Alexis “Magic Alex” Marda gets married

On this day, Alexis “Magic Alex” Mardas, the head of Apple Electronics, married in London. His best men were John Lennon and singer-songwriter Donovan. Among the guests were George Harrison with his wife Pattie, and John’s new partner Yoko Ono.

Paul McCartney did not attend the ceremony itself but joined the wedding party at the Arethusa Club later. Denis O’Dell, director of Apple Films, recalled the occasion in his autobiography:

One summer morning, shortly before Apple relocated to its Savile Row offices, I was wading through a pile of scripts when Paul walked into my office.

‘Denis, we’re going to a wedding this morning.’

‘Oh,’ I responded nonchalantly. ‘Anyone I know?’

‘Yeah, Magic Alex.’

‘Very nice.’

‘The only thing is,’ Paul continued, ‘we’ve got to sort out a wedding party for him.’

‘When for?’

‘Today. Straight after the service. For about fifty people.’

My heart sank, knowing that the ‘we’ in Paul’s plans really meant me. ‘You must be joking,’ I said. ‘We’ll never sort out anything at this short notice.’ I explained to him that you cannot organize a dinner for fifty guests ten minutes before you want to arrive; it simply wasn’t a realistic request.

‘See what you can do,’ he said and made his exit. […]

The only place I could think of where I felt I might be able to pull any sort of rank was the exclusive Arethusa Club, which I had frequented many times and which was an occasional haunt of the Beatles. I phoned them without much hope, asked for the manager and relayed my request, making no reference to the Fab Four. I suppose I wanted to see how far I could get without resorting to celebrity name-dropping or grovelling, two things I have always hated.

‘I’m very sorry, sir,’ the Arethusa’s manager told me evenly, although he obviously thought I was barking mad or had been living in a mud hut for the past ten years. ‘These things have to be booked months in advance.’

‘Is there nothing you can do?’ I implored, with all the desperation I could muster.

‘Absolutely not,’ came the predictable and rather smug reply. ‘We’re completely, totally, fully booked.’

There are times when you simply have to put any principles of fairness and decency to one side and blatantly exploit the few genuine privileges celebrity brings. ‘There will be some very important guests,’ I continued, moving in for the kill.

‘Oh yes?’ was the rather non-committal response. He had obviously heard this sort of thing a thousand times before.

‘It’s for the Beatles,’ I told him, stooping to conquer.

There was a brief pause while the word worked its magic and the manager’s personality was transformed from detached jobsworth to flattering toady of the first division.

‘One moment please, sir,’ he gushed. Another brief silence was followed by some distant muttering in the background. ‘We would be most happy indeed to fit you in for lunch this afternoon.’

‘That’s very kind,’ I replied, barely bothering to conceal my own insincerity.

Paul and the other Beatles were delighted with the news and, after Alex’s Greek Orthodox wedding, at which John was best man, a superb party was had by all. After the celebrations Paul and I drove back to Apple’s offices and drank whisky and coke.

‘Come and listen to this, Denis,’ he said, ushering me into a side office. Setting up a tape recorder in the room, he played me a demo of a new song that he had just recorded [Hey Jude]. […] As the song came to a close, Paul’s voice brought me back down to earth. ‘Do you think it could be a single?’ he asked. Although not finished, the song was pretty long and he was concerned that EMI would reject it on these grounds.

‘It’s a wonderful song, Paul. I’m sure they’ll make an exception.’

Denis O’Dell – From “At the Apple’s Core: The Beatles from the Inside“, 2002

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.

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