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
The Oregon Historical Society
Portland, Oregon
May 10 - November 12, 2019
A Pre-Opening Preview of "Ladies and Gentlemen...The Beatles!"
at the Oregon Historical Society
Before the crowds descended on the exhibit, we took a few shots of the displays!
Welcome to Ladies and Gentlemen...The Beatles!
at the Oregon Historical Society in Portland.
The entrance to the exhibit gallery.
Credit where credit's due. A list of our
supporters and contributors.
The fan hysteria that greeted the Beatles wherever they appeared is on full display
at the exhibit.
A stage suit worn by the great B.B. King is among the featured artifacts in the exhibit's "Influences" section.
More influences, from left to right: A suit worn by blues legend B.B. King, a James Brown suit, B.B. King's guitar, a pink dress worn by Mary WIlson of the Supremes and B.B. King's stage suit.
Shown above: An original drum head used on stage by
The Dave Clark 5 highlights this case commemorating the
British Invasion of 1964.
Shown at right: A display featuring the biographies of each
of the Beatles as well as artifacts from the group's formative
years in Liverpool, 1960-1963.
"The Origins of The Beatles": A closeup of some of the pre-fame goodies on display.
The Ed Sullivan Show stage setup has been a favorite of patrons in every city
the exhibit has visited -- and Portland has been no exception.
Shown above and below: A display of artifacts from the Beatles' first
visit to America in February 1964, including the original set list from their
first-ever American concert in Washington D.C. on February 11, 1964, and a
gold record presented to them at the Plaza Hotel in New York by Capitol Records president Alan Livingston.
Shown above: A popular spot for a photo op -- the recreation of the Pan Am Lounge at JFK Airport in New York City, where the Beatles held their first press conference on American soil.
Shown left: Looking back to the exhibit entrance, and the first of the two main
exhibit areas at the Oregon Historical Society. On the wall just beyond the Pan Am setup are cases devoted to artifacts from the Beatles' music influences.
Shown above left: Bob Bonis was the U.S. tour manager for all three of the Beatles' North American summer tours (1964-66). He always had his Leica M3 camera handy
and took almost 800 photos of the band. The exhibit features several of the intimate images he took. Shown above right: More Bob Bonis photos and a showcase filled
with memorabilia related to their first feature film, "A Hard Day's Night".
The original military-style jacket worn by Paul McCartney at several concerts in 1965, including Portland and the group's famous concert at Shea Stadium. Also shown, a Hofner violin bass used by Paul in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The suit worn by Ringo Starr in the first thirty minutes of "A Hard Day's Night" and also on the cover of the group's British LP, Beatles For Sale.
Above: The North American tour map, complete with
an assortment of unused concert tickets from 1964-66.
Below: A selection of mass-produced memorabilia.
Some of the Beatles memorabilia in the exhibit, from rare original store displays
and point-of-purchase promotional pieces.
Let it be a lesson to you. One of our popular interactive displays -- a video drum lesson from Ringo Starr himself.
Artifacts and memorabilia from 1965 and 1966 including an original
RIAA gold record for the Beatles' Rubber Soul LP.
If you celebrated the Beatles on your bedroom walls back in the Sixties, this mock-up
of a fan's room might bring back some sweet memories.
On August 22, 1965, the Beatles played two shows at Portland's Memorial Coliseum -- one at 3:30pm and one at 8pm. "Ladies and Gentlemen...The Beatles!" commemorates the band's Portland appearances with a special display of artifacts from their shows. Among the Portland pieces on display are rare concert photos and tickets, a press pass
and the original performance contract and rider, both signed by Beatles manager Brian Epstein. The performance contract is shown above center.
The original Edwardian coat worn by Ringo Starr on the cover of the Beatles' final album Abbey Road stands guard
over what has been the most popular photo op spot in the exhibit -- a mock-up of the Abbey Road crosswalk ready
for a single-file stroll by exhibit attendees. Shoes are optional.
The Portland media meets the Beatles!
"On The Go With Joe"
Good Day Oregon
Fox 12
On Thursday, May 9, 2019, Fox 12 "Good Day Oregon" feature reporter Joe Vithayathil ("Joe V.") hosted three
live segments from the exhibit. While interviewing Rachel Randles (OHS Director of Marketing and Communications) and Fab Four Exhibits
founding partner Chuck Gunderson, Joe V. also
pointed out several of the exhibit's unique treasures.
