Fab Four Exhibits, LLC
a museum experience created and orchestrated by top Beatles collectors and experts
Ladies and Gentlemen...The Beatles!, our exhibit created in partnership with the Grammy Museum,
traveled extensively around the United States from February 2014 until April 2017, shattering previous
attendance records at many of its host venues. As the three-year-long North American leg of the
exhibit tour came to a close, Ladies and Gentleman...The Beatles! was recognized by the Grammy Museum
as the most successful traveling exhibit in its history. As part of our ongoing relationship with the
Grammy Museum, the exhibit traveled across the United States and toured Japan
(Tokyo and Osaka) before the pandemic closed museums globally and put exhibits on hold.
In 2022, after a few tough years, we finally got back to where we once belonged -- on the road!
And now, as we head into 2024, we celebrate
The 10th anniversary of
Ladies and Gentlemen...The Beatles!
Opened on Friday, December 8, 2023
at the spectacular new Mulva Cultural Center
in De Pere, Wisconsin (Green Bay)
Exhibit runs through January 21, 2024
Future venues will be announced, so keep checking back with us for locations and dates!
Ladies and Gentlemen...The Beatles!
A Beatles traveling exhibition presented by the Grammy Museum and Fab Four Exhibits, LLC
HistoryMiami
Miami, Florida
October 9, 2014 - January 18, 2015
For more information, visit http://www.historymiami.org/
Original display drum head from Madam Tussauds, Brian Epstein artifacts and the Beatles' growing popularity in 1963.
Thursday evening, October 9, 2014: The opening night
gala for the exhibit was held at HistoryMiami on what
would have been John Lennon's 74th birthday.
Above: the Beatles' iconic instruments are presented
in an "arrow" stage set inspired by the one used on
their Ed Sullivan Show debut appearance.
Above and below: a stellar crowd of over 800 people attended the opening night gala for Ladies and Gentlemen...The Beatles! at HistoryMiami, Thursday night, October 9, 2014. Here, everyone
gathers to watch a performance by Beatles cover
band, the Beatlemaniax.
The opening night crowd was entertained by Beatles cover band, the Beatlemaniax...
...who were introduced by "Ed Sullivan"
himself (George Trullinger).
The Beatlemaniax perform to an overflow crowd at the opening gala, Thursday night, October 9, 2014.
Enjoying the opening night festivities, left to right: Stuart Chase (HistoryMiami Director), Rita George (Grammy Museum Deputy Executive Director), Victoria Cervantes (HistoryMiami VP of Communications) and
Fab Four Exhibits partner Russ Lease.
At the opening gala, October 9, 2014, left to right: Fab Four Exhibits partner Russ Lease, The Beatlemaniax,
"Ed Sullivan" (George Trullinger) and Ramiro Ortiz (MiamiHistory Museum President and CEO).
Beatle Brunch radio show host Joe Johnson posing at the "Pan Am lounge" microphones.
At the party: Legendary news journalist Ed Rudy and his wife Edie.
Ed covered the Beatles extensively in America in 1964.
His LPs of Beatles interviews are wonderful keepsakes
of the group's breakthrough year in the States.
Photo by Joe Johnson of Beatle Brunch.
Heading inside: The exhibit entrance at HistoryMiami.
A display acknowledging the recording artists who influenced
the Beatles, including Elvis Presley, James Brown, Bob Dylan,
the Beach Boys and the Motown stable of stars.
On display: Beatles movie memorabilia and Paul McCartney's
Shea Stadium concert jacket.
Commemorating the Beatles' first visit to America, February 1964. This display features the original iconic Ed Sullivan drum head, the Washington concert handwritten set list and the original Capitol gold record award for "I Want To Hold Your Hand", presented to the group at the Plaza Hotel by Capitol Records president Alan Livingston.
When We Met The Beatles
HistoryMiami exhibition documents the Fab Four's 1964 visit to South Florida.
Article by Phillip Valys, SouthFlorida.com, Miami Sun Sentinel, October 8, 2014
Found in the lobby of downtown museum HistoryMiami is a video of the Beatles' second public performance on American soil:
in the ballroom of the Deauville Hotel in Miami Beach on Feb. 16, 1964. The moptopped lads from Liverpool crooned their doo-wop-style B-side "This Boy" live on the "Ed Sullivan Show," with John, Paul and George huddled around a single microphone. Thousands of fans had tracked the quartet from Miami International Airport, snarled traffic on Collins Avenue and jammed into
the ballroom.
The 50th anniversary of the Beatles' arrival in America and initial tapings for "Ed Sullivan," igniting Beatlemania, are the focus of HistoryMiami's memorabilia-heavy exhibit "Ladies and Gentlemen … the Beatles!" The touring show, organized by the Grammy Museum and Fab Four Exhibits, contains 400 artifacts from the dawn of Beatlemania to the band's final American tour in 1966.
"Everywhere they went, it was pandemonium," says Chuck Gunderson, one of four private collectors in Fab Four Exhibits who loaned out the memorabilia. "Even Elvis didn't draw mobs like this. Wherever they played, they were pretty much prisoners in their hotel room."
The exhibit is a time capsule to how Beatles fever dominated mid-1960s popular culture, ticket stubs, a pair of Lennon's round eyeglasses, Fab Four tin lunchboxes and newspaper ads. In one room, the museum re-creates a teenager's 1960s bedroom containing gig posters signed by Beatles members. In another room, visitors may recognize the drum head the Beatles used for the Deauville Hotel performance.
