Identifying mysterious character in photo of the Beatles, Donovan, Mia Farrow with the Maharishi

Cafe Society
21

This is a better scan of Ms Boods picture.

It’s from page 286 of The Beatles Anthology, as noted by Gary T. I looked in this book first, but passed over this due to it being in color as well as flopped. (There are selected captions, in the back of the book, but they do not mention this image.)

This is becoming quite the Soviet-style mystery. Who is this guy, and why was he removed?
I’m also confused as to which version is the right-reading one? Did Paul part his hair on the left or the right? Check out Donovan’s guitar in the picture I posted here. Is it strung for a leftie or a rightie? (And was Donovan a southpaw?)

22

If only people wore the makers’ names all over their clothing in the 60s, we’d know immediately if it were reversed. Fie on them for being so behind the times!

23

That guitar is right-handed. Photos on Donovan’s website show that he plays right-handed, so I’d say the photo in question has not been reversed.

24

No worries :slight_smile: (Believe me, I can identify George in the wild, as he is my fave.)

Thanks for the better scan, postcards; mine was a quick ‘n’ dirty photo of a photo at 5am with a kitten on my lap.

My vote is still on Magic Alex; perhaps the Saltzman book has better captions?

25

Here he is clean-shaven.

26

Could be, but the nose doesn’t look right and Magic’s chin doesn’t seem square enough. Of course the photo quality is poor.

I’m anxious to see if this gets solved. I loves me a good mystery. Would the Beatles have the authority to have this done?

27

Nevermind

28

Okie doke; I withdraw my vote.

29

Curious… Who’s the guy on the far right in the scan **postcards **linked to?

30

It could be that he was just some guy they met there, who never subsequently became anybody, and he was airbrushed out because nobody can remember who he was.

31

I will jump in here and guess that the “mysterious character” is Mia Farrow’s brother, John Charles Farrow, who was 21 at the time & came along on the India trip. Here he is in a 1966 episode of To Tell The Truth - he’s the contestant on the left, 10 seconds into the clip:

32

3 hours?? That long? Must have been a slow news day.

33

Wow. If you pause it right as he smiles at around 6:52, it sure does look like the guy. And around 7:20.

34

I thought of Trotsky, or Pete Best. Ultimately I’d go with Michelle Phillips. John’s wrath was long.

35

Ellis is correct. I have confirmation of that from someone who was there. Seriously.

And in Postcards photo (link) the person on the far right is Nancy Cooke de Herrera, mother of Richard Cooke aka Bungalow Bill.

36

So that leaves the obvious question of why was he scrubbed out?

37

There’s a zillion pictures from that retreat at this website.

38

Once again the SDMB comes through!
Thanks a lot everyone! I think we have a final correct answer, John Charles Farrow, as discovered by Ellis Aponte Jr.

Many thanks to all who participated in the thread, but especially postcards, Ms Boods, Gary T, K364 and Ellis Aponte Jr.

A synopsis of the thread:

Photo 1: airbrushed photo from Donovan CD
B&W Photo (photo 1) from Donovan CD picture book is shown here. Photo has someone airbrushed out.
http://nouilles.info/sdmb_questions.html
Photo 1 shows (left to right) Donovan, Mia Farrow, George Harrison, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Paul McCartney, John Lennon.
Someone standing in the back between Donovan and Mia Farrow has been airbrushed out (and also, if you look closely, someone standing to the right of John Lennon from the viewer’s perspective.)
Photo 2: similar group photo in colour
Lute Skywatcher in post 4 shows a colour photo (photo 2) that clearly comes from the same photo session (note clothing and accessories)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35935603@N03/4402347874/
Photo 2 shows, from left to right:
Cynthia Lennon, John Lennon, Mike Love, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, George Harrison, Mia Farrow, Donovan, Paul McCartney, Jane Asher, Patty Boyd.
Exapno Mapcase in post 8 shows us some photos of Donovan’s friend Gyp aka Gypsy Dave. (Which, as we will find out, is not the missing person.) P.S. Exapno, I didn’t think he would have been the one airbrushed out because in my CD booklet, Gypsy Dave is mentioned and there is a photo of him. Why show him in one photo and airbrush him out of another photo?
Photo 3: Bungalow Bill
Harvy the Heavy (post 9) says “maybe it was Bungalow Bill” which at first I thought was a joke, until I learned that “Bungalow Bill” (the song) was inspired by a young American who was at Rishikesh in 1968. The young American was named Richard Cooke and K364 (post 13) links to a photo of Richard Cooke here:
http://www.thealohabear.com/bungalow-bill-the-real-story/
Breakthrough
Photo 4: unairbrushed photo
postcards in post 11 finds the photo unretouched (in the Phillip Norman book SHOUT The Beatles in Their Generation), showing the missing person! Thank you postcards, I owe you one.
You can see the photo (photo 4) here:

