This book, a lot of which encompasses part of my life, is the story of  the Official George Harrison Fan Club from 1964 until early 1972.  I sometimes wonder how much the Beatles affected the lives of other people – I know they certainly had a big impact on mine!  I was the President of The Official George Harrison Fan Club,  the only fan club for any of the individual Beatles that was actually sanctioned by one of the Beatles.  I guess that gives me my “15 minutes of fame”.  However, it’s not all as glamorous as it sounds.  In fact, at times it was very painful.  The fan club ended in a bad way, which is the reason I feel the need to tell my side of the story. George might have had his own side to it, and there are fans out there (you know who you are) who have taken George’s side (whatever that may be!) over the years simply because of their dedication to him.  This book has only one “secret”, and that is whatever was inside George’s head – the one secret I desperately wanted him to share with me, but he never chose to do so.  It will tell the story of how being connected to someone famous definitely has its downside, but also has many upsides.  Without George Harrison in it, my life would have been very different.  But first, we need a little background…..

I was born, Patricia Anne Kinzer, only child of a military family, in Harrisburg, PA.  That made me an Army-brat, something I have always been proud of.  My father was a Staff Sergeant and my mother was a housewife.  When I was six years old, my family was transferred to Stuttgart, Germany where we lived until I was 8 ½ years old.  We were lucky, unlike many military families, in that we did not move around a lot, even though my father was in the Army for 22 years.  When we returned from Germany, we lived briefly in Norristown, PA before moving to Collegeville, PA when I was 9 ½ years old.  Collegeville is where I spent the rest of my life.  I now live in Trappe, PA which is only ¼ mile up the street from Collegeville.  So I guess you could say I’m a small town girl who was a little bit worldly.  My family was very small.  Not only am I an only child, but my parents also had no siblings.  Both sets of my grandparents were divorced, and my grandfathers were re-married.  This meant we spent a lot of time visiting Harrisburg because my grandmothers needed us for umpteen million things.  I led a very sheltered life.  I was a quiet child (occasional temper tantrums not with-standing!) and I’m not afraid to admit that I was spoiled by my very indulging parents, grandparents, and step-grandmothers.  Even though we did not have a lot of money, I never wanted for anything. 

Living a rather solitary life, no brothers or sisters, no family except my parents nearby (Harrisburg is 2 hours from Collegeville) – and add being an Army-brat to that and you’re left with a lonely child who longed to be around groups of people, and lived inside her head – I was always making things up to do.  When forced to spend one entire summer living in my grandmother’s second floor apartment in Harrisburg while she recovered from bunion surgery, I constructed an entire hospital (complete with furniture) out of nothing but white paper, scissors and tape.  Another time, I planned an entire Army camp outside, enlisting three younger neighborhood children as soldiers.  I was also known for trying to teach my dog to read, attempting to form a band with neighborhood children who had musical instruments none of them could play (I “played” the bugle!), orchestrated neighborhood carnivals (refrigerator boxes make great amusement park rides!),  and organized softball games in the back yard.  In the sixth grade, three friends and I made up a story about a dog named Shep and ended up doing Shep newsletters (The Shep Times, I think it was called).  Our teacher loved this idea, and other kids teased us and called us the Teacher’s Pets.  But by far, the most constructive thing I ever did was start fan clubs.  My first fan club was for Annette Funicello of the Mouseketeers.  I loved Annette, and wanted to be like her when I grew up (even though I had no dancing or singing abilities).  The kids in my neighborhood were forced to join this club.  I spent hours making up membership cards, and writing biographies of Annette.  When I tired of this, I started a fan club for Lassie.  I made Annette an honorary member of this club, although she never knew it because many years later I found her envelope of fan club materials in my mother’s dresser (probably along with all those letters I used to “mail” to Santa Claus!). 

I was always in love with famous people/animals.  Annette was the first famous person I ever met.  My Uncle John, visiting Harrisburg from North Carolina, found out that several of the Mouseketeers were in Harrisburg for the premiere of a new Disney movie.  He not only obtained tickets to the movie premiere, but he gained admission for me at a radio station where the Mouseketeers were doing an interview.  It was there that I met Annette, Sharon, Tommy, and Jimmy.  I was so shy and so overwhelmed that I couldn’t say a word – all I could do was stare at them – while Annette, Sharon and Tommy giggled (they were teenagers and I was nine!) at me.  Later I met Emmett the Clown at the Ringling Brothers Circus in Harrisburg.  My father and grandfather tried unsuccessfully to help me meet the Lone Ranger (performing with his horse at the same Circus). 

The book starts out in Philadelphia where I was attending American Bandstand.  I loved that show, and my mother managed to get tickets for my friends and I to attend one of the tapings.  That became a regular thing, since you could easily get tickets to the next show taping once you got in there!  I saw many famous people at American Bandstand, but I only cared about the “Bandstand Regulars”.  They were regular kids, like me only lots more popular! 

I thought it was the most exciting thing in the world to meet famous people, and when the Beatles became popular, I wanted nothing more than to meet them and to marry George!  What I learned from the experience of getting close to George was that famous people are only normal people who were caught up in a whirlwind they probably were not expecting.  The experience changed them as people, and not always in a good way.  This story is how I learned all that – the hard way!

I hope you enjoy it.

Pat Kinzer Mancuso

September 2003