Living legend Paul McCartney, as the Beatles’ bass player, powerhouse songwriter, and vocalist, carved out a larger-than-life career and personal life. The 84-year-old billionaire who has sold over 500 million records globally chose to live a significant portion of his life on the quieter side. Despite his billionaire status, he does not reside in a mansion on Miami’s Billionaire’s Bunker; instead, his primary residences include a historic estate in East Sussex, England. The same man who now spends a chunk of time on his farms and country estates enjoying wide-open spaces, gardening, and living a down-to-earth daily life away from the cameras once had a pizza flown from New York to London.
That was star power in full action mode when the songwriter of the hit “Yesterday” had a pizza flown from New York to London by Concorde for his late wife Linda’s birthday in the mid-1980s, as reported by Beatles expert Philip Norman in Esquire. It paints a vivid picture of a high-octane luxury lifestyle contrasting beautifully with the simplicity of their country life in Scotland and Sussex.
Supersonic speed and comfort food
Back in the day, a typical London to New York Concorde crossing took a little less than 3.5 hours, compared with approximately eight hours aboard a conventional airliner. Concorde cruised at 1,350 mph, approximately Mach 2, at altitudes reaching 60,000 feet. Compared to your regular pizza delivery that took 30 minutes to arrive from a neighboring street, McCartney’s order flew over the Atlantic to make Linda’s birthday memory a lip-smacking, savory affair.
It is an extravagance not many can afford, but when you are recognized by Guinness World Records as one of the most successful composers and recording artists of all time, finances take a back seat and emotions take center stage. In an August 1984 McCall’s interview by Dalma Heyn, Linda said, “I miss pizza and Haagen Dazs coffee ice cream.”
The pizza was flown in around the same time, perhaps shortly after this interview. While there is no definitive timeline of what came first, the desire or the delivery, the fact remains that the comfort food did travel aboard the fastest passenger service of its era from Mimi’s Pizza, located at 1248 Lexington Avenue on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
A slice of history
The Vanacore family’s original pizzeria, which shut its doors in 2016, after more than half a century in business, had throngs of fans who drooled just thinking of the pizza’s lightly charred crust, irresistible charcoal flavor, generous cheese and toppings, and comparatively little grease. Even for vegetarians like Paul and Linda, Mimi’s served vegetarian pies featuring broccoli, spinach, fresh tomato, and mushrooms.
It is no surprise that the headstanding, concert-packing musician tended to his late wife of 29 years not just with sweet-smelling flowers, but also with a pizza so delicious it was worth the 3,450-mile journey. Paul and Linda married in March 1969, and were together until her tragic death from breast cancer in April 1998.
