SO YOU THINK you know him? You've certainly seen over a thousand pictures of him (if you love him anywhere near like you say you do) you surely have memorized such important data as: James Paul McCartney was born on June 18, 1942, in Liverpool. He is five feet eleven inches tall, weighs 148 pounds and has brown hair and hazel eyes. His mother died when he was 14 and his father recently remarried a widow, Angela, who has a small daughter named Ruth. Paul has one younger brother named Michael. The family home is in Wirral(near Liverpool) and Paul just purchased a large house in an elegant section of London.
All right-so you know all that already! But what about the things you don't know-and never knew before-about handsome Paulie? Well, here they are-for the first time anywhere: Paul has a small, private apartment in London-which has been one of the world's best-kept secrets! He entertains there and has a fantastic array of high-fi tape recording equipment there. For Christmas, Paul made a special 30-minute comedy record (with take-offs on other singers and comedians on it). Only three copies were made of this record. One for Ringo, one for John, and one for George. It was a Christmas present from Paul to them...Paul is so hung up on hi stape machine that he no longer writes letters to his intimate friends. He sends them a tape-letter instead!...Paul is a scribbler, jotting down all the ideas that pop into his head on anything-like napkins, menus, envelopes, and such. Once a week he tapes all his ideas (these are usually song ideas). He also is ridiculously keen on electronic music (he recently surprisedan organization called The Italian Institute by showing up with two friends at one of their concerts of electronic music!). Paul tapes any far-out sound that he likes and keeps a collection of these sounds on one reel... When Paul has amassed a suffiecient amount of "ideas" and "sounds," he flies off to John Lennon's house, where he and John lock themselves up for days working out songs from the new material. Only Cynthia Lennon is allowed into these secret sessions.
Paul is gone on "gadgets". He was wild for the electric hairbrush two of his fans in New Orleans sent him... He also has a weakness(almost fatal!) for Mopeds, which are English bikes with a small motor attached. When paul spends weekends in Wirral, he loves biking around the beautiful countryside there. Right about last Christmas, Paul skidded on an icy road on his bike and had to have two stitches taken on a resulting cut inside his mouth. Fortunately, Paul heals quickly... These Wirral outings make it necessary for Paul to perfect various disguises, so that he can go about unmolested by the local citizens.(Actually, Paul is so dotty over disguises that he'd probably be doing them anyways-even if her weren't internationally famous.) His favorite disguise is to push hair up under a blue beret and don a false mustache and spec rims with no glass in them (so if you see a cat looking like that biking about, you'll bloody well know who it is, luvs!)
Like it or not, Paul's favorite girl is stil Jane Asher, and he loves to surprise her by stopping in a top designer's showroom, ordering a dozen or so items (dresses, slacks, jackets, blouses and sweaters), and then hiring a van to take them over to Jane's house (wow-wouldn't we all love a surprise like that!) Jane, incidentally, is quite close to Paul's family (as is Paul to her family-especially to her brother Peter and her neurologist father). Jane was with Mr. McCartney and his bride at the opening of Help! in London and (when she isn't out of town working in a play or movie) she is very much seen about London with Paul... One of Paul's favorite pastimes is "estate-looking". In England, many wealthy families no longer live in their huge (drafty), ancient manors (preferring the practicality and comfort of a city house), so they make their estates into museums open to the public. When Paul has the time, he hops into his mini and drives to one of these estates and takes the tour. And guess what? The Ashers have such an estate- and Paul and Jane have joined the "tourists" more than once to be shown through it!
© June 1966 16 magazine
