George Harrison’s Gold Medallion

ITEM #937

Andrea Mason was a very dear friend of mine. She was one of those spirits that you felt like you had known for some time even when you just met her. She was very charming and endearing. I met her in 1972 at her hair salon in Hermosa Beach when she told me that I was cutting my hair all together wrong. When I walked out of her salon, my hair was shorter, but it looked longer. She was a terrific hair stylist and had that Avant-garde ability about her.

Andrea and Olivia Harrison, (then Olivia Arias), attended Hawthorne High School in the 1960s together and remained friends until her death in 1984. My wife and Andrea were best of friends. She was the maid of honor at our wedding and godmother to our children. Andrea Mason also married Terry Doran on February 14th, 1976.

Terry Doran met Brian Epstein in a Liverpool pub in 1959 and the pair became close friends and partners in a car dealership called Brydor, an amalgamation of Epstein’s first name and Doran’s surname. Terry sold the Beatles their first cars, as well as the van in which they travelled to gigs. He also supplied many young luminaries with luxury cars like Ferraris and Lamborghinis, including a Rolls-Royce Phantom V for Lennon, a Jaguar E-type for Harrison, a white Aston Martin for McCartney, a Facel Vega for Ringo, and a Bentley S3 for Epstein.

Terry is often cited as the inspiration behind the line “Meeting a man from the motor trade” in the Beatles’ 1967 song “She’s Leaving Home”. He contributed to the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band sessions and worked at Apple headquarters as manager of Apple Publishing.

Terry was initially closest to Lennon until Yoko arrived. He then transferred his loyalties to Harrison and began working for George and Pattie Boyd as estate manager at Friar Park. He assisted them for the four years it took to renovate the dilapidated castle and grounds into the amazing and magnificent Crackerbox Palace that it is today. Pattie Boyd wrote: “Terry was a major part of my life at Friar Park and was also so very close to George.” Terry also worked at Harrison’s company, Oops Publishing, until resigning in February 1975.  

In a generous show of appreciation for the loyalty that Terry exhibited towards him and his then wife Pattie, George gave Terry a solid gold medallion that had engraved on the back a mantra, “OM Sri Ganeshaya Namah.” When this Mantra is repeated, we obtain the object of our pursuit without encountering trials and troubles. The fog on the path is cleared, the resistances to progress eliminated, and the best results are secured with minimum effort. For millennia, this mantra has been used with great effect.

Just before Andrea died, she asked me to come visit her because she wanted to show me something. She brought out a gold medallion and asked if I’d be interested in buying it. Of course, I said yes. It was a very sad day for us when she passed

– Chris Agajanian