Paul McCartney celebrates his 26th birthday

On this day, George Harrison and Ringo Starr returned from America, while John Lennon was getting ready for the premiere of the “In His Own Write” stage play (an adaptation of his poetry book of the same name).

Meanwhile, Paul McCartney celebrated his 26th birthday at the Apple offices in London, without the other Beatles. He welcomed some fans into the building to share his lunch with them.

In the evening, as the other Beatles attended the Old Vic theatre for “In His Own Write,” Paul was present at the debut of a different play featuring his fiancée, Jane Asher.

Tuesday June 18, 1968

First thing we did was go to pick up our tickets at the Old Vic for John’s play that night, then we picked up the birthday cake we had made for Paul, in hopes of giving it to him. We went to Wigmore St. first, and no one was there, so we went over to Paul’s – plenty of girls there, but every one of them thought they owned the street. So back to Wigmore. Caught Kevin (Harrington, their roadie) and he told us they thought he was over on Waldor Street. So we rushed over there, but of course didn’t know which building to start in, so back to Wigmore we went, just in time to catch someone who knew the address 93-94 Waldor. He said the cake was very nice and thoughtful of us – so back we went (the cake by now was a little dead). We figured he was inside, so we waited. At 2:00 Paul and four other fellows walked up. They all looked at us and their mouths just fell open – no one was supposed to know about this place, and they must of asked us a dozen times how we found out, but we never told. We handed Paul the cake first, and when he opened it he said, “I’m overwhelmed girls.” And held it down for everyone to see. Then he said, “These two girls are form America.” He had on red patent leather shoes, red sock, his striped pant, and purple polka dot shirt (very see-through). We wished him a happy birthday and he thanked us and went inside. We decked to wait until he came out. About 3:00 he came out from inside and motioned for us to come inside. I couldn’t believe it and said, “Me?” and he motioned again, so the three of us went in. He said, “come on in girls,” and led us to the back room where they were doing a film for Apple promotion that Paul was taking to the States in a day. When we got in Paul said, “This is a regular party now.”

I noticed our cake sitting on the table. He picked up a knife and cut the cake by attacking in the middle and pulling outward – he cut himself a piece then told one of us to cut up the rest and pass it around. He was also drinking champagne at the time. Cindi cut the cake and passed it to the technicians and whoever else was in there (we were the only girls). HE told us to find ourselves a seat and proceeded to show the film as he tried to piece it together. He kept having to stop it to either take something out or add something new. In between I would just turn around and stare at him, then he’d look up and smile, he kept doing that and I finally had to turn away from embarrassment. He about killed me.

People would be coming and going and at 4:00 John and Yoko walked in – the first thing I did was offer him a piece of cake. HE was very polite, but didn’t want any. They stayed to see the film once and John was really cracking up at this one part with Alexis, I thought he’d never calm down. When he had walked in, he said happy birthday to Paul, and asked him if he’d gotten the present all right. He only stayed a while, and then had to go wash his hair for the premiere of his play that night.

Paul got a little wild during take 10, tapping out the beat to the music with his hands and broke the electronic table, so there was a hold-up. He came down our way and Cindi got a hold of him and asked him if he remember doing a concert in San Diego and of course he said yes. She said, “No don’t you remember coming down from LA in a bus in ’65?” And then he really did recall such a thing, but said he remembered the bus ride but not the concert.

I had to move from my seat so the three of us went over to the other side of the room, where I watched Paul. He was just sitting back there all by himself, drawing prices, so I finally got the courage to go back and talk to him. First off, I offered him a piece of gum. He was willing to talk so I started off by saying “I hear you’re going to Los Angeles tomorrow?” He looked shocked, and said, “Well, I’m not going tomorrow, but within a few days.” And I said, “You mean, I came all the way over here to see you, and you go right back where I came from?” He was looking down but said, “Do you want to come along?”.. Ah, but if I didn’t think he was putting me on, I would of said, yeah, right away, but I told him something about how I couldn’t leave until next Tuesday, or something equally stupid like that. He had me flabbergasted. So I changed the subject fast and went on to something more practical—underwear! Well, I promised a friend of mind that if I met him I would ask him this, and anyway it isn’t an every day question, is it? I started by saying, “did you happen to get anything unusual in the main around Valentine’s Day?” And he said, “Like what, I do get some unusual things.” And I said, well, they had hearts on them.” And I was getting very nervous – so he said, “come on, you can tell me” (all this time he was looking down, drawing a picture) and I casually said, “like underwear?” and he looked up so fast and questioned, “Why did you send them?” so I explained to him and he said, “Yes I remember getting something like that.” Then this man sitting next to Paul said, “In other words, he isn’t wearing them now” and Paul laughed. (Before this, he had said, “You heard that, write it down in the books so we’ll have something against her).

He said he wasn’t going to John’s play that night but to the opening of Jane’s play. After our discussion which lasted 20 minutes, he stood up and remarked how stuffy it was in the room and then went outside for some air. I really and made an observation of his features, how really soft his hair is, his lip that does have a noticeable bash in it, his soft green eyes, and his stomach wrinkle beneath his shirt!

When he came back in, he let the film go for a final run-through. After that (6:00) he got up and changed into his brand new coat, and got ready to leave. I thanked him graciously for lettering us come inside, and he said he didn’t mind at all. […]

Beatles fan Lorelle – From “The Write Thing”, November 1977 – From Meet the Beatles for Real: June 1968

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