Photo shows (from left to right)
Donovan, Mystery person 1 (the question in the OP), Mia Farrow, George Harrison, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Mystery person 2.
Photo 5 (a and b): Derek Taylor
Gary T in post 15 thinks it might be Derek Taylor. Links to several photos, thinks these are the closest to the Mystery person:

http://www.jfkmontreal.com/john_lennon/graphics/derek_taylor.jpg
Photo 6: similar group photo in colour, same as Photo 2
Ms Boods in post 17 finds a full-colour photo which happens to be a mirror image of Photo 2. She says you can find this colour photo in Roy Carr’s The Beatles: An Illustrated Record (2nd edition, pg 72).
Her suggesion: check the book The Beatles in Rishikesh by Paul Salztman.

Photo 7 (a and b): similar group photo, in colour, showing our Mystery Person
Linked to by Ms Boods in post 18

from left to right:
John Lennon, Mike Love, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, George Harrison, Mia Farrow, Mystery Person 1, Donovan, Paul McCartney, Jane Asher, Patty Boyd

postcards (post 21) comes through again with a better scan of photo 7 a. He finds it in The Beatles Anthology (p. 286) as mentioned by Gary T in post 15.

from left to right:
George Harrison, Mia Farrow, Mystery Person 1, Donovan, Paul McCartney, Jane Asher, Patty Boyd
Photo 8 (a, b): Magic Alex
Ms Boods (in post 17) guesses it may be Magic Alex.

Lute Skywatcher (post 25) shows another photo of Magic Alex and Ms Boods retracts her guess.

The winner (or at least so I think)
Video: John Charles Farrow
Ellis Aponte Jr. in post 31 links to a youtube video showing Mia Farrow’s brother, John Charles Farrow, who according to Ellis was 21 years old in 1968 and was present in Rishikesh when the Beatles visited.

John Charles Farrow is the contestant on the left, 10 seconds into the clip
needscoffee (post 33) adds:
If you pause it right as he smiles at around 6:52, it sure does look like the guy. And around 7:20.

K364 (post 35) confirms that Mystery Person 1 is John Charles Farrow, according to “someone who was there”. K364 also says that Mystery Person 2 (see Photo 4) is Nancy Cooke de Herrera, mother of Richard Cooke aka Bungalow Bill.
My conclusion: I am convinced that Mystery Person 1 is John Charles Farrow, from seeing him in the youtube video. It also would seem logical since the mystery person is standing right next to Mia Farrow.

Question: why was he airbrushed out? My first thought was, this is someone Donovan doesn’t like, but now I think, as suggested by Exapno Mapcase (post 8) that he was airbrushed out because it increases the sheer awesomeness of the photo if only major celebrities are show. GuanoLad (post 30) says “maybe he was airbrushed out because no one could remember who he was” but I doubt that if he was the brother of Mia Farrow.

39

I know, right? postcards, you’re a prince amongst posters! Do you mind if I copy your scans showing this mystery person and put them on my site page as seen in my OP? I would give you credit.

I am now going to try to find a copy of the book The Beatles in Rishikesh that Ms Boods mentioned to see if this person is identified in there.

K364, how confident are you in the word of this person who “happened to be there”? (It would not be impossible for someone to want to pretend that they were present at a historic event.) Mystery Person 2 (seen in Photo 4 scanned in by postcards and shown in post 11) is said to be Nancy Cooke de Herrera but when I saw that person at first I thought it was another young man.

40

This has been a most interesting thread, and I must admit, I have to admire the teamwork/groupwork, especially as I have been going over my students’ ‘thesis statements’ for their rock history group presentations (which is nothing but complaining, whining, and vague bleurgh).

I wish you guys were in my class instead :frowning:

Arnold, the Rishikeshi book is still floating around, so do report back once you’ve snagged it. I have shedloads of Beatles’ books, but not that one.

Maybe he was airbrushed out because he was someone Frank Sinatra didn’t like :smiley: