverpool humor that kept the press enamored…make fun of yourself because everyone else is going to do it anyway.”

On that Sunday afternoon the band actually taped their “third” visit to the Ed Sullivan Show before the night’s important performance. “Ed Sullivan had so many requests for tickets that it worked out that he could have an afternoon performance. There was a separate audience for both shows.” Louise found herself witnessing music history being made backstage at the afternoon performance but she sat in the 7th row for the evening performance. “Since I knew George wasn’t feeling 100% I was trying to will some energy into him…trying to give it through my thoughts to him.”

How was Ed Sullivan, the master showman, on that day? “Ed was really taken with the Beatles. They were treating him like he was one of the boys. He seemed to be really enjoying himself so much with being in their ‘boys club’. Brian Epstein, though, was somewhat nervous. He had an upper crust gentleman attitude and was unruffled no matter what happened. He was very important, he was. I was always impressed with Brian. Since I lived in the US we talked about the American music scene and what influential records labels there were. He told me once he was so excited that an upcoming record was not going to come out on Vee Jay Records (who released the Beatles first US records)…he proudly said it was coming out on Swan Records!”

I could tell by listening to Louise that the excitement, memories, and moments of that important day are just as vivid today as they were on that cold Sunday in New York. “It was tremendously exciting! I was the only woman besides Cynthia that was grossly involved as an insider. It was so much fun and they took the whole world along!”