Release: MONDAY APRIL 24, 2020
Beatles Worth A Pretty Penny (Lane)
As much as the Coronavirus has instilled fear in people today, it barely compares to a threat that hung over the US 58 years ago. That’s when Nikita Khrushchev thought it would be interesting to install nuclear missiles 90 miles from the US in Cuba.
When word of that got out, people throughout the country began building bomb shelters. School children were taught to “duck and cover” in preparation for “the bomb.” Terror swept the land. President Kennedy finally forced Khrushchev to remove the missiles and warheads along with the threat of invasion. The US took a brief breather from the pending cold war.
Barely two years later, a much different invasion sent America into another unbridled frenzy the likes of which we’ve not seen since. This time it came in the form of four young
men from Liverpool, England disembarking in New York to begin a concert tour. The Beatles had landed and teenage girls everywhere screamed, swooned and passed out at their every nuance.Such acts are usually flash-in-the-pan. A few such as the Monkeys and Jackson 5, New Kids On The Block or the Backstreet Boys have tried to match that success. They were all good, but none hold a candle for lasting power compared to George, Paul, John and Ringo.
In the 1960s, along with baseball cards, many kids collected Beatles trading cards. That was the tip of the iceberg. Marketers realized a fortune awaited selling not only those cards but everything from Beatle’s lunch boxes; sunglasses; coin purses; bedsheets; scrapbooks; diaries; plates & cups; dresses; sneakers; bobbleheads and even cheap wigs that looked like the Beatle’s hair.
The tchotchkes for sale went on and on. People snapped them up as soon as they came out. By the 1970s and early-‘80s, the majority of those trinkets suffered the same fate as most kids’ baseball cards – they were lost or damaged. Worse, moms everywhere tossed them out or gave them away.
What’s different with Beatle’s memorabilia compared to that of so many others is that the lust for anything connected to them never truly died. In many cases, demand has grown among not only those who were there, but also younger aficionados who realize Beatle’s music will be a part of our culture forever.
Proof of that was seen in early April at a sale by Julien’s Auctions. It was filled with 250 Beatle’s-related items. Of course, there were knick-knacks aplenty. A package of Beatle’s cellophane tape; Beatle’s wallpaper and (I’m not kidding) a package of Beatles moth balls was estimated to bring $200 to $400. They sold for $512. Unused Beatle’s tennis shoes projected to sell for $500 to $1,000 were hammered down for $2,187.
A cardboard store display of 12 Beatle flicker buttons and another containing 24 flicker rings (all originally selling for about 50-cents apiece) brought $1,250. So too for a cardboard display of 12 plastic Beatle’s wallets. That sold for a whopping $3,750.
Any scrap of paper or photograph autographed by one or more of the Fab Four brought many thousands of dollars.
Two favorites include a brass floor-stand ashtray used by Ringo Starr at each recording session at Abbey Road studios. That 26-inch tall tray was expected to sell for around $8,000. Nope. It brought $35,200. The bass drum head used once by the band during a 1964 performance at San Francisco’s Cow Palace Arena was estimated to bring $50,000. It sold for $200,000.
Far and away, the prize of the auction was a page of “Hey Jude” lyrics in Paul McCartney’s handwriting. The sheet is really just cursory reminder notes of the beginning of four verses. Paul and John Lennon used them while recording the song at Trident Studios in London in 1968. Afterward, Paul casually gave the “Hey Jude” lyric’s sheet to a recording engineer who asked about it.
“Hey Jude” was the first 45-rpm non-album record released under the Apple label. It went on to be nominated for most every music award on the planet.
Fast-forward to 2020. That sheet of partial lyrics was slated to be sold for nearly $180,000. It didn’t come close. In the end it was hammered down for a record $910,000 – just shy of a million.
Are there more Beatle’s collectibles out there? Absolutely. Many a drawer and closet contain some of those forgotten treasures of the 1960s. As is seen above, if you find the right one then clearly, “Baby, You’re A Rich Man.”