"A.M. Northwest"
KATU 2
KATU 2 reporter Tammy Hernandez
hosted a live segment from the exhibit
on "A.M. Northwest" on May 9th,
the day before the public opening.
She spoke to FFE partners Russ Lease
and Chuck Gunderson, who also talked
about some of the rarer pieces in the exhibit.
Reporter Christine Pitawanich of KGW 8 in Portland covered the exhibit in her story of May 9th, interviewing FFE partner Chuck Gunderson while taking viewers on a brief visual tour
of the exhibit.
KGW 8
The Gala Opening of "Ladies and Gentlemen...The Beatles!",
Friday evening, May 10, 2019
More than 200 museum guests got their fill of fun, food and the Fab Four at a special opening celebration!
Above: Entertainment for the gala was provided by
Cary Miga and the New Nightlife.
Shown left and below:
Fab Four Exhibits founding partners Russ Lease and Chuck Gunderson
welcome the crowd attending the gala opening of "Ladies and Gentlemen...The Beatles!" at the Oregon Historical Society,
Friday evening, May 10, 2019. OHS Executive Director Kerry Tymchuk stands at the far left, looking on.
Above : FFE partner Russ Lease and his wife Becky share the crosswalk with friends (and Portland residents) Karen and
Darren Henrich.
Left: Fab Four Exhibits partners Russ Lease and Chuck Gunderson pose on the Abbey Road crosswalk with Museum Director Helen B. Louise (far left) and Director of Marketing and Communications Rachel Randles (third from left).
Special VIP tours of the exhibit, Saturday and Sunday,
May 11-12, 2019
Fab Four Exhibits partner Chuck Gunderson conducted exclusive behind-the-scenes exhibit tours on opening weekend. Chuck is
well-known as the country's leading expert on the Beatles' three North American concert tours and is the author of Some Fun Tonight! The Backstage Story of How the Beatles Rocked America: The Historic Tours of 1964 to 1966. Chuck and his Fab Four Exhibits partners are avid fans and collectors as well as Beatles scholars with an
extensive knowledge of the group's history.
Here, Chuck (shown far left) hosts the first of two VIP tours
of the exhibit, Saturday, May 11, 2019.
Ladies and Gentlemen...The Beatles! Premieres at
the Oregon Historical Society, May 10
Basin Life magazine, May 7, 2019
In 1964, The Beatles came to America for the first of the group’s three North American visits. Their journey in America began on Friday, February 7 of that year, when John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr arrived from the UK at the newly named John F. Kennedy International Airport. With cameras flashing and reporters jostling, they were whisked into Manhattan amid the screams, shouts, and tears of New York-area teens, braving the cold for a mere glimpse of the band. Then, that Sunday, the veritable king of the television variety show, Ed Sullivan, introduced them to a captivated American audience of more than 73 million viewers — at the time a television record. And, just like that, Beatlemania was upon us.
Curated by the GRAMMY Museum and Fab Four Exhibits, Ladies, and Gentlemen…The Beatles! brings us back to the early ‘60s when rock and roll were re-energized — some say saved — by four lads from Liverpool. Opening at the Oregon Historical Society in Portland on Friday, May 10, this exhibit covers the period from early 1964 through mid-1966 — the years Beatlemania ran rampant in America. During this time, the band affected nearly every aspect of pop culture, including fashion, art, advertising, media, and, of course, music.
“It doesn’t take a hard day’s night of thinking to understand the impact that The Beatles had on the history of music and popular culture,” said OHS Executive Director Kerry Tymchuk. “The Oregon Historical Society is excited to bring to Portland this fun, interactive exhibition celebrating the band that forever changed rock and roll.”
Ladies and Gentlemen…The Beatles! provides fresh new insight into how and why The Beatles impacted America in the 1960s and beyond. Over 100 objects, ephemera, and interactive elements fill the gallery, some on exhibit for the first time. One of the most prominent cases features Paul McCartney’s jacket from The Beatles’ historic 1965 Shea Stadium concert, and, for the first time on exhibit, one of McCartney’s bass guitars. McCartney also wore this iconic jacket when The Beatles performed in Portland, Oregon, at the Memorial Coliseum on August 22, 1965.
The Oregon Historical Society’s version of the exhibit also features a case of ephemera from The Beatles’ Portland performances and includes the original performance contract and rider between NEMS and Northwest Releasing to bring The Beatles to Portland, as well as an original press pass.
