Ep. 359 Pt. 3 Today's Peep heads to Arnold Grove to find out how a small house shaped George Harrison's life and Legacy

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Arnold Grove.
Arnold Grove.
Arnold Grove, yes.
Arnold.
There it is up there.
Arnold Grove.
Oh, Arnold Grove.
So we'll just stand here and asyou look up there you can see
the name.
Now when George travelled aroundthe world, he made hotel hotel
reservations, he made dinnerreservations in the name of
Arnold Grove.
And when people stopped him,stopped him in Los Angeles or

(00:21):
stopped him wherever he was, hehad a little lanyard around his
neck with his name tag of ArnoldGrove.
Unadopted, what that means isthat where you are now is the
borderline.
This is down to the residence,and that will be down to the
authorities.
So unadopted means private road,if you want to put it that way.
Number 12 is on the right handside where the car is now the

(00:41):
Volkswagen, and on the side youcan see the blue plaque.
Last year, Olivia Harrison camehere, came along, and with her
people, and she's done a lovelyspeech, and she pulled the code
and that unveiled the blueplaque on the front of the house
there.
So here we go then.
George Harrison was born on the25th of February 1943 at number
12 Arnold Grove.
Here's a picture of the familyaltogether.

(01:01):
Harold was a bus driver aroundLiverpool.
Louise sold fruit and vegetableson a high street shop.
Harold and Peter are the elderbrothers, elder sisters, Louise,
George, the baby of the family.
Four children, two adults,two-bedroom house is just too
small.
Mrs.
Harrison was on the housingwaiting list for 17 years.
Good news came her way, shefinally got given a larger home.

(01:24):
The home for the family is goingto be a four-bedroom house and
it's going to be all the way atthe back of Liverpool Airport.
In other words, in the middle ofnowhere.
Right at the back, sorry, athree-bedroom house, right at
the back of Liverpool Airport inthe middle of nowhere.
When Mrs.
Harrison moved there, she hatedit.
It was too far.
She didn't want to be there.
Mrs.
Harrison just bid at the time.

(01:44):
In 1958, on the 20th ofDecember, Harold got married and
moved out the family home.
The year later, Louise marriesan American engineer and goes to
live in Benton, Illinois, in theUS.
That enabled mum and dad, twoboys, a chance to get another
home.
Now the American Ford MotorGroup came to Liverpool in 1953
and they ring fenced HalewoodFarm.

(02:06):
Halewood Farm is going to be theFord Motor Factory.
Everyone who lived in thatneighbourhood worked at Ford,
and when Mrs.
Harrison moved to thatneighbourhood, she couldn't
believe a look.
It was a wonderful new housewith all mod cons.
George becomes a Beatle.
This is George in 1963.
He's putting his car on thedriveway.
Now when he woke up thefollowing day, his car's going

(02:28):
to be hit by the young girlswith lipstick messages and kiss
marks and so on and so on.
And he's going to get upsetabout this.
George Harrison will come homein 1964 and he's getting ready
for a journey to America.
The Beatles were given the bags.
Stand there in a second.
The Beatles were given bags byBritish Airways, BEA, British

(02:48):
European Airlines.
They were told to hold the bagswhen they walk off the plane.
That's exactly what they've doneat JFK.
That shows George with his bagand his George's bag at JFK and
his John with his Pan Am, youcan see there.
The Beatles arrived in New YorkCity February the 7th, 1964.
Two days later, they made theirappearance on the Ed Sullivan

(03:10):
Show.
The week after that, they flewto Miami, second edition of the
Ed Sullivan Show from theJuville Hotel.
21st of February back to JFK,back home to London.
Four days later, George Harrisoncelebrates his birthday.
He's in London and he'scelebrating his birthday at the
restaurant, and that is Georgeat the restaurant.
Telling everyone thanks for allthe cards.

(03:31):
Now we had no idea in Liverpoolmum and dad had to open the door
with boxes and boxes of mailcoming through the front door
here.
Mum and dad looking a little bitalarmed.
So George came home in 1964 inNovember, and George stood on
the front door of his house withhis dad giving him a thumbs up.
Now we walked in the house thatnight, and George Harrison told

(03:53):
his parents, I bought you ahome.
I'm a millionaire.
I bought you a home on theoutskirts of Liverpool.
In other words, in the middle ofnowhere.
Mrs.
Harrison did not want to go.
She was happy where she was, butshe's got to go because he's
bought the house.
Mrs.
Harrison moved to the new homein 1965.
She was diagnosed with a braintumour.
She passed away in 1970.

(04:13):
In 78, he lost his father withlung cancer.
In 1997, George found a mark onthe back of his neck.
His wife noticed it when he wasdoing a bit of garden in his
wonderful home.
And the mark, as I say, was acancerous growth.
He had an operation privatelyand he got it taken away and he
told everyone quite happily, Igot rid of it.
It's gone, it's not going togive me a problem.
18 months later, he was back inthe theatre.

(04:35):
This time, an operation on histhroat.
He's got a cancerous growth.
He had an operation, he goes toItaly, Tuscany to recover.
George Harrison was brought backto New York City, the cancer has
spread.
He's going to go home now toLondon.
George was attacked in his ownhome on the 30th of December
1999.
An intruder got in the house.
But the reason why you didn'thear much about it is because

(04:57):
the millennium, the year 2000,was right upon us.
The 30th of December 1999, thenews got buried with the
millennium celebrations the nextnight.
So George Harrison was attackedin his own home, and it's his
wife who we thank.
She fought the man off with atable lamp and with a fire
poker.
She batted that man while thatman stabbed her husband, caught
him in the stomach, got him inthe chest, got him in the arm,

(05:20):
got him in the back, had him onthe floor, and George is in a
situation he can't get out.
He just cannot fight the man.
It's his wife.
She hit him with everything shehad, knocking him to the floor.
And when the man started movingagain, she got a table lamp and
she hit him again, and this timehe's out cold.
The police got to the house,they arrested the intruder, and
George got taken to thehospital.
He came home several weekslater, released a statement

(05:42):
telling everyone, I'm gonna befine, I'm gonna be okay.
Now you mentioned Tom Pettybefore.
Tom paid the visit to come andsee him in London, and Tom sat
on the end of his bed holdinghis hand.
Tom was upset.
George was getting a little bitupset, but George lightened the
mood by saying that it was mywife.
My wife is the one who foughtthe attacker.
Without her, I wouldn't be here.
And when Tom said, Well, ain'tyou glad you married a

(06:04):
Californian because she savedyour little ass?
Tom was making light of themoment, but it was a serious
situation.
2001 he flew to Switzerland,Austria.
He had treatments on cancer.
It's not working.
He's gone to New York again.
Staten Island, he's havingtreatments.
On the 11th of November 2001,Paul McCartney paid the visit to

(06:25):
him.
That's when Paul held his hand,looking at him, talking to him.
Four hours, the two of them,talking about the good old days
back in Liverpool.
And then Paul had to leavebecause George was slipping away
and sleeping.
And as he went to sleep thatnight, Paul gave him a kiss and
walked out the hospital.
29th of November, two weekslater, I passed away in
California.
George was passed away inCalifornia, Beverly Hills to be

(06:47):
precise, on Heather Avenue.
And George was cremated at theHollywood Forever Crematorium in
California.
He was laid to rest on theGanges in India.
So George came from that housedown there and was laid to rest
on the Ganges.
I will send you photos of thisthat happened last year.