Other noteworthy pieces include a lock of Lennon's hair taped to a ticket stub, a handwritten setlist that a teenage McCartney created in 1960, and a series of 10 candid photographs shot by Bob Bonis, who traveled with the Beatles and captured the four's serious and silly sides.
Gunderson, author of the book “Some Fun Tonight: The Backstage Story of How the Beatles Rocked America,” which tracks the Beatles’ three North American tours, says the band visited Florida on two other occasions. After their Miami Beach stop, they returned that September for a Jacksonville show, but the imminent arrival of Hurricane Dora forced the Beatles to divert their plane to Key West. A Navy crewman at the Key Wester Motel later spotted Ringo splashing in the pool with two female vocalists for the Beatles’ R&B opening act, the Exciters.
“The crewman was shocked, of course, but even more shocked to see a Beatle traveling with African-Americans. The South was very slow to desegregate,” Gunderson says.
Through the installation of this show, HistoryMiami executive director Stuart Chase says he has already triggered memories from fellow staff and patrons who saw the Beatles in Miami.
"I can't express how great the variety of objects in this exhibit really is, especially from a souvenir point of view," Chase says. "It was a huge overwhelming wave of public reaction. With this show, there's no better way to experience what the British Invasion was like at that moment."
A "Ladies and Gentlemen … the Beatles!" opening reception will take place 7-9 p.m. Thursday at HistoryMiami, 101 W. Flagler St. Admission is $5-$15 for the reception, $5-$8 during regular museum hours and free during Family Fun Day 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday. Call 305-375-1492 or go to HistoryMiami.org.
The Beatles Arrive at HistoryMiami
Miami is the third stop for the traveling exhibition
Article by Shayne Benowitz, miami.com, October 10, 2014
HistoryMiami’s latest exhibit “Ladies and Gentlemen… The Beatles!” opens today in the museum’s new south wing, celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ arrival in the U.S. and their legendary performance on The Ed Sullivan Show.
Co-curated by Los Angeles’ The Grammy Museum and Fab Four Exhibits (a collective of four Beatles memorabilia collectors who have merged their artifacts for the show), Miami is the third stop for this traveling exhibition.
“Of course, Miami is part of that history,” points out Russ Lease of Fab Four Exhibits. “The Beatles performed in Miami on that first tour at the Deauville Beach Club.”
Amongst the artifacts of this British invasion is a press clipping from a Miami newspaper whose headline reads, “Thousands of Girls Swoon as Beatles Rock Miami Beach.” This is found next to the original Beatles logo bass drum head used for The Ed Sullivan Show performance in February 1964. “That’s the most important piece in the exhibit,” says Lease.
Other fascinating pieces include behind the scenes photography taken by Bob Bonis, The Beatles stage manager, that were only discovered after his death in 1989. These black and white snapshots depict quiet moments of The Beatles flying between gigs, backstage and during press conferences. There’s also a pair of John Lennon’s first yellow-tinted “granny glasses” from 1967 and a lock of his hair as requested by a fan in 1963.
The exhibit has interactive elements, as well, where you can take drum lessons from Ringo and record your own personal history from the British invasion. The exhibit focuses in large part on the years 1964-66 when The Beatles toured the U.S. It also puts this time period of music history in context with American musicians of the era, like Bob Dylan, Elvis, Buddy Holly, Ray Charles and
James Brown, all of whom have guitars, costumes and memorabilia on display.
“Ladies and Gentlemen… The Beatles!” runs through Jan. 18, 2015 at HistoryMiami, 101 W. Flagler St., Miami; www.historymiami.org.
7 News Report: The Beatles
wsvn.com (Miami - Fort Lauderdale), October 10, 2014
Bands come and bands go, but the Beatles are forever. 50 years after their first visit, the boys from Liverpool are back in Miami Beach. A new exhibition spotlighting the fab four's impact on America during the glory days of Beatlemania will have you shouting 'Yeah, yeah yeah.'
Nobody could spoil the opening night party at History Miami for the museum's latest exhibit, "Ladies and Gentlemen, The Beatles."
Stuart Chase: "This is a terrific opportunity for us to share the great history of this global brand, The Beatles, and the mania that came from coming to the United States in 1964."
From the iconic instruments the band played, to concert posters, album covers, stage outfits and merchandising. It's all Beatles, all the time.
Stuart Chase: "This is a great way to learn about The Beatles here in America."
Among the rarities on display is the actual bass drum Ringo Starr used when the band played here at the Deauville hotel. But wait, there's more.
Stuart Chase: "There's an incredible stage set, small stage set, that George Harrison had attached to his guitar so he knew what songs to play in what order."
Speaking of playing, you can catch the group in action on one of the audio-visual outlets in the exhibit. You can even get a music lesson from a certain drummer.
Stuart Chase: "You put the headphones on, Ringo Starr teaches you how to play the drums and you go at it."
Stuart Chase: "You can find out why So-Flo looms large in the legend of the liverpudlians.
Stuart Chase: "There's also an incredible scrapbook with great headlines that really talk about the sort-of mania that hit the audience and the response they had here in Miami Beach."
The exhibit had to find a home here in the 305.
Stuart Chase: "But we brought it here to Miami because we knew the Miami connection and we wanted to make sure we shared it with all of South Florida and our guests from around the world."
For more information:
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN...THE BEATLES
THROUGH JANUARY 18, 2015
HISTORY MIAMI
101 WEST FLAGLER STREET
MIAMI 33130
(305) 375-1492