Other exhibition highlights include:
-
Ringo Starr’s black-on-black striped suit worn in The Beatles’ debut film A Hard Day’s Night and Ringo’s Abbey Road crosswalk jacket
-
Paul McCartney’s original handwritten lyric sheet for the song, “What You’re Doing” (August 1964)
-
Handwritten setlists from The Beatles’ concerts, including the earliest known setlist (Grosvenor Ballroom, June 1960) and the one used onstage at the group’s first-ever American concert (Washington D.C., February 11, 1964)
-
Gold records of I Want To Hold Your Hand and Rubber Soul
-
Venue contracts from the band’s American tours
-
An eye-popping display of mass-produced merchandising items
-
Kid-friendly interactive elements including a virtual drumming lesson from Ringo and a playable home-made skiffle bass
“Fab Four Exhibits is looking forward to sharing these rare and valuable artifacts – many of which are one-of-a-kind – to the Portland area as we celebrate the genius and creativity of the Fab Four,” said Chuck Gunderson, managing partner of the exhibiting group.
Ladies and Gentlemen… The Beatles! will be on exhibit May 10 through November 12, 2019. The Oregon Historical Society’s museum is open seven days a week, Monday – Saturday from 10 am – 5 pm and Sunday from 12 pm – 5 pm. Admission is $10, and discounts are available for students, seniors, teachers, and youth. Admission is free every day for OHS members and Multnomah County residents.
KGW8: The Beatles Are Invading The Oregon Historical Society
A new exhibit, set in the early '60s, will transport visitors back to the time when Beatlemania was all the rage.
Author: Destiny Johnson, Christine Pitawanich
Published: 3:02 PM PDT May 6, 2019
Updated: 2:34 PM PDT May 9, 2019
PORTLAND, Ore. — A new exhibit, set in the early '60s, will transport visitors back to the time when Beatlemania was all the rage.
"Ladies and Gentlemen...The Beatles!" will debut at the Oregon Historical Society in Portland on Friday, May 10.
“It doesn’t take a hard day’s night of thinking to understand the impact that The Beatles had on the history of music and popular culture,” said OHS Executive Director Kerry Tymchuk. “The Oregon Historical Society is excited to bring to Portland this fun, interactive exhibition celebrating the band that forever changed rock and roll.”
Big fans of The Beatles will be excited to know that over 100 objects, ephemera, and interactive elements will be in the exhibit - some things will be debuting to the public for the first time in an exhibit.
Chuck Gunderson is part of Fab Four Exhibits. The group is responsible for bringing the exhibit to Portland. He says their goal is to spread the magic of The Beatles.
“About 90% of the artifacts represented at Oregon Historical Society belong to us. They've been sitting in our houses for a long time, under our beds, in our basements and we thought to ourselves back in the late 2000s we need to get this out where people can see this and appreciate it and understand the magic of The Beatles,” said Gunderson.
Fans will see Paul McCartney's jacket from The Beatles' historic 1965 Shea Stadium concert, and, for the first time on exhibit, one of McCartney’s bass guitars.
Other exhibit highlights include:
-
Ringo Starr's black-on-black striped suit worn in The Beatles' debut film A Hard Day's Night and Ringo's Abbey Road crosswalk jacket
-
Paul McCartney's original handwritten lyric sheet for the song, "What You're Doing" (August 1964)
-
Handwritten set lists from The Beatles' concerts, including the earliest known set list (Grosvenor Ballroom, June 1960) and the one used onstage at the group's first-ever American concert (Washington D.C., February 11, 1964)
-
Gold records of I Want To Hold Your Hand and Rubber Soul
-
Venue contracts from the band's American tours
-
An eye-popping display of mass-produced merchandising items
-
Kid-friendly interactive elements including a virtual drumming lesson from Ringo and a playable home-made skiffle bass
The exhibit will run from May 10 - November 12. For more info, visit the Oregon Historical Society's website.
Beatles exhibit at Oregon Historical Society runs through November 10
A new exhibit, set in the early '60s, will transport visitors back to the time when Beatlemania was all the rage.
By Kohr Harlan, KOIN 6 News Staff
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) -- Ed Sullivan introduced The Beatles to America on February 9, 1964. The rest, as they say, is history.
That history is now on display at the Oregon Historical Society. For the next 6 months, a collection of Beatles memorabilia -- pictures, videos, historical documents, even stage clothes -- can be seen up close.
