The Beatles Would Sometimes Dress in Disguise in Public
The Beatles ate in restaurants and John Lennon visited Disney World with his son. With such recognizable faces, Lennon commented on the group using disguises to go in public — which didn’t always work.
Did the Beatles ever eat in restaurants?
Even if they were typically touring, recording, and writing music, these artists found time to eat out at restaurants worldwide. Sometimes, listeners would approach and ask for an autograph.
“Usually it’s only Americans that’ll bother you,” George Harrison said (via Beatles Interviews). “If we go into a restaurant in London, there’s always going to be a couple of them eating there; you just tell the waiter to hold them off if they try to come over. If they come over anyway, you just sign.”
In the same interview, Starr added he wouldn’t frequent his typical restaurants if he wasn’t rich and famous, mentioning that “snobs” visited the same places as the Beatles. Beso in London, boasts the Beatles often dined there. (A picture of the Fab Four is visible on the wall.)
According to legend, The Beatles also visited Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank, California. A plaque at the location states, “The Beatles dined in this booth in the summer of 1965. Their Help album was released in the USA on Aug. 13. Big hits included ‘Yesterday’ and ‘Ticket to Ride.’”
The Beatles dressed in disguises, according to John Lennon
Sometimes the Beatles got creative with their secret public appearances. During a 1966 interview (noted by Beatles Interviews), Lennon was asked about going out, which could sometimes be challenging.
“I just heard the other day that Paul was at someplace in London disguised as an Arab,” Lennon said while laughing. “I don’t know whether it’s true or not. But he used to say that was the only way he could really disguise himself, was as an Arab. But if he did, he got caught.”
The interviewer mentioned that Harrison became unrecognizable with a mustache, to which Lennon disagreed.
“No, they got him, because they got him in India,” he noted. “There’s one of those shots you can see — they caught it going out of a door, and he had a mustache. And it just said, ‘George Harrison In Disguise.’ They still know your face. People that do know, spot your face even if you’re wearing a pith helmet.”
John Lennon was often recognized by fans in public
Lennon became so famous he signed autographs at the hospital where his son was born. Outside his family home, the songwriter was stopped by paparazzi and fans.
In 1974, Harrison, McCartney, and Starr intended on a New York City meeting to officially end the band. Although Lennon lived in New York at the time, the songwriter instead visited Walt Disney World in Florida with his son, Julian, and assistant May Pang.
