Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Article from 1967
To discourage fuss, the Beatles lead their private lives
within a maze of high hedges and walls, security guards and secret telephone
numbers
Even
John Lennon's art-nouveau Rolls-Royce, painted with a rainbow of swirling floral
patterns on a bright yellow background, has smoked one-way glass in the side and
rear windows to keep the curious from peeking in. The boys make occasional
outings to such London nightspots as The Bag of Nails and The Speakeasy, but
must plan them with a military eye for the element of surprise and a ready path
of retreat in case they are mobbed. Only in the past few months has it become
possible for them to walk through the city like ordinary mortals. Ringo Starr
explains the fine points of the art: "If you're not dodging and running, you
don't get people excited. If you take it cool and just trot about, they leave
you."
Otherwise the Beatles live in a style that is quietly luxurious--as well it
might be, considering their income from records, films, television appearances,
song publishing and copyright royalties, and assorted tie-ins with Beatle
merchandise. The most conservative estimates put the net worth of Harrison and
Starr at $3,000,000 each, and of Lennon and McCartney at $4,000,000 (because of
their extra earnings as songwriters). The figures could easily be twice as high.
Stockbroker Belt. The three married Beatles and their look-alike wives own large
homes in Weybridge, part of the suburban "stockbroker belt," 40 minutes from
London. John, 26, his wife Cynthia, a former art student, and their
four-year-old son Julian, live in a Tudor mansion with a swimming pool. Like the
other Beatles, John has a taste for outlandishly gaudy outfits custom tailored
in brocades, silks and the like, for gadgets (five TV sets, uncounted tape
recorders and cameras), and eccentric collections (a huge altar cross, a suit of
armor called Sidney).
Down the hill from John is Sunny Heights, the 15-room tile-and-stucco digs where
Ringo, 27, wallows in domesticity with Wife Maureen, a former Liverpool
hairdresser, and Sons Zak, 2, and month-old Jason. Ringo, who never practices
drums between Beatle performances, has made his place the group's unofficial
clubhouse; on the spacious grounds are a treehouse and an old air-raid shelter,
and indoors an elaborate bar named The Flying Cow.
George, 24, the newest Beatle husband (he married London Model Patti Boyd early
last year), lives near by in a big white bungalow. He and his friends are
daubing the outside walls with colorful cartoons, flowers and abstract designs,
some in fluorescent paint that shines in the daylight. Unlike Ringo, he
practices a great deal, and his music room is strewn with 12 guitars.
Bachelor Paul, 25 (his favorite "bird" is 21 -year-old Actress Jane Asher), is a
movie addict, loves "the look of London," tools around town in a spiffy blue
Aston Martin DB 5. He lives in a high-walled house in the city's prosperous St.
John's Wood neighborhood--oddly furnished, for a Beatle in a tastefully quaint
style, including an oldfashioned lace tablecloth on the diningroom table--and
has daily bouts of "bashing" at the piano, which he has never quite learned to
play.
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The Beatles Lyrics
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