Linda Eastman visits Paul McCartney in London

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Below are fan stories about the encounter of US fans Linda Rabe and JoAnn DeFilippe with Paul McCartney and Linda Eastman, during September / October 1968.

From “McCartney’s Lover and Friends” fanzine #1, January 1973 ; online reproduction taken from Meet the Beatles for Real:

In the Autumn of 1968

Linda Rabe & JoAnn Defilippe

On our first day in London, we took the underground tube to St. John’s Wood, and by some miracle we walked in the right direction and found ourselves in front of the street sign which read, “Cavendish Avenue.”  Looking down the block, we saw a mob of girls standing outside THE HOUSE!  We walked up and they told us that they were waiting for Paul to come out and sign autographs.  As we were standing out there, we heard a noise inside the gate and crossed the street so that we could see over the wall.  There, in the doorway, stood Paul.  He looked over and waved and made signs with his hands which seemed to mean, “Wait, one minute, ok?”  Two girls came out of the yard and went around to the stores with Martha and Eddie.  We stayed around until the cops came and then decided to go back to the hotel and eat. 

  We went back the next night and two girls from Scotland told us that he was not home.  We all decided to go for a drink, and then decided to go back to Paul’s house, even though it was after midnight.  When we arrived there, the gates were wide open, and there was a white car in the yard.  One of the Scottish girls told us that it belonged to Paul’s friend, Ivan Vaughn.  She went into the garage and came out with a pair of Paul’s overalls that had a name of a petrol station on it.  We tried to get the buttons off, but it was quite difficult as they were rubber.  Feeling guilty, we decided to put them back.  We all creeped further into the yard, and JoAnn went up the steps to try and peek into the front window.  Then, Camena made a noise in the garage as she was trying to put the overalls back, and we all flew out of the yard in  a bit of a hurry. 

 Two minutes later, a car came speeding up the block, and a green mini appeared in front of us.  Paul was in the car with Miss Eastman (at the time, we didn’t know who she was).  Since we weren’t able to think straight, all we could say was “Hi Paul,” he looked at us and said, “Hi luv”.  A light went on in the car, and he said something to her.  EH got out of the car and started walking over towards us.  She turned and said in a long drawn out nasal voice, “come on, Martha!”  Even Paul looked at her with a confused look on his face.  Trying to remain calm, we told him that we were from New York  and asked if we could talk to him for a minute.  He said sure.  

JoAnn:  Can I take a picture with you?

Paul:  Sure, come over here.

Carol:  Can we take a picture with you?

Paul:  Yeah

We gave the camera to Camena so she could take the picture of us with him. (see photo)  Carol went over and took his arm and Joann walked over to him and slipped her hand through his left arm.  Joann’s hands being cold, found a nice warm spot.  Paul said, “no luv, like this.”  He took JoAnn’s hand and put it over his arm.  He said “Ohhhh” and started to rub her hand to make it warm.  Being that Paul only had two arms Linda (fellow fan from the U.S. not Linda Eastman) didn’t know where to stand.

Linda:  Where do I stand?

Carol:  Sit on the Ground.

Paul:  No, stand here.  (Point in front of himself) As Linda stood in front of him he put his hands on her shoulders.  Swaying back and forth he looked up to the sky and said, “ohh there’s a moon out tonight” and sang “I only have yes for you.”  As we all looked up at him we gave him looks as if to say “forget it, you can’t sing.”  We were forgetting who he was and that hey Jude was then at #1. 

 Camena went to take the picture and the flash wouldn’t go off, and trying a second time, still no luck.  JoAnn said “Oh the flash won’t go off!”  Paul said, “Don’t worry, it will.”  As Linda was standing in front of him, she could feel his body pressing forward and his knees bending into hers.  The third time the flash finally went off.

Paul:  The family portrait taken right after the football game.  We really beat them at that one, didn’t we?  What part of New York are you from – Brooklyn?

We told him what part, and he said that he had never heard of it.  Little does he know that the location just happened to be the same places were Kennedy Airport is and Shea Stadium.