Among the original documents on display is a carbon copy of performance contracts that set out terms of The Beatles performance at Memorial Coliseum in Portland on August 22, 1965. Tickets in the lower level cost $6.
The contract was one page and a rider with a list of conditions was just 3 pages.
"The reason this (exhibit) is put together is it generally sits in glass cases in your basement or your music room and the only people who get to see it are your family or close friends, and this is a way for people to see it," said Chuck Gunderson, the exhibit curator.
He said The Beatles may have walked away with about $70,000 for their 2 shows in Portland.
"They performed about a half hour each show," he said. "They had an hour-and-a-half opening act and then they came and did their 12 song set and they were gone. Two shows and they left Portland. They were out of here about midnight and were off to L.A."
The original coat Paul McCartney wore at New York's Shea Stadium and then in Portland several days later are part of the exhibit's glance into the history of one of the most influential bands of the 20th Century.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, The Beatles!" runs through November 10 at the Oregon Historical Society.
Derided as communists while in Portland 54 years ago, the Beatles return to the city as conquering capitalists
Updated May 10, 2019; Posted May 9, 2019
By Douglas Perry | The Oregonian/OregonLive
A police officer walked his beat with a bullet stuck in each ear.
All around him “little girls cried hysterically” and screamed. The cop ignored them.
So it went at Portland’s Memorial Coliseum on Sunday, Aug. 22, 1965, when the Beatles performed two shows at the venue. The Oregonian’s overnight recap of the experience started as follows: “eeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEE!...”
The legendary British pop group broke up almost 50 years ago, and two of its four members are no longer with us. Yet Beatlemania lives on. Undeniable evidence of this will be on display in Portland on Friday, when “Ladies and Gentlemen ... The Beatles!” lands at the Oregon Historical Society.
Chuck Gunderson, one of the four Beatles super-collectors behind “Ladies and Gentlemen...”, says long waits to get into the exhibit have been common at its stops around the U.S. and Japan.
The Fab Four showcase is “going to be packed with a lot of good stuff, including one-of-a-kind pieces,” Gunderson says. “We’re expecting a crowd.”
One item that always proves popular is a soiled piece of paper. Bearing the logo of the Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C., it’s creased and smudged, the edges eaten away. The looping cursive handwriting on the page captures the plan for the night:
“Beethoven,” it reads. Then:
“From me to you.”
“I saw her standing there.”
“This Boy.”
The litany continues, finally ending with what almost looks like a signature: “Long Tall Sally.”
It’s the Beatles’ set list for their Feb. 11, 1964, concert at Washington Coliseum, handwritten by John Lennon. The artifact is a direct link to the band’s first U.S. concert, to that moment when John, Paul, George and Ringo, fresh off their “Ed Sullivan Show” success, bounded on stage in their fitted suits, the cheers and screams from thousands of fans rising to a deafening level.
When the group came on stage, Paul McCartney unfolded the set list and placed it on an amplifier. After the concert, a police officer picked up the scrap of paper and handed it to a teen girl who was milling about, trying to delay her return to the real world.
“She had no idea what she had,” Gunderson says. “She thought another fan had written down the songs [as they were played].”
A year-and-a-half after that concert in D.C., the Beatles made it to Portland -- but just barely. One of the engines of their chartered plane caught fire as the aircraft approached the Rose City. When Lennon looked out the window and saw flames lashing the wing, writes Gunderson in “Some Fun Tonight: The Backstage Story of How the Beatles Rocked America,” the musician “ran to the exit door and grabbed the handle with both hands, ready to pull the door open at 22,000 feet -- until [road manager] Mal Evans stopped him.”
Thanks to Evans – and the pilots, of course – the plane landed safely, smoke billowing behind it. The band bounded into a limo, smiling and waving as if they hadn’t been convinced just minutes before that the end was nigh. They were whisked straight to Memorial Coliseum.
The Beatles banged through two shows during their day in the city, a necessity seeing as Portland’s premier stadium was a small venue for the Liverpudlians. They gave a press conference backstage between the afternoon and evening performances. One reporter asked them what they thought about a pamphlet circulating outside the stadium that described the Beatles as communists.
“I’ve got to see that,” McCartney said. “Imagine us communists.”
Also between the shows, the Beatles met the Beach Boys for the first time. The Los Angeles-based group made the trip up to Portland specifically to meet their “rivals.”
