Music Appreciation
Related: About this forumGeorge Harrison's 1963 vacation in a small Illinois town right before he became world famous.
The Beatles guitarist visited his sister in southern Illinois just months before hed become world famous
BY ALAN PELL CRAWFORD
SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE | May 2020
On a late summer afternoon more than half a century ago, Chris and Monty Field, teenage brothers, found a spot on the courthouse square in Harrisburg, Illinois, to watch a Shriners parade. By some accounts, 12,000 people had gathered for the festivities, even though the population of this farm town was only about 9,000. As 40 marching units, some in their characteristic fezzes, came down the street, Chris and Monty engaged in conversation with a striking blonde in her early 30s who spoke with an English accent. Her name, she said, was Louise. She was there with her children and two brothers. Louise did most of the talking, but the younger of the two brothers, whose name was George, made an impression all the same. He had a funny haircut, kind of long and stringy, Monty recalls. Most of the boys at that time had flattops. George was wearing jeans, he noticed, with a hole at the knee.
They had been camping the night before, Louise said, at Garden of the Gods, about 22 miles southeast of Harrisburg. The campground was part of the Shawnee National Forest in southernmost Illinois, bordered by the Ohio River to the east and the Mississippi to the west. Its vistas were unlike any George would have seen in England: sandstone bluffs rising incongruously above almost endless stretches of flat farmland. Chris and I figured that George ripped his jeans on that camping trip, Monty Field says. That was the most generous explanation we could come up with, though with that hair, you kind of wanted to give him some money to see a barber.
If you didnt go the barbershop once or twice a month, Chris adds, you were a poor person.
... His two weeks there, starting on September 16, might have been the last carefree moments of an increasingly hectic, difficult and arguably tragic life. In America, no one knew who George was or cared. He was just Louise Caldwells skinny little brother, a 20-year-old with a weird haircut, who said he played the guitar and sang a little, and was gaga for American cars, especially ones with tail fins.
Much more here with photos!
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/charming-story-george-harrison-vacationed-small-town-america-180974593/
Marie Marie
(9,999 posts)BComplex
(8,059 posts)Awesome human.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)Response to bronxiteforever (Original post)
LakeVermilion This message was self-deleted by its author.
luv2fly
(2,475 posts)Garden of the Gods was one of my favorite stomping grounds while I lived in southern Illinois in the late 70s and much of the 80s (who said college takes four years?). To now learn that George had been there years before and also found it to be an enchanting place only makes it that much more special. Thank you for sharing this.
malthaussen
(17,215 posts)George Harrison taking his only holiday in hectic 1963 to visit his sister in small-town America. What a guy.
-- Mal
JohnnyRingo
(18,638 posts)Music Appreciation is a great place to go when weary of the news.
BluesRunTheGame
(1,618 posts)dhill926
(16,351 posts)BigmanPigman
(51,621 posts)He was always my favorite one and I read about this visit before elsewhere. I still have an original "I Love George" button and 3-D bubble gum ring with his face and "Hi, I'm George" on it. I have all the Beatles rings and used to wear them until John's face fell off into a box of cereal and I had to retrieve it. Now they are kept safely in my drawer.
Nitram
(22,845 posts)bronxiteforever
(9,287 posts)... In September 1963, almost no one in America had heard of the Beatles, much less of George Harrison, their quiet lead guitarist. Back in England, things were different. The Beatles first LP, Please Please Me, had been released the previous March, and the single She Loves You had come out in August. That summer, the four of them had moved from Liverpool to a hotel in Londons upscale Bloomsbury neighborhood. Screaming girls were fainting at their performances. I Want to Hold Your Hand would be released in November, and by December, the Beatles would have released four singles and two albums, all while appearing regularly on the BBC and playing almost 200 concerts in 1963 alone. For the first time in their young lives, the four working-class boys whod grown up in a bombed-out city had money, and demands on their time were piling up. Needing a break from touring and recording, in September Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr visited Greece. John Lennon and his wife went to Paris. George chose to visit his sister, in Benton, Illinois (pop. 7,000).
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/charming-story-george-harrison-vacationed-small-town-america-180974593/