JoAnn:  We went to a club tonight, and couldn’t get in, you had to be a member.

Paul:  What club was that?

JoAnn:  The Speakeasy Club.

Paul:  Couldn’t be.

JoAnn:  It was.

Paul:  But it couldn’t be.

JoAnn:  don’t tell me, I was there, and I saw the sign and it said “Speakeasy.”

Paul:  But you don’t understand, it burnt to the ground.  There’s nothing left.  You have to be an angel to get in.

JoAnn:  Girls, tell him what the name of the club was.

Linda: Blaiser’s Speakeasy

Paul:  Oh yeah, I know the one.  It’s different.  There are a few clubs that you have to be a member to in.  There’s a good one call The Bag.”

Us:  The Bag?

Paul:  Yeah, the Bag O’Nails – you don’t’ have to be a member to get in and it’s cheap.

Linda:  Is it nice?

Paul:  Yeah, but it’s ‘ruff (makes a fist and squints his nose)

Linda:  Thanks a lot!

Paul:  Yeah, but it’s a good club.

JoAnn:  Where is it?

Paul:  Near Regent Street

Joann: Oh, Regent Street.  Where’s that?

Paul:  Near Carnaby Street.

Us:  Oh…Carnaby Street.

Paul:  (making a funny gesture) Oh Carnaby Street!  We’ll just have to go there, and after that we’ll just have to go to the Palace!

Linda:  Did you know that we had a Magical Mystery Tour of our own? (A bus load of girls had gone on a ride around NY, and then up to Bear Mountain, NY)

Paul (looking pathetic) No.  Nobody told me.  Did you know where you were going?

Linda:  Yeah, we had to hire a bus to Bear Mountin.

JoAnn:  you know Mr. Weiss?

Paul:  Yeah (smiling)

JoAnn:  We’re the girls who gave Mr. Weiss the pictures of John’s car, and of a convention we had.  Did you see them when you were there?

Paul:  Yeah, you’re the girls, those were your pictures?

All of a sudden a little brown and black Yorkshire terrier appeared.

JoAnn:  Hi Eddie!

Linda:  Edgar!

Paul:  Eddie

JoAnn:  Can I pick him up?

Paul:  Sure

JoAnn:  Does he…

Paul:  No, he doesn’t bite.  He just might try and get down.

JoAnn was talking and playing with Eddie and he didn’t get down.  Paul came over and took Eddie’s head in his hands (JoAnn’s hair was in Paul’s fingers) and ruffled his fur and kissed him on the mouth.  Martha was walking around and we asked him if Martha and Eddie fought, and he said that they didn’t.

JoAnn:  Can I have your autograph?

Paul: Sure

JoAnn:  My name is JoAnn. As she gave him a pen and he was signing it.  He shook his head yes, and she said could you please write that down.  He said “Oh JoAnn, Joann, I thought you were telling me what your name was. Hi JoAnn, I’m Paul. But that’s silly, you know I’m Paul.   Then Linda said her name to put on the autograph, and Paul just gave her a strange look, and we didn’t know why.  Later, we found out why.

Linda:  Can I take a picture of you and Eddie?

Paul:  Yeah, wait a minute.

He had to pick Eddie up and then he stood there so tall and proud.  And the flash wouldn’t’ go off again.  So Paul decided he was going to fix that problem and just pulled the flash cube off and tried top push another one on, but it still didn’t work.  So, we tried switching the flash cubes again, and Paul posed again, and we finally got the picture (see photo)  He then put Eddie down and he bent down and made noises of a dog barking and Eddie looked at Paul moving his head from side and side and we all went “ahhh.”

Linda:  We have a present for you, but we didn’t bring it with us because we didn’t know we were going to see you.

Paul:  Come back tomorrow.  It’s better to come at night, because during the day I don’t answer the bell.  I change moods rapidly.  He started to shut one gate and Linda went over to him and whispered in his ear, while his hair tickled her nose, “can I kiss you goodnight?”

