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Saturday, October 31, 1970

Paul & family dressed up for Halloween

Last updated on June 10, 2020

The personal and professional lives of Paul and Linda McCartney were very often intertwined. Why mentioning that the two of them and their children (Heather & Mary) got dressed up for Halloween? Because a picture of them dressed up was used to run a Christmas ad in some UK and US music magazines, and was included in the collage presented in the inner sleeve of their 1971 album, “Ram“.

From Meet The Beatles For Real

Below is a story from some New York-based fans who encountered Paul & family during this Halloween.

Halloween 1970

By Joanne DiFilippe and Linda Rabe

From fanzine “5 Bites of the Apple” – Sept/October 1972

There will never be another Halloween like this Halloween!  As you all know, Paul had arrived in New York on October 8, 1970.  We spent three desperate weeks looking for the man.  Well on October 30th, we went down to CBS Recording Studios where Paul was recording.  After not seeing him for over a year we were quite happy.  The next day, we were sitting by John Eastman’s still trying to find out where he was staying.  That afternoon we were sitting by John’s and watching the little children dressed up for Halloween.  We then decided to go around to the store and buy candy to give to them.  After doing our good deed for the day, we decided to continue with our search.  After having no luck for most of the day, we decided to try 5th avenue.  As we crossed 81st street, we saw two women and a man coming up toward 5th.  They were dressed in yellow sheets with masks and the man was carrying a baby.  As they were approaching us at the corner, the man hid the baby’s face under the sheet and one of the women’s hands reached over to grab the man’s arm (which looked quite familiar!).  And as they came around the corner they were making these ghostly sounds.  We stopped dead in our tracks and figured we play along.  Suddenly thinking, “Oh no!” the guy with the baby came to each of us individually and made ghost sounds in our faces, coming so close he could have knocked us over.  It seemed funny that out of the 5 of us, who were there he came up to only the 4 who had been at the studio the night before.  As they turned to go into the Stanhope Hotel, which we were about to check, we noticed the groovy argyle socks (it was the socks!).  Which after a while, became a well-known trademark, convinced us that we were right.  After realizing that our search for Paul was ended we realized that if during the course of the day we had been off by one minute in anything, we would not have been this lucky.  Not only had our search been over but we realized we had been put on by a Beatle  But yet, we got our reward for treating instead of tricking on Halloween.  That was the first of many events that followed! 

From Meet The Beatles For Real
From eBay – Full page “Happy Xmas” advert by Paul & Linda McCartney, published in some US and UK music magazines
From paulmccartney.com – Paul dressed up for Halloween as featured in the album artwork for ‘RAM’

Going further

The Beatles Diary Volume 1: The Beatles Years

"With greatly expanded text, this is the most revealing and frank personal 30-year chronicle of the group ever written. Insider Barry Miles covers the Beatles story from childhood to the break-up of the group."

We owe a lot to Barry Miles for the creation of those pages, but you really have to buy this book to get all the details - a day to day chronology of what happened to the four Beatles during the Beatles years!

Shop on Amazon

The Beatles Diary Volume 2: After The Break-Up 1970-2001

"An updated edition of the best-seller. The story of what happened to the band members, their families and friends after the 1970 break-up is brought right up to date. A fascinating and meticulous piece of Beatles scholarship."

We owe a lot to Keith Badman for the creation of those pages, but you really have to buy this book to get all the details - a day to day chronology of what happened to the four Beatles after the break-up and how their stories intertwined together!

Shop on Amazon

The Beatles - The Dream is Over: Off The Record 2

This edition of the book compiles more outrageous opinions and unrehearsed interviews from the former Beatles and the people who surrounded them. Keith Badman unearths a treasury of Beatles sound bites and points-of-view, taken from the post break up years. Includes insights from Yoko Ono, Linda McCartney, Barbara Bach and many more.

Shop on Amazon

Maccazine - Volume 40, Issue 3 - RAM Part 1 - Timeline

This very special RAM special is the first in a series. This is a Timeline for 1970 – 1971 when McCartney started writing and planning RAM in the summer of 1970 and ending with the release of the first Wings album WILD LIFE in December 1971. [...] One thing I noted when exploring the material inside the deluxe RAM remaster is that the book contains many mistakes. A couple of dates are completely inaccurate and the story is far from complete. For this reason, I started to compile a Timeline for the 1970/1971 period filling the gaps and correcting the mistakes. The result is this Maccazine special. As the Timeline was way too long for one special, we decided to do a double issue (issue 3, 2012 and issue 1, 2013).

Paul McCartney writing

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peter scheffer • 8 months ago

remember their stay at the hotel.

Met the family ,I started in April of 1970 part of management team.


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