Voting Station

Magic Alex

Please vote to return to collections.

Craftsman

The Resume

    (May 5, 1942-January 13, 2017)
    Born in Athens, Greece
    Birth name was Yanni Alexis Mardas
    Electronics engineer
    Headed the electronics division of the Beatles' Apple Corps

Why he might be annoying:

    After Cynthia Lennon returned early from a vacation to find John and Yoko living together, Alex tried to seduce her.
    Cynthia later suggested that Alex was put up to it by John to make it possible for John to charge her with adultery.
    He promised to build the first 72-track studio for the Beatles. The result was so disastrous the band had to import portable equipment from EMI to do any recording.
    According to engineer Geoff Emerick, Alex's mixing console was sold as scrap for £5: 'It wasn't worth any more.'
    George Harrison said, 'What Magic Alex did was pick up on the latest inventions, show them to us, and we'd think he'd invented them. We were naive to the teeth.'
    John later said about Apple Corps, 'And then I brought in Magic Alex and it just went from bad to worse.'
    It was estimated that his projects cost the Beatles over £300,000.
    After leaving Apple, he started a security firm to design bullet-proof cars. In tests, they proved more dangerous than ordinary cars as bullets easily pierced the armor plating and the glass broke into jagged splinters.

Why he might not be annoying:

    His 'Nothing Box,' a plastic box with randomly blinking lights, fascinated John Lennon, who would stare at it for hours while under the influence of LSD.
    He co-wrote the song 'What's the New Mary Jane' with John.
    John and Donovan served as co-best men at his wedding.
    He helped the Beatles buy an island in Greece. Although the band changed their minds about moving there, they did make £11,000 when they sold the island, one of their few forays into business to not lose money.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 3 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 212 Votes: 58.49% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 17 Votes: 5.88% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 17 Votes: 88.24% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 65 Votes: 50.77% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 97 Votes: 59.79% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 66 Votes: 62.12% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 80 Votes: 71.25% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 3 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 40 Votes: 12.50% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 13 Votes: 61.54% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 71 Votes: 77.46% Annoying