Paul:  No, not here.

As Linda was backing up, he still held her hand as we said goodnight to him again and told him to say hello to the other boys for us.  Back at the hotel, we had talked about what happened, but Linda couldn’t put into words how it felt when Paul pressed against her. 

 Even though Paul had told us to come back at night, we decided to go around to his house that afternoon to see what was going on.  It’s so hard to stay away.  As usual, there were a lot of girls there and they were asking us questions about what time Paul had come home the night before (don’t know how they found out). 

 While we were there, Miss Eastman had come out to go around to the store.  With her nose high in the air, she just passed everyone right by without a glance.  A half hour later the groceries arrived and they rang the bell which Paul answered and they told him his groceries were here and he said OK and sent Rosie out to collect them.  After a while, a meat truck came and Rosie came out to open the gates for the truck to pull in the yard and send in the meat.  When the groceries had arrived we looked in the box and then stuck in a few notes that our friends from New York had given us to give him.  We were peeking through the crack in the gate and were taking turns standing on the milk crate looking over the wall.  We saw Paul come bopping down the stairs in the house and he had on a yellow shirt and dark trousers. 

  Later in the afternoon, Ivan came and rang the bell which Paul wouldn’t’ answer.  Therefore, Ivan decided to climb the gate, he took a few steps backwards and jumped over the gate (a trick John use to pull).  About an hour later, Paul came rushing out of the house and we ran into the yard next door (#9) to try and see what he was doing. 

We saw him get into his Mini and we went back to his gate.  Ivan opened the gates and Paul pulled out making noises like a racing car.  Martha was in the back seat and Paul had Eddie on his lap.  We knew that he was taking them up to Regents Park as he had done very day then.  Everyone started to snap pictures.  JoAnn took a picture of him and the flash was very bright and hurt his eyes and Paul went “ooh!”  JoAnn felt guilty and wanted to apologize.  When we went back that night, JoAnn asked Linda to remind her. 

  Linda had looked and Paul and pointed to the camera and he nodded that it was ok to take a picture.  Paul waited for Miss Eastman and Ivan to get into the car and then he pulled off.  We decided not to wait around until he came back and went home.  We came back at 11 pm to give Paul his present.  When we arrived there, the gates were closed and we walked over to EMI.  On our way back to Paul’s we saw tow English girls (Anne and Suzanne) standing there.  The gates were open and Paul was standing there with Eddie in his arms and talking to Ivan, who was seated in the car with Miss Eastman next to him.  As Ivan pulled out, we started to walk over to Paul and Ivan said “Goodnight” and we made sure that we said Goodnight to him and we waved.  They pulled off down the block and we stood there with Mr. McCartney himself and again he was making his dog noises.  

Paul:  Did you meet Eddie?  Oh yeah, you met Eddie last night.  Then he said to Carol, “You didn’t meet Eddie.”

Carol:  I did too.

Paul:  Oh, you were here last night?  You look different.

JoAnn to Carol:  Oh, you had your hair back last night and tonight you have it down.

Paul:  Oh, you let your hair down so you could swing (swaying his hips from side to side.)  We were standing in front of him and we were watching him as he put his yellow shirt into his trousers with a silly grin on his face. We looked down to see his orange socks.  He was standing directly in front of a puddle and  he curled his toes up and went “ekkk!”  All of a sudden there was a noise from the top of the wall and Paul said, “shhh! Do you hear that noise?”  He moved closer towards us.

Paul:  Is that one of the fans up there?  Oh no.  It’s that tom cat again.  He scared us last night.  Oh (he looks at the 2 English girls) – have you met these three girls?  These three girls are from New York and they’re alright.

Paul to us:  These two girls are from Hamstead and they’re alright too.

Suzanne to us:  You know you’re alright, he said you’re alright, so that means you’re alright.

Paul stood there smiling with his head down.

Linda:  Can we take a picture?

Paul:  Yes sure. 

