John Lennon's bizarre ploy to avoid fans: 'Works every time!' he claimed

When John Lennon and Yoko Ono were astatine nan tallness of their fame, they were guaranteed to beryllium mobbed wherever they went.

But nan instantly recognizable erstwhile Beatle and his creator woman had travel up pinch a chaotic - almost implausible - ruse to support their fans astatine bay.

In his caller book, We All Shine On: John, Yoko, and Me, Elliot Mintz reveals nan mates were convinced they could execute wide hypnotism connected people, enabling them to locomotion done a crowd without being spotted.

And he witnessed them successful action during a memorable car travel successful 1972.

Mintz, a one-time power big who became a confidante of Lennon and Ono, was picked up successful Ojai, California, by nan brace and their driver Peter Bendrey - aka Peter nan Dealer - astatine nan tail extremity of an epic cross-country roadworthy trip.

They were walking to nan westbound seashore successful nan dream that consultations pinch a Chinese herbalist location mightiness thief them conceive a kid aft respective miscarriages. 

About 3 hours from their destination, John sewage quiet - truthful Mintz suggested stopping for thing to eat astatine Monterey's Fisherman's Wharf.

'The 2nd I suggested it, though, I realized it was a unspeakable idea,’ he writes. ‘They were John Lennon and Yoko Ono. They couldn't popular up connected a crowded pier without immoderate security. Things could get quickly dangerous. But John waved distant my concerns.’

As they drove towards nan pier, he describes really John and Yoko started ‘behaving strangely.

‘They began whispering to each different successful nan backmost seat. After a while their whispering grew much intense, past turned into a mantra aliases thing for illustration a Hare Krishna chant.’

By nan clip they reached nan wharf, he said location had to person been 500 visitors milling astir nan pier.

‘There was nary measurement John and Yoko could navigate specified a immense throng without getting mobbed,’ he writes.

‘Before I could raise immoderate objections, though, nan 2 of them were already retired nan doors and heading from nan parking batch consecutive into nan crowd.’

Mintz followed anxiously, convinced nan crowd would soon admit nan celebrated mates successful their midst, and fearing nan chaos that would past ensue.

But they confidently weaved done nan crowd, unbothered by nan hundreds of group astir them, almost arsenic though they were invisible.

'The astir recognizable mates of nan satellite had ambled smack into nan mediate of a horde of hundreds, and not a azygous psyche seemed to cognize who they were.'

Once ensconced astatine a array successful a lobster restaurant, John smiled and turned to Mintz to explicate what he'd conscionable witnessed.

‘It seemed that John and Yoko had developed a bizarre but apparently remarkably effective method of crowd control,’ he writes.

‘It progressive immoderate benignant of esoteric mind crippled successful which they each mentally disguised themselves pinch replacement identities: John became nan Reverend Fred Gherkin and Yoko became his wife, Ada.

‘That's what they'd been chanting successful nan backmost of nan wagon a fewer moments earlier: "Fred and Ada Gherkin.”

‘Somehow, arsenic improbably arsenic it sounds, John and Yoko took connected these imaginary roles truthful wholly and authentically that they were capable to task them to nan extracurricular world. Like a benignant of mass-hypnosis invisibility cloak, it rendered them each but undetectable.

'"Works each time!" John said.'

However, arsenic nan waiter arrived to return their order, it seems nan 'spell' was broken.

'You could spot nan veils autumn from our server's eyes nan infinitesimal he heard John's voice,' writes Mintz.

The consequence was mayhem. Murmurs from chap diners became louder, and nan sound was joined by nan scraping of chairs arsenic group surrounded nan couple, thrusting napkins and pens successful their faces, demanding autographs.

Nervously, they backed retired of nan edifice without eating, and escaped backmost to nan information of their car - nan immense greenish Chrysler Town & Country position wagon they affectionately dubbed nan 'Dragon Wagon'.

Once backmost connected nan road, Mintz asked what had happened.

‘It's maine voice,’ said Lennon, dejected. ‘That's what collapsed nan spell. People ever knew maine sound earlier they knew what I looked like.’

The book besides reveals Lennon and Ono's unhealthy obsession pinch assemblage image, saying they were 'obsessed pinch staying skinny.'

'John kept a diary wherever each time he would constitute what his weight was,' Mintz writes.

'Yoko and John had endless questions astir this subject. They thought that everybody successful Hollywood was slim and trim and that location were magic fare pills and insisted I get that for them.'

Mintz was pinch Yoko Ono successful nan hours and days pursuing Lennon's execution successful New York successful 1980.

Arriving astatine nan Dakota Building astatine 7.30am to comfortableness his heartbroken friend, thousands of group were already outside, galore of them playing Beatles songs connected roar boxes, and laying flowers against nan gates.

'A fewer had made signs, which they held up almost arsenic if attending a protest. One of them aptly read, "WHY?"' 

Ushered up to nan Lennons' flat connected nan seventh floor, he sat silently pinch Ono successful her chamber arsenic she watched unrecorded footage from nan thoroughfare beneath connected a big-screen TV.

'Standing by nan bed, wearing silk pajamas and a kimono, Yoko looked incredibly frail,' he writes. 

'Yoko had been watching, pinch nan measurement off, for who knows really long. Even though nan windows were unopen and nan shutters closed, I could perceive nan euphony from 7 floors below.'

Just arsenic she crawled backmost into bed, nan TV lit up pinch nan look of nan man suspected of nan shooting.

'Yoko sat up and stared intently astatine nan mug changeable of nan assailant; she seemed some mesmerized and repulsed - and profoundly confused - by nan look of nan man who, conscionable hours earlier, had murdered her husband.

'She appeared to beryllium searching for thing successful nan photo... she was looking for nan reply to nan mobility connected that motion that was being waved extracurricular successful nan crowd: WHY?'

We All Shine On: John, Yoko, and Me by Elliot Mintz is published by Dutton