Magic Alex

Yanni (later John) Alexis Mardas (Greek: Αλέξης Μάρδας; born May 5, 1942, Athens, Greece), better known as Magic Alex; the name given him by The Beatles when he knew the group between 1965 and 1969. He later became the head of Apple Electronics.

Mardas arrived in England in 1965, exhibiting his Kinetic Light Sculptures at the Indica Gallery. He impressed John Lennon with the Nothing Box; a small plastic box with randomly blinking lights, and allegedly said that he could build a 72-track tape machine. Mardas was then given the job of designing the new Apple Studio in Savile Row, and was in India with The Beatles at the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram in India.

In the 1970s, the anti-terrorism industry offered bullet-proof vehicles, bugging devices and security hardware, so Mardas set up various companies offering these products to royalty and VIPs. King Hussein of Jordan bought a fleet of cars that Mardas had customised. In 1987, Mardas was a managing director of Alcom Ltd, which specialised in electronic communications and security. He now lives in Greece.

Read more about Magic Alex:  London and The Beatles, Security Consultant, The Media and The Courts, Later Years and Present

Famous quotes containing the words magic and/or alex:

    A full bosom is actually a millstone around a woman’s neck: it endears her to the men who want to make their mammet of her, but she is never allowed to think that their popping eyes actually see her. Her breasts ... are not parts of a person but lures slung around her neck, to be kneaded and twisted like magic putty, or mumbled and mouthed like lolly ices.
    Germaine Greer (b. 1939)

    My smiling child
    Named for a noble ancestor
    Great hunter or warrior
    You will be one day.
    Which will give your papa pride
    But always I will remember you thus.
    —African Lullaby. As quoted in Roots, by Alex Haley (1976)