He was still talking, but we didn’t know what he was talking about, and we were trying to get the cameras out.

Paul:  come on girls, you’re slow (hitting JoAnn on the hand) Every night when we were small my brother and I used to get a bisquit before we went to bed, and we used to nibble on it very very slowly (with his hand up to his mouth to imitate) to stall for time.  By the way, where did you girls go today?

JoAnn:  We were here all day.

Paul:  You were here all day?!

Linda:  Yeah, we had nothing better to do (jokingly)

As we were getting ready to take the picture Paul said, “Never mind, I’m not in the mood now.  You have to be in a mood to take pictures.”  Meanwhile Eddie kept running around.

Linda:  Does Eddie run in the street?

Paul:  Yes, he does, sometimes. 

And with that Eddie ran into the street.  All Paul had to do was whistle and Eddie came running back.  It didn’t take him long to get back into the street though.  Paul was still talking and talking and suddenly a car came speeding down the black and Paul turned around and called “Eddie.”  Eddie panicked and didn’t know which way to turn.  Thank God the car stopped in time.  Paul turned around and had his hand over his heart.  “I shouldn’t have called him like that because I scared him and he probably would have made it across the street ok.  It’s the same as if a person was crossing the street and a car was coming the person would have noticed the car, but if someone had yelled out the person would have panicked.”

JoAnn:  You’re smart.

The guy that almost hit Eddie was still sitting there in his car, smiling and watching.  Again forgetting who we were with, we said, “Who’s that guy staring at?”  Paul put his head down.

Linda to JoAnn:  You wanted to apologize.

JoAnn:  Oh yeah, I have to apologize.

Paul:  Apologize?  What for?

As JoAnn looked up into his eyes she noticed oen of his veins in the left eye and it left a strange effect on her and she couldn’t say what.

Paul:  So, where’s my present?

Linda:  First we have a couple notes from our friends.

We gave them to him and he said in a pathetic voice, “Is this my present?”

Linda:  No stupid (she said this innocently). 

Paul opened the notes and started to read, but he couldn’t as it was too dark and he said he’d finish reading them inside, and put them in his pocket.  Linda then took out the bottle of wine, slowly, to give him.  He popped her in the chest and said, “Hurry up!”  His eyes just lite up when he saw that bottle.  He held it in his hand and put his arm up in the air and said, “Let’s celebrate!”  He said, “Who wants the first swig?”  We told him he should have some first because it was his bottle.  He started to tear the stuff off the top and dropped it on the ground.  He said to Linda, “Want some?” and she said, “No thank you, I don’t like wine.”  He then took a great big gulp and made a face and shook his head in pleasure and said, “Good stuff, this American wine.” He then went to pass the bottle and Linda suddenly decided she liked wine and took the bottle from him.  She was putting it up to her mouth and he pushed it, hitting her front teeth with the bottle as she drank it.  Linda then gave the bottle to JoAnn and when she was drinking it Paul kept staring at her and the bottle made a funny noise when she took it away from her mouth and the wine swished out of the bottle.  The other girls had a swig and gave the bottle back to Paul.

Paul:  Oh, when I used to work in the mill they used to wake me for my meals, but that was a long time ago, when I was 55.

Suzanne:  Now you’re 80.

Paul:  And these tin-pan groups today, they don’t make music, just noise.

Suzanne:  Like the Beatles.

Paul:  oh them…

Paul started to go towards the gates and close them and he said “Hey well, I’ll see you anyway.  Goodnight.”

We said goodnight and went to get a taxi home.

