Filming “Help!” in the Bahamas • Day 5

In the Bahamas I Met the Beatles – By NANCY OAKES As Told to BOB BUYER

I AM 15-years old and I have seen “A Hard Day’s Night” five times and my mother says that she can’t remember when she last saw the wallpaper in my room because I must have about a thousand pictures of the Beatles pasted and pinned to it. I have every single record The Beatles ever made and all their albums, too. So if you think that I was excited a couple of weeks ago when I found myself almost all alone with The Beatles on Paradise Island in the Bahamas while they were making their new movie, you are absolutely rightsville.

MY MOM and Dad took me and my kid sister, Ann, who’s 10, along when they flew to Florida to see our grandparents before flying on to the Bahamas. My dad is a manufacturer’s agent who travels around New York and Pennsylvania in his own Cessna 195 plane. It’s great for going on vacation, too. In the Bahamas we stayed with Harry Kline whom my parents knew when we all lived in Buffalo. He has a boat he calls a dragger that’s anchored near Paradise Island. I guess they used to call it Hog Island before Huntington Hartford spent all that money trying to make it into a resort. He’s gone now and the island is just there.

NO ONE is allowed on Paradise Island now except if you live there or are guests, like we were, of someone who does. I guess that’s why the Beatles picked it to make some scenes for their new movie. We had heard, of course, that the Beatles were in the Bahamas, but we never expected to run into them — I mean face to face and just a few feet away.

MR. KLINE picked us up at the airport and we were dying to ask him about the Beatles, but we didn’t. Just after we landed on Paradise Island, we saw them. They were seated in a little ferryboat just about to leave the island. They were covered up with straw hats and lots of clothing because, someone told us later, their directors didn’t want them to get sunburned. I knelt down on the dock to get a closer look at the Beatles. So did Ann. We stared at them and they looked at us, too. And then their boat went away. I think I cried a little.

THE NEXT DAY we saw them on the other side of the island. They were rehearsing. George (Harrison) was dancing. Ringo (Starr) was on a motor boat. When Ringo came on the beach, I went over to him and asked for his autograph. “Not at the moment,” Ringo answered in his dreamy accent. “I’m too busy.” I didn’t mind.

A LITTLE LATER I saw Paul (McCartney), John (Lennon) and George coming down from the club where I guess they had lunch. I went up to them again and I asked Paul for his autograph. “Later, Luv,” he said to me. Again they went away and again they came back later. They stood near me, looking mad, glaring in one direction. John stopped and looked at me, still glaring. I asked John for his autograph and he obliged. He’s great. Then I asked Paul. He signed twice, once for Ann. He’s great, too, and so cute. I never got Ringo or George because they started filming a scene on the beach.

The make-up men made up the boys and did their hair. John tried on hats. One was a funny little baseball cap. It really wasn’t funny, but on John Lennon with all that hair! I was about 10 feet away from him and I started to laugh. He looked up and in his gorgeous accent said: “What’s so funny?“

Then they shot this scene where the boys go charging down the beach chased by a group of policemen. Ringo comes running up covered with red paint and stops to talk to them. After a couple of takes, Paul sat down on the sand nearby.

I CRAWLED over and knelt down about 3 feet away. I whispered to him to turn around so I could get his picture. He didn’t hear me. John was standing near and I looked up and said, “Would you please ask him to turn around?“

John looked at Paul and said, “Hey, Paul, turn around, now.” Paul turned and gave me a real funny grin. Then I got a beautiful picture of George, John and Paul, but I accidentally cut out Ringo. Then a man came charging over and said, “No pictures, lady.” I didn’t care. I had taken them already.

WE’RE BACK home now. When I think about it — which is pretty often — I remember Ringo as a lot skinnier than his pictures. John is much cuter and so’s Paul. Paul’s gorgeous. I didn’t get to see George very well. My pictures came out very well, I thought. Everyone I know wants copies of them. I can understand this.

From The Buffalo News – March 27, 1965