Along with a wide range of memorabilia and historical items, “Ladies and Gentlemen...” includes various video and audio features, thanks to the exhibit’s affiliation with the Grammy Museum. And for its Oregon stop, it will have a small exhibit within the exhibit that’s devoted to the Beatles’ Portland appearance. Here you can check out, for example, a Memorial Coliseum press pass for the concerts and unused tickets to the shows. (Yes, we said unused tickets. Who skipped a Beatles concert at the height of Beatlemania? “Cars sometimes didn’t start, people got sick,” Gunderson points out. “One woman told me that she bought tickets for $3.50 each and her mom told her, ‘You’re not going to see those damn Beatles.’” The girl ended up sticking the tickets in her Bible, where they stayed for years.)
The contract for the Memorial Coliseum performances is also well worth examining, Gunderson says. It includes a line, added for the tour’s southern swing, that made clear the Beatles would not play before a segregated audience.
The contract’s rider was “very basic,” he adds. You’ll find none of the outlandish demands we associate with rock stars. The local concert’s producers were required to provide the Beatles’ backstage room with clean towels, two cases of soda, four cots and a TV.
The soda and cots did the trick. By many accounts, the Fab Four gave two of their better live performances in Portland. Jack Berry, the drama editor at The Oregonian at the time, noted that, “unlike most of the Beatles’ appearances in this country, the music could occasionally be heard.”
He added that this didn’t seem to matter to the older members of the audience:
“A good many fans were accompanied by their parents, who sat stonily while the kids screamed and waved little wounded flipper dancing gestures.”
-- Douglas Perry
“Ladies and Gentlemen ... The Beatles!”: May 10-Nov. 12, 2019
Ladies and Gentlemen...The Beatles! opens at the
Oregon Historical Society May 10
Presented by Oregon Historical Society What’s This? 5/6/2019 at 2:36pm
Portland Monthly
On August 22, 1965, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr landed at Portland International Airport.
The Beatles waved at crowds of screaming, crying fans, as they made their way towards the Memorial Coliseum for the first of two performances that day – the only time they would perform in Oregon.
By the time The Beatles visited Portland, Beatlemania was already running rampant through America. Their popularity in the U.S. skyrocketed on February 7, 1964, when The Beatles came to America for the first of the group’s three North American tours. With cameras flashing and reporters jostling, they were whisked from the newly named John F. Kennedy International Airport into Manhattan amid the shouts of New York-area teens, braving the cold for a mere glimpse of the band. Then, that Sunday, the veritable king of the television variety show, Ed Sullivan, introduced them to a captivated American audience of more than 73 million viewers — at the time a television record.
The Beatles forever changed rock and roll, and during their height, affected nearly every aspect of pop culture. In celebration of the mark The Beatles have made on American history, the Oregon Historical Society in downtown Portland is excited to host Ladies and Gentlemen… The Beatles! Curated by the GRAMMY Museum® and Fab Four Exhibits, this exhibit, which has traveled nationally and internationally, takes us back to the early ’60s when rock and roll was re-energized — some say saved — by four lads from Liverpool.
On exhibit May 10 – November 12, 2019, Ladies and Gentleman… The Beatles! covers the period from early 1964 through mid-1966 — the years Beatlemania ran rampant in America. Over 100 objects, ephemera, and interactive elements fill the gallery, some on exhibit for the first time. One of the most prominent cases features Paul McCartney’s jacket from The Beatles’ historic 1965 Shea Stadium concert, and, for the first time on exhibit, one of McCartney’s bass guitars. McCartney also wore this iconic jacket at the band’s 1965 Portland performance.
Unique to the Oregon Historical Society’s version of the exhibit is a case of ephemera from The Beatles’ Portland performances, which includes the original performance contract and rider between NEMS and Northwest Releasing to bring The Beatles to Portland, as well as an original press pass.
Other exhibition highlights include:
-
Ringo Starr’s black-on-black striped suit worn in The Beatles’ debut film A Hard Day’s Night and Ringo’s Abbey Road crosswalk jacket
-
Paul McCartney’s original handwritten lyric sheet for the song, “What You’re Doing” (August 1964)
-
Handwritten set lists from The Beatles’ concerts, including the earliest known set list (Grosvenor Ballroom, June 1960) and the one used onstage at the group’s first ever American concert (Washington D.C., February 11, 1964)
-
Gold records of I Want To Hold Your Hand and Rubber Soul
-
Venue contracts from the band’s American tours
-
An eye-popping display of mass-produced merchandising items
-
Kid-friendly interactive elements including a virtual drumming lesson from Ringo and a playable home-made skiffle bass
Plan Your Visit:
Location: Oregon Historical Society, 1200 SW Park Avenue, Portland
Hours: Monday – Saturday 10am – 5pm; Sunday 12pm – 5pm
Admission: $10; discounts are available for students, seniors, teachers, and youth. Admission is free every day for OHS members and Multnomah County residents.