From “McCartney’s Lover and Friends” fanzine #1, January 1973 ; online reproduction taken from Meet the Beatles for Real

From “The McCartney Observer” fanzine #13, Spring 1980 ; online reproduction taken from Meet the Beatles for Real: The Autumn of ’68 (part 2):

Autumn of ’68 (part 2) – Written by Linda Rabe and Jo Ann DeFilippe

We woke up quite late the next day, remembering the night before.  We knew for sure our trip would be the best ever for us.  We went round to see some of the sights and got back in time for dinner at the hotel and went up to our room to get ready to go to Paul’s house leaving about 11pm and took a cab to Cavendish.   It was really quiet except for Eddie who was under the gate crying…so we stuck our hands under the gate to pet him and he was nibbling our fingers!   We climbed the wall to see if Paul’s car was in the yard.  When we didn’t see it there we knew he was at Trident recording so we made ourselves comfortable for the wait for him to come home.   Shortly later we saw two cops coming up the block towards us.  So we casually picked ourselves up and started walking down the block.  Then we head “Hey, Girls!”  We were afraid to turn around, but when we did they were smiling.   We waited for them to catch up to us.  They came up and asked us where Paul was.  We said “Paul who?”  They said, “What were you doing then?”  We said we were walking down the block and heard a dog crying so we stopped to pet it.  We told them we were going to Regents Park and they said don’t go there all the freaks go there this late at night.  So we said we would go to Primrose hill, and they said not to go there because all the homosexuals go there.  All of a sudden a car drives down the block and one of the cops said, “There goes Paul.”  We said it was not.   The one cop told us, “If we told you not to go back to the house you’d be back there in an hour anyway” and he laughed.  We then proceeded to walk to Wellington with them and told them that we were going to go to Scotland and visit our pen pals.  They said good night and started for the prescient and we told them we were going to get a taxi home (such liars).  When they were out of sight we went back to visit the crying dog.

A half hour later a car pulled up with people we had never seen before.  They got out and opened Pauls’ gate with a key and pulled in the yard and shut the gates and went in.  About fifteen minutes later we saw the guy in a window on the third floor next to the music room, when Ivan appeared in his car.  He got out and said hello.  Ivan asked us who was in the house.  Not knowing who the people were we told him some fat guy and his wife.  Ivan laughed.  He ran the bell and said “Paul sent me round.”  No one came to open the gate for him so Ivan had to jump over it again, and let himself in.  We felt bad for Ivan because he didn’t have a key and the other guy did.  Shortly later we saw a car coming up the block and thought it was a cop car so we started up the block again.  We turned around to look and saw Pauls’ brother Mike getting out of the taxi, with the rest of the Scaffold and three girls.  Mike asked who was inside and we said “Some guy and his wife and Ivan.”   Mike said, “Ivan!  What the bloody hell is he doing here?”  Mike took off his jacket and handed it to one of the girls and jumped over the gate, and let everyone in (except us).  A half hour later a cab pulled up and he asked us if we were the ones who wanted a taxi.  We said no it must be them inside.  We rang the bell and mike answered and I told him his cab was here.  Mike, the three girls and the Scaffold and Eddie came out.  We spoke briefly to John of the Scaffold and they got in the taxi and pulled off and left us there with Mike and Eddie.  Mike yelled out to them, “Ta, ra good ta.”  It was almost four in the morning and I decided to ask Mike where Paul was.  He said “He’s said “He’s recording and won’t be home until very late, so why don’t you go home and get to bed.  I think that would be a very good idea, now I think.”  We asked Mike if we could take his picture and then we would go home.   He said ok, each of us took a picture alone with him and once the flash didn’t go off (as usual).  And Mike said not to worry, that sometimes they do flash and sometimes they don’t flash.  We tried again and the flash was bright and Mike said, “Oh shit, that one!”  As we were taking the pictures Mike was holding Eddie and we were petting Eddie.   After we finished Mike said are we going to go home and go to bed new.  We said yes.  Mike said “Well then, I’m satisfied.  Goodnight to you.”  We all said goodnight and went and got a taxi.

We got up late again the next day and just did some sight-seeing and couldn’t wait until that night to go to Paul’s house.  So at 11pm we left for Paul’s house.  We sat around on the curb to his courtyard in front of his gates.  Every time a car came speeding up the block we would say, “Shit, it’s him….it’s not him.”  Then another car came speeding up the block and we thought it was him, because as the car came closer it slowed down, but then it made a slight turn as if to go into the garage across the way.

