Quora: Who is Bungalow Bill in that Beatles song?

(via Quora) Answered by Jon Pennington

The real life inspiration for Bungalow Bill was a 27-year-old American man named Richard A. Cooke III (known as “Rik” for short). In 1968, Rik was in Rishikesh visiting his mother, Nancy Cooke de Herrera, a publicist for the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. As the Maharishi’s publicist, Nancy would also serve as a liaison between the Maharishi and the Beatles, while the Beatles were learning Transcendental Meditation.

The actress Mia Farrow described Nancy’s arrival at the Maharishi’s ashram as follows:

A self-important middle-aged American woman arrived, moving a mountain of luggage into the brand-new private bungalow next to Maharishi’s…People fled this newcomer and no one was sorry when she left the ashram after a short time to go tiger hunting.

I can’t quite get a read on what the original motivation was for the tiger hunt. Some depictions I’ve read portray Nancy and Rik as two socialites who blithely jaunted off to go safari while in the middle of a shallow spiritual quest. Other depictions I’ve read say that an Indian guide, Avi Kohli, encouraged Rik to kill the tiger, because the tiger was endangering some elephants and might have even endangered some villagers too…

Read more: https://www.quora.com/Who-is-Bungalow-Bill-in-that-Beatles-song

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