Singer/songwriter Harry Nilsson was walking back to his hotel room on August 12, 1973, when he saw a 19-year-old girl working in Rumpelmayer's ice cream parlor.
Una O'Keefe was working in NYC on a summer exchange program from Ireland with a friend. Nilsson walked up to the two of them, and told Una, "You have the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen. Will you marry me?"
Una and her friend demured, and Nilsson asked them how he could prove that he had good intentions. They said they liked flowers and melons (they had never had a honeydew melon).
Nilsson went back to his hotel room, sobered up, bought the melons, and then found a florist down at the docks who was preparing for a funeral. Nilsson returned to the ice cream parlor in a limousine, and lined up rows of flowers and melons on the street outside of the limo.
The two were married later, and Ringo Starr was the best man at their wedding.
*From the documentary Who is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talking About Him)?
