Sometimes the most famous people in the world turn up in Jersey when they don’t expect to be here. Three of the most illustrious members of such a club are Hollywood movie superstar Elizabeth Taylor, Beatles legend John Lennon and former US President Gerald Ford, who each spent a few unexpected moments on Island soil.
Taylor gate-crashed a wedding party, Lennon wanted breakfast and the former President landed so he could visit a friend’s new home. None of the famous visitors were here for more than a few hours.
- Elizabeth Taylor
The biggest Hollywood star of them all in the late 50s was probably Elizabeth Taylor and in 1957 she flew into Jersey with her third husband, the film producer, Mike Todd. It was an unscheduled stop to re-fuel, but uproar ensued when Taylor and her husband attempted to leave the Airport with three white poodles, during the stopover.
Airport officials pointed out that those three animals would have to be placed in quarantine if they intended to bring them into the Island, even though the Hollywood star had no intention of staying longer than it would take to re-fuel.
An argument ensued on the Airport tarmac witnessed by a hundred or so bemused onlookers, members of the public who in those halcyon days would stand on the roof promenade of the old departures hall to watch aircraft come and go and to wave off friends and family.
After a few more minutes, a compromise was reached and the Todd family, including the three dogs, were permitted to remain within the Airport buildings.
So they ventured up to the Airport restaurant on the first floor to enjoy a drink where they interrupted a wedding reception.
Taylor ordered tea and Michael Todd was heard to quip that they should drive into town since her film The Giant was playing at the cinema and she could make a personal appearance.
In fact, it was quickly announced that the private aircraft was ready and so 20 minutes later, the famous family were back on board their plane and headed for Nice.
These details were reported the next day in the national press, such was Taylor’s fame in the late 50s that the visit merited column inches in the UK media.
Local photographer, Bob Thomson, was alerted to their arrival and took the photographs which appeared in the Daily Mail and for which he was paid 15 guineas (£15 and 15 shillings in old money).
According to the news report that accompanied the photo, not one person even asked for the beautiful movie star’s autograph during the brief stop.
- John Lennon
That was not the case when John Lennon made an unexpected appearance. Lennon had been in Jersey with the Beatles in a well-documented performance at Springfield in 1963, but less well known is his unscheduled visit in 1971.
Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono were heading for Bordeaux and Ibiza when their private plane made an unscheduled stop at Jersey Airport early one Sunday morning in April that year. It was so early the Airport was not officially open when the aircraft requested permission to land.
‘Where will I get breakfast at this time of the morning?’ asked Lennon, not at the Airport, that’s for sure was the reply and so Lennon, Yoko and his manager were directed toward the Mermaid Hotel and pub nearby.
The trio set off on foot and arrived at the Mermaid at about 6 am. Breakfast of boiled egg and toast, orange juice and tea was laid on for the famous visitors.
Replenished, they made their way back to the Airport and continued with their flight, once again having been in the Island for less than two hours.
There’s no photographic evidence of that stopover, but the Jersey Evening Post photographer was able to capture a photo of an airport worker, Noel Maltman, proudly holding a paper sack on which the famous couple had produced a drawing and signed it also.
- Gerald Ford
Former US President Gerald Ford was flying from Shannon Airport in Ireland to Paris in 1981 when he asked his pilot to make an unscheduled stop in Jersey so he could visit the recently purchased home of one of his friends, Mr D Keaton, who was travelling with him.
When news of the unexpected stopover was relayed to Jersey Airport, the Island’s establishment swung into action. Ford, President of the United States between 1974 and 1977 and vice-president to Richard Nixon before that, was met at the Airport and taken first to Government House where he met the Lieutenant Governor of the day and his wife.
Presumably Ford saw Keaton’s home and he was also known to have visited the Little Grove Hotel, in which Keaton had an interest and where formal photographs were taken, ahead of his return to the chartered jet.
He told Jersey Evening Post reporter Rob Shipley that he liked the Island and intended to return again, though there is no evidence he ever did.
Nevertheless, his few hours in Jersey must be the only time a former US President has set foot on Island shores, unless any JEP reader knows otherwise?