When Cynthia Powell first met John Lennon, she wasn’t impressed. In fact, she was turned off by his rude, boyish behavior. But she eventually fell for the future Beatle and did what she could to woo him. Part of their origin story, though, is a lie she told him after he asked her to dance.
Cynthia Powell’s first impression of John Lennon
The two both attended Liverpool Art College, where they met. When Cynthia first got acquainted with John, she brushed him off as not her type. He didn’t look like the clean-cut boys she was used to, and his behavior was devilish.
“His outspoken comments and caustic wit were alarming: I was terrified he might turn on me, and he soon did, calling me ‘Miss Prim’ or ‘Miss Powell’ and taking the mickey out of my smart clothes and posh accent,” Cynthia wrote in her 2005 book titled John.
When he wasn’t teasing Cynthia, John was often making fun of his teachers. This caused many of the Art College teachers to refuse him entrance to their classes.
“He’d give us a wicked commentary on the teacher,” she wrote, “or provoke hoots of laughter with his cruelly funny and uncannily accurate cartoons of teachers, fellow students, or of twisted, grimacing, malformed figures.”
When Cynthia fell for John Lennon
Cynthia’s feelings about John changed when she witnessed him play the guitar. He was different when he played music — softer, without so many walls up. It didn’t take long for her to develop a huge crush after that. Soon, she was dressing like Brigitte Bardot, because she heard he liked her.
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“One lunchtime I saw John staring at a girl as she walked up the staircase,” she wrote. “She was dressed in a tight black skirt and had long blond hair. John whistled. ‘She looks just like Brigitte Bardot,’ I heard him say to a friend. I wasn’t about to be outdone.”
The lie Cynthia told John after he asked her to dance
Cynthia’s new hair and outfits seemed to have caught John’s attention. At a party, he asked her to dance. She was ecstatic, but what she blurted out was: “I’m awfully sorry, I’m engaged to this fellow in Hoylake.”
This was, of course, not true.
“I didn’t ask you to marry me!” he responded, according to the book The Love You Make by Peter Brown and Steven Gaines.
He left her on the dance floor.
But, when his ego recovered, he asked her to join him and his friends at a pub. There, she fell in love with him. And he seemed to like her plenty, too. The two reportedly left the bar to consummate their feelings at a flat that belonged to a friend of John’s.
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