It just stopped and it looked like a woman driving.  The lights were very bright and it was hard to tell. We were getting very pissed off wondering what the hell she was staring at us for.  This went on for a good five minutes all of a sudden the car came speeding up and made a sharp turn into where we were sitting, almost running us over.  The woman turned out to be Mr. McCartney all by himself.  We jumped up in a hurry afraid of being killed on the spot.  He still sat there starring at us and we thought that maybe we forgot to pu on our trousers.  We stood there holding one carnation each which we swiped form our hotel dining room.  Paul then opened the door and the radio was blasting he was whistling.  He came to Jo Ann and took her carnation and said “thank you.”  He then took Carol’s flower.  He then went to Linda whose flower was stuck in her button hole and had a very tough time getting it out with him standing there patiently and starring.  She finally got the carnation loose and gave it to him, and said, “With love from me to you.”  And Paul said, “ahh.”  He went to the back seat of his Aston and took an album and put the flowers in it.  He was dressed in a beige suit with elephant bells which were just coming in style.  He then walked over to the front of the car to open the gates and Jo Ann said to Linda, “This car is beautiful.”  Paul turned around and said, “Thank you.”  We were surprised he had heard because the motor of the car was very loud and Jo Ann said it very soft.  Still whistling, he got back in the car and we watched him pull into the garage, as he was coming back towards us, Miss Eastman appeared at the door and Eddie came running out.  She was wearing a blue lounging outfit.  Eddie started to run to us and Eastman shut the door.  Jo Ann said “Watch Eddie doesn’t go in the street.”  And Paul then called Eddie and whistled and Eddie turned and ran to him.  Paul still walked over to us tripped over Eddie and we thought he was going to end up on this face.   We all said, “Be careful!”  He started to close one gate and leaned on it and we told him he almost ran us over, and with his silly little smile he said, “I wouldn’t do that.”  We told him that we met his brother the night before.   He pouted and said “Oh yeah.”  (We later found out from a certain source that he gets jealous if you mention another fellow even his brother!)  Paul was looking very tired so we just said goodnight to him and he smiled and said “Hey well, I’ll see you anyway, goodnight!”

The next evening when we arrived at Paul’s house we made ourselves comfortable again.  Around one o’clock the Aston came speeding up the block as usual and turned into the driveway and he sat there smiling at us.  He had on a tan jacket and looked beautiful as always.  Miss Eastman was sitting on his left and staring out the front window of the car and looking quite annoyed as usual.  The motor of the car was loud and Paul asked us “Are you enjoying your holiday?”  It was very difficult to hear him and Jo Ann kept saying “What?” and Paul kept repeating it very patiently.  We finally caught what he was saying and told him yes.  As the two of them remained seated in the car we think they were waiting for each other to get out and open the gate.  Paul then put his left hand on the back of her neck and scratched her neck.  She turned her head away from him and stormed out of the car as Paul sat there patiently and smiled at us.  When she got to the gate the three of us looked at her and smiled.  She wouldn’t smile back.  She just threw her head back very dramatically.  We felt hurt because we didn’t do anything to her.  Paul pulled into the garage.  As we were standing waiting for Paul to come back she looked and just slammed the gates right in our faces!  We then got furious and were going to kick the gate and call her a bitch when we heard Paul’s footsteps passing her by and coming closer to the gates.  EH opened one and leaned on the other and looked at us as if to say he was sorry.  We told him that we met a neighbor of his who was with his dog and told us that you were a very n ice boy.  Paul’s reply was, “Don’t believe him.”  Linda said, “Why you’re not a nice boy”   Paul just smiled and Eddie came running out of the house towards us.  Paul bent to pick him up and said, “Hiya Ed…Hey, well, I’ll see you anyway.  Goodnight.”  We said Goodnight to Paul.

From “The McCartney Observer” fanzine #13, Spring 1980 ; online reproduction taken from Meet the Beatles for Real: The Autumn of ’68 (part 2)

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