Florida Man on cover of ‘Abbey Road’ with Beatles said they were ‘kooks’

It was 48 years ago today, Sept. 26, 1969, that the Beatles released their last masterpiece, Abbey Road. But proving that there’s a Florida connection to everything, especially a Florida Man, here is former staff writer Charles Passy’s 2004 story on Paul Cole, the man standing on the sidewalk in the background as John, Paul, George and Ringo do their famous street crossing. Cole died in 2008.

As Paul Cole tells it, he never intended to be a part of history.

The retired Florida salesman was standing on a London street some 35 summers ago, minding his time in the midst of a European holiday, when four strange-looking gents walked in front of him, lined up in perfect formation.

“They went across like a row of ducks,” he recalls.

The “kooks,” as Cole calls them, were none other than The Beatles. They were being photographed for the cover of Abbey Road, one of the final albums in the Fab Four’s short but illustrious career.

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And who’s that guy in the background on the right, standing next to the police car?

Well, according to Cole, it’s him.

“I say to people, ‘You don’t realize it, but you’re talking to a person whose picture is in millions of homes throughout the world,’ ” says Cole, who lives in a quiet Brevard County community between Melbourne and Sebastian.

Indeed, the Abbey Road cover, shot by Iain MacMillan, is one of rock’s most famous images, capturing The Beatles in all their late-’60s glory. They are showcased as individuals - John Lennon in dapper white, Ringo Starr in mod black, George Harrison in grungy denim and Paul McCartney sans shoes - but that duck-like walk signifies a collective purpose.

The photo also played a significant part in the “Paul is dead” rumors that circulated with the album’s release. (The fact that McCartney was the only one without footwear was seen as a telling clue.)

But how did Cole step into the picture on that fateful day - Aug. 8, 1969, to be exact? Certainly, it wasn’t intentional; Cole can’t even recall seeing a photographer. The only reason he happened to be standing there was that he didn’t want to follow his wife into a nearby museum on their vacation. “I told her, ‘I’ve seen all the museums I care to look at,’ ” says Cole, who won’t reveal his age, though records confirm he’s 92.

So he struck up a conversation with a policeman on duty in the area and then stood there in disbelief when The Beatles walked by. Not because he recognized them; the classical-loving Cole admits he never had any interest in their music. (“If they were on television, I’d flip to something else,” he says.)

Rather, Cole, who then lived in Deerfield Beach, was struck by how, well, kooky they looked. “They were not dressed like you’d expect in London at the time,” he says.

And how did Cole find out he was the “fifth” Beatle? His wife, an organist, purchased a copy of Abbey Road so she could learn a song off it for a wedding she was playing. Cole spotted it in the house. “I did a double-take and said, ‘Hey, that’s me!’ ” he says.

Because of the photo’s singular place in rock history, it’s perhaps no surprise that others have come forward to claim they were the mystery man in the background. In Keith Badman’s book, The Beatles Off the Record, a Jo Poole is quoted as follows: “As soon as I saw the cover, I shouted, ‘That’s my brother, Tony.’ He was 33 (at the time) and was very distinctive at 6 feet 4 inches tall. Tony Staples was his name… . He was on his way to work as an administrative secretary for the National Farmers Union on the Friday morning when that photo was taken.” (The book adds that Staples has since died.)

But Cole’s claim is buttressed by the fact that family members say he was talking about seeing the four “kooks” months before the actual album appeared.

And pictures of Cole from the same time period - he’s happy to pull out a box of old snapshots - bear an uncanny likeness to the shadowy, bespectacled image on Abbey Road. (Cole notes that he can recall purchasing new shell-rim glasses at the time.) As for the claim made by Jo Poole on behalf of her brother, it’s fairly obvious that the man on the album cover is closer to 58 - Cole’s age at the time - than 33.

But why did it take Cole 35 years to reveal his Beatles connection? He says he never thought much of it, even though his children, grandchildren and, yes, great-grandchildren have gotten a kick out of it over the years. He’s even been known to autograph copies of Abbey Road for family members.

Cole keeps one copy in his house - more for amusement than anything else. “I never played it,” he plainly admits. (He still mistakenly refers to it as a 78 rpm.)

And what does Cole’s family have to say about their patriarch’s odd moment of glory? “It was a funny little inside family thing,” says Pam Craighead, Cole’s granddaughter who lives in Weston.

She adds that Cole has had other brushes with fame, including a meeting with McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc. “We call him Forrest Gramps,” Craighead says, referring to the cinematic character’s chance encounters with historical figures.

What finally inspired Cole to go public about Abbey Road was a solicitation in a newspaper, asking readers for their Beatles stories. Cole’s story soon traveled worldwide, appearing in newspapers in New York, London, Australia and elsewhere.

“I was probably in a million things,” a bemused Cole says. “I don’t quite understand it. It’s almost getting out of hand.”