Exhibit Dates: May 10 – November 12, 2019
Oregon Historical Society Museum Exhibit
Mad for The Beatles
By Scott Hewitt, The Columbian Arts & Features Reporter
Published: May 31, 2019, 6:05 AM
PORTLAND — It seemed like the whole world was watching “The Ed Sullivan Show” on Feb. 9, 1964. Except Lori Benton. Her parents “forced me to go to church on Sunday nights,” she said.
So Benton missed a major milestone in the history of Western civilization: The Beatles’ first appearance before the astonished eyes and ears of America.
She eventually gained some musical freedom. Benton remembers spinning pop, folk and blues 45s on her brother’s little turntable: Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones and The Beatles.
“It sure opened up a whole world beyond church hymns,” Benton laughed. “I became an avid rock ‘n’ roll fan. It was fabulous.”
Benton recently relocated from Portland to Vancouver, but she was back downtown, at the Oregon Historical Society Museum, on a recent afternoon to visit a fun, impressively thorough traveling exhibit about the Fab Four’s early, touring years. The exhibit remains on display through Nov. 12 — featuring rare American tour memorabilia, TV and film clips, audio interviews with Beatles, their professional colleagues and their star-struck fans; there are even a couple of interactive opportunities to sit in for Ringo on drums and vocals.
Museum marketing manager Rachel Randles said music lovers of every age have been pouring through the door. The music and story of The Beatles just never seems to get old, she said.
“They are a powerful, multigenerational force,” Randles said. “We’ve been amazed to see a huge uptick in visitors since this exhibit opened.”
On a weekday afternoon, most exhibit visitors were sufficiently gray on top to cherish their own firsthand memories of Beatlemania, a disease that infected much of the world from 1964 to 1966.
“As they matured, so did I,” said Jill Hibbs, visiting from Oregon City, Ore.
"I'm going to have to go back and listen again," said Joan Smith of Portland, a married mom who couldn't afford to buy records in those days -- but who vividly remembers dancing with her children when The Beatles rocked her radio. "The Beatles are deep in my soul," she said.
Jackets and Contracts
Some of the artifacts in this exhibit are large as life and instantly recognizable. A stage set of the band’s guitars and drums is arranged in proper iconic fashion, with George and John’s electric six-strings pointed this way, left-handed Paul’s violin bass pointed that way, Ringo’s shiny, miniature Ludwig drum kit behind. See the tan jacket (complete with sheriff’s star) that Paul wore at the record-setting Shea Stadium concert as well as at the Portland show, and the black jacket sported by Ringo while ambling across Abbey Road for that famous album cover. (The exhibit provides an Abbey Road backdrop for you to amble across too, while your bandmates snap photos.)
Other artifacts are easy to miss, unless you squint. Hidden among the many autograph cards, newspaper stories, concert programs and gold records are a few song lists that were hand-scrawled by different Beatles and affixed to the edges of their guitars for quick reference. (Also here, in Paul’s hand on Atlantic City hotel stationery, is a draft of lyrics for a real non-hit, “What You’re Doing.” Remember that one? Didn’t think so.)
The exhibit even features a grab bag of artifacts from the Beatles’ own heroes and influences, including a guitar played by blues master B.B. King and, amazingly, the 1959 death certificate for Buddy Holly.
Look carefully for a couple of telling historical details. One concert-tour contract includes this rider: “The artists will not be required to perform in front of a segregated audience.” If you saw Ron Howard’s great Beatles-on-tour film, “Eight Days a Week,” you saw both Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney expressing outrage at the very idea of dividing fans by skin color.
The exhibit touches on a controversy that helped spur the Beatles to abandon live concerts and become a studio-only band: the reaction to John Lennon’s offhand remark, in March 1966, that the Beatles had grown “more popular than Jesus.” He meant this as a comment about religion versus mass media in people’s lives, but religious fundamentalists reacted with fury — and held Beatles record-burning parties. That summer, the Beatles permanently gave up touring.