This article appeared in my Wheeling Around Phoenixville column on December 16, 2005...
Recently legendary area newscaster Larry Kane was in town to promote his new book, "Lennon Revealed," about his friendship with The Beatles and especially the late John Lennon.
First, I have been a Larry Kane fan since the 1970s, when he, along with Joe Pellegrino and the late, great Jim O'Brien, turned Channel 6 Action News into the powerhouse local news broadcast it still is today. So I was thrilled to see he was coming to Phoenixville.
Second, I am now a big Beatles fan. Funny, I grew up during Beatlemania. I watched them on the Ed Sullivan show along with millions of other Americans in February, 1964. I even remember the Philadelphia disc jockeys breathlessly reporting as The Beatles crossed the Atlantic before they finally touched down at Kennedy Airport in New York. "The Beatles are only two hours away! The Beatles are coming!" I remember the years of hysteria which followed until their breakup.
But I was never a big Beatles fan back then. They were more of a curiosity than anything else. The majority of Beatle fans back then were teenage girls, not six-year-old little boys.
But as I grew older, as with most good things in life, one learns to savor and appreciate what is good in life, and that's how The Beatles and their music affected me. I can now appreciate their greatness.
I have read several biographies about The Beatles over the years. The best, in my opinion, is a now 20-year-old book called "The Love You Make...An Insider's Story of The Beatles" by Peter Brown and Steven Gaines. Peter Brown was a member of The Beatles' "inner circle". The book is a fascinating look at their lives-before and after fame.
One part of the book which I found particularly interesting was how The Beatles viewed the disabled back in those early days, an odd relationship, yet one which touched The Beatles in many ways over the years. The Beatles were young, rich and good-looking- what on earth would they have in common with the physically challenged?
Ringo himself was a very sickly child, in and out of hospitals, even during his teenage years. In fact, he became interested in music and playing the drums from one of his frequent hospital stays, during which the young patients formed a "band".
Paul was often referred to as the "cute" Beatle, and even now, makes most women swoon. It's fair to say, especially in his younger years, Paul wouldn't have a problem getting a date. But his current wife, Heather, is physically challenged. A beautiful model, Heather was involved in a terrible accident years ago, which resulted in an amputation of one of her legs. She now wears a prosthesis, still models, and is a world-known activist for the disabled.
John seemed to have a much more tormented relationship with people who seemed "different." As peter Brown wrote, John often doodled drawings of "crippled" individuals during his days as an art student. For some reason he had this obsession with the deformed of society. It seems John had his very angry, bitter moods as a young man, even more so after his mother died. When he indulged in alcohol or drugs, he would even approach a disabled individual on the streets of Liverpool, England and mock him. Making cruel jokes to a hapless paraplegic was John's idea of "fun" when he was high, once asking a fellow "Where's ya legs go, mate? Run away with your wife?"
John was either an immature, insensitive bully, or someone who masked his own insecurities and pain by teasing others who could not defend themselves.
Ironically, as The Beatles rose to fame and began touring, each one was forced to face his fears, hang-ups, or whatever nightmares they had about the unfortunate in our world. Again, according to Peter Brown, when The Beatles were on tour they were presented at each city "children crippled with various horrible diseases, blind children, the retarded, and the terminally ill."
It was the "crippled children" who occupied the first five rows of every Beatles concert, thus The Beatles looked out over a sea of wheelchairs every night on tour. Even more personal, many backstage passes went to these disabled fans' parents begging The Beatles to meet and sign autographs for their loved ones. It was as if The Beatles were miracle workers, if not physically, then spiritually.
But what may have happened was that The Beatles themselves were the ones who ultimately were affected by these meetings. It brought The Beatles face-to-face with reality, and in the ;long run, perhaps it made The Beatles appreciate their success and health even more, realizing they truly were lucky compared to others.
To be fair, it had to be hard for them, young men from a tough, working-class city, thrust into situations they may not have been ready to encounter. So, in a strange way, although their music and popularity brought them happiness and wealth, it also forced them to deal with far more important aspects of life.
I can't say how John Lennon would've treated a physically challenged individual now. I can only "imagine" he would be a voice for disabled rights, as he was in his later years for those less fortunate and people treated unfairly in life.
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