Five Beatles authorities from
different corners of the seemingly infinite Fab Four universe gathered Thursday
at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles to revisit and analyze the group’s impact
on popular culture in conjunction with the museum’s just-opened exhibit “Ladies
and Gentlemen … the Beatles.”
Museum executive director Robert
Santelli moderated the discussion among Debbie Gendler, a 13-year-old fan when
Beatlemania erupted in the U.S. who was in the audience for the group’s
history-making live U.S. television debut on “The Ed Sullivan Show”; former
KRLA-AM deejay Bob Eubanks; historian and author Bruce Spizer; and super
collectors Chuck Gunderson and Russ Lease, who also co-organized the new
exhibit with museum officials.
“We’d noticed there were museum exhibits
on Lady Di’s dresses, the Titanic,” Gunderson said at the outset of the
90-minute session in the museum’s 200-seat Clive Davis Theatre. “Chocolate,”
inserted Lease, prompting Gunderson to add, “and we thought, ‘Why not the
Beatles?’”
So, Gunderson noted, over a
period of several years, he and Lease and two other collector friends pooled
their memorabilia into what became “Ladies and Gentlemen … the Beatles.” It
premiered two years ago in New York and has visited several other cities before
reaching Los Angeles, and will travel next to the Clinton Presidential Library
in Little Rock, Ark.
But Gunderson pointed out the
special L.A. connection stemming from the fact that out of roughly 90 days
total that John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr spent
together on U.S. soil during the Beatles tours in 1964, 1965 and 1966, “They
spent more time in Los Angeles than any other city.”
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Consequently, the show has been
tailored to emphasize the group’s L.A. experiences, most prominently including
four concerts that Eubanks, wearing his other hat in the mid-’60s as a concert
promoter, organized at the Hollywood Bowl and Dodger Stadium.
The show’s arrival in Los Angeles
also serves as a run-up for the coming documentary “Eight Days a Week”
detailing the band’s U.S. tours, a film directed by Ron Howard and slated to
open in general release in September.
The exhibit, which occupies most
of the Grammy Museum’s main exhibit space on the second floor, surveys far more
than the live performances. It features a wealth of what Gunderson and others
call “Beatle tchotchkes” – the merchandise that was ever-present in the early
days of the group’s relatively short eight-year career.
Beatle wigs, lenticular rings and
lapel buttons, bubblegum trading cards, Revell model kits and 45 rpm single
cases occupy a full display case.
Others are tickets to various
concert dates and show both the geographical range the act covered – “Brian
Epstein thought the U.S. was about as big as the U.K.; he had no idea how big
this country was,” said Gunderson – and the astonishing, at least by 2016
standards, ticket prices that typically ran from $2.50 to a top price of $7.
Candid photos taken by their U.S.
tour manager Bob Bonis, unpublished until just a couple of years ago, are
displayed on yet another wall.
Asked by Santelli to single out
some of the most noteworthy items they’ve collected, Gunderson cited a set list
a fan saved from a 1960 performance by the early Beatles, well before Ringo
Starr completed the lineup by replacing drummer Pete Best in 1962.
Eyeing the roster of songs after
the presentation, Gunderson said, “I find it very interesting they included the
Everly Brothers’ ‘Cathy’s Clown,’ which would have just come out at that time.”
Lease pointed to the suit
formerly belonging to Starr that he acquired just last December in the auction
that Starr and his wife, actress Barbara Bach, conducted through Sotheby’s to
downsize their possessions and to generate money for their nonprofit Lotus
Foundation.
Lease noted that the suit had
been worn by Starr during the first 40 minutes of the band’s 1964 debut film “A
Hard Day’s Night,” but that even the Julian’s Auctions house in Beverly Hills
that conducted the auction missed the fact that it was also what Starr wore on
the cover of their 1964 British album “Beatles for Sale.”
“A piece of clothing from an
album cover trumps one that was used in a movie,” he said.
Eubanks shared anecdotes about
his experiences working with Epstein and the four Beatles during their L.A.
concert appearances, and after Gendler noted how much the group’s appeal
initially seemed to be among teenage girls like herself, Eubanks added that,
“As their music developed, it got better and better, and they appealed to both
adults and teens.”
The show is the fourth
Beatles-related exhibit the Grammy Museum has hosted since it opened in 2008,
following solo exhibitions highlighting the lives and music of Lennon, Harrison
and Starr, respectively.
The new exhibit runs through
Sept. 5. Hours and ticket information are available at the Grammy Museum
website.
