January 22, 2009

John Lennon liked Monopoly

Monopoly: The Beatles Collectors Edition


From John Lennon: The Life:

A small party of journalists, British and American, rode on the Beatles' plane (while on a leg of their 1964 North American tour), filing reports from the campaign trail. he included thirty-five-year-old Art Schreiber, a senior correspondent for the Westinghouse Broadcasting System, whose usual beat was politics and national affairs. Schreiber initially wondered how to get a handle on this very different subject matter; then in a conversation with John, he happened to mention that he enjoyed playing Monopoly. At this, John's sardonic cool melted into schoolboyish enthusiam. "I've got a board!" he said.

from Whimsical Super Genius' photostream


So while the rest of the Beatles' party whiled away in-flight hours with their usual poker game, John and Art Scheiber would play Monopoly, sometimes joined by George Harrison. "George would hardly say a word for the whole game," Scheiber remembers. "But John always got really involved and excited. He always stood up to throw the dice. And if he got Park Place and Boardwalk, he'd be triumphant. He didn't care if he ost the game so long as he had those two properties. We played so late sometimes that I'd doze off to sleep. Then I'd feel a dig in my ribs and hear John's voice: 'Come on, Art...it's your move.'" (Philip Norman, p. 371)

4 comments:

  1. I love to hear anecdotes from the Beatles' early glory days... just a hunch but I bet there wasn't much Monopoly playing during the Yoko years.

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  2. Well, that makes two of us!

    She and he definitely weren't playing during the late '60s.

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  3. I bet there wasn't much Monopoly playing during the Yoko years

    Imagine no possessions, except my hotel in Mayfair, Marylebone Station, the gas works and my expansive pile in VIrginia Water. :-)

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  4. Don't forget the herd of cattle!

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