On March 21, 1969, Beatles singer, songwriter and guitarist John Lennon and his wife of a week Yoko Ono received the press at their bedside in the Presidential Suite of the Hilton Hotel, Amsterdam. The couple stayed in bed for seven days ‘as a protest against war and violence in the world’.
John Winston Lennon and Yoko Ono are married at the British Consulate in Gibraltar (near Spain) by magistrate Cecile Wheeler. Beatles aide, Peter Brown, is there to act as witness. They had flown from Paris to Gibraltar early in the morning, landing on the “rock” at 8:30 a.m. The marriage took place at 9:00 a.m. Afterwards, the couple posed for the official photographs (taken by David Nutter) with John in a white jacket, white turtleneck sweater and off-white trousers, and Yoko in a matching white mini-dress and huge floppy hat. They announce to the press that they will be staging many “events” and “happenings.” After the ceremony, they returned to Paris to their luxury suite at the Plaza Athenee Hotel. Said John, "We chose Gibraltar because it is quiet, British and friendly. We tried everywhere else first. I set out to get married on the car ferry and we would have arrived in France married. But they wouldn’t do it. We were no more successful with cruise ships. We tried embassies, but three weeks residence in Germany or two weeks in France was required."
The Beatles are taking a break from recording as well as from themselves.
Lower Richmond Road, London
Location filming with Ringo for The Magic Christian, shooting outside the Star & Garter public house, by the river Thames in Putney, with Spike Milligan acting the part of a ticket-eating traffic warden.
Also, George Harrison and his wife Pattie had an initial court appearance following their drugs bust six days earlier. The hearing took place at Esher and Walton Magistrates' Court. The couple were charged with cannabis possession, and released on the surety of Apple's press officer Derek Taylor.
John and Yoko have decided to get married, but not in Britain. Their first choice is to have the ceremony performed on a cross-channel ferry, but they are denied permission to board the “Dragon” at Southhampton Docks because of “inconsistencies in their passports.” Instead, they fly to Paris, where they spend four days planning their next move.
Meanwhile, Paul and Linda landed at John F Kennedy Airport in New York City. Their honeymoon lasted two weeks, and included time spent with the Eastman family.
After getting married, Paul and Linda McCartney, and her daughter Heather, flew to New York to spend three weeks with Linda's family.
Meanwhile, John Lennon and Yoko Ono flew to Paris on this day, because they decided that they wanted to get married on this date.
Two days before on McCartney's wedding day, Lennon and Ono were travelling to Poole in Dorset, where he introduced her to his Aunt Mimi. During the journey he asked his chauffeur Les Anthony to go to Southampton to enquire about the possibility of the wedding being held at sea, on the cross-channel ferry to France.
John Lennon said they had wanted to get married on a cross-channel ferry. "That was the romantic part: when we went to Southampton and then we couldn't get on because she wasn't English and she couldn't get the day visa to go across. And they said, 'Anyway, you can't get married. The Captain's not allowed to do it any more.'"
So they decided instead to fly to Paris. They chartered a private aeroplane to the French capital, and upon arriving checked into the Plaza Athénée. There, Apple employee Peter Brown told them they would be unable to marry as they had not lived in France for enough time. Instead, they were advised that they could hold their wedding in Gibraltar, as it was a British protectorate. The events were later recounted in Lennon's The Ballad Of John And Yoko, on 14 April 1969.
Standing in the dock at Southampton
Trying to get to Holland or France
The man in the mac said, you've got to go back
You know they didn't even give us a chance
The Ballad Of John And Yoko
A group calling itself "Revolutionary Force 9" takes credit for three bombings in New York City. The New York Times notes a "possible connection to The Beatles' song Revolution 9.
Also on this day - George and Pattie's home was raided by a drugs squad and afterwards they were arrested. The police involved in the raid chose the day of Paul and Linda's wedding to do it. Of the experience afterwards, Pattie Boyd recalled "We were formally charged but released on bail. We got home feeling gloomy, so George said, ‘Come on, let’s go to the party.”
On this date, Paul McCartney married Linda Eastman at Marylebone Register Office.
Paul's brother Mike is best man, Mal Evans is a witness, and Linda's daughter, Heather, is flower girl. Magistrate E.R. Sanders performs the ceremony, which is followed by a luncheon at the Ritz Hotel. None of the other Beatles or family members are in attendance (they weren't invited). A throng of crying female fans waited outside for the newlywed couple to make their way to their car. (The fact that Paul was no longer a bachelor was not well-received at the time.)
Although the event was supposed to be a secret, many onlookers and reporters heard about it and turned up for a glimpse of the couple. The registry office had been booked the previous day, and McCartney had bought a £12 ring "just before the shop shut".
Paul McCartney remembers...."We were crazy. We had a big argument the night before we got married and it was nearly called off. We were very up and down, quite funky compared to the eventual image of 'Twenty-five years of married bliss! Aren't they lucky for people in showbiz?' But we are. You get this picture of us swanning along in a little rowboat managing to avoid the white water, but we were right in the middle of that white water, man, so it's even more miraculous that we made it. But we did."
I really don't remember whether or not I invited any of the band to the wedding. Why not? I'm a total bastard, I suppose – I don't know, really. Maybe it was because the group was breaking up. We were all pissed off with each other. We certainly weren't a gang any more. That was the thing. Once a group's broken up like that, that's it.
Mike McCartney's train broke down during his journey from Birmingham to London, and he arrived an hour late. Although he presumed the wedding would have finished, he took the waiting limousine to the registry office, where he found huge crowds of weeping fans. Inside Paul and Linda were waiting for him to arrive.
After the ceremony the wedding party went to St John's Wood Church where the marriage was blessed by Reverend Noel Perry-Gore.
Marylebone Register Office is today known as Westminster Register Office, and is based at Westminster Council House, Marylebone Road, London.
