The Beatles

Exceptional promotional photograph of the Beatles, signed in blue and red ballpoint inks by John Lennon, Paul McCartney ('Best wishes'), George Harrison and Ringo Starr, additionally inscribed by Ringo ("Geoff, Best wishes from the Beatles") and George ("To Geoff, Best wishes"), minor handling wear to margins and light creasing, light tape residue to the top right corner slightly touching Harrison's inscription, minor tape residue and yellowing to the reverse, 10 x 8".

PROVENANCE: Signatures were obtained by the vendor's brother Alec, who in 1964 was asked to work as 2nd Assistant Director on "A Hard Day's Night", a musical comedy directed by Richard Lester and featuring The Beatles. In the vendor's own words "Shooting started in early March ’64 at Twickenham Studios. Originally, as no name had been given to the film, all scripts were simply titled, ‘The Beatles’. It wasn’t until Ringo came in one day and said, “It’s been a hard day’s night” that Dick Lester decided that ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ should be the title for the film. One of the many jobs of a 2^nd’ Assistant Director is to make sure the stars of a movie are happy and to make sure they are on the set when required. Consequently, my brother got to know John, Paul George and Ringo better than some of the other technicians. When not working on films, he was a professional drummer and used to try to teach some jazz drum rudiments to Ringo in the canteen during lunch breaks at Twickenham Studios, but Ringo had his own style and jazz wasn’t his thing! It was subsequently Ringo who signed his signature on the photograph first, with my brother’s red pen. He also signed: ‘To Geoff Best wishes from the Beatles’. Paul McCartney, being the main spokesman for the band, liaised with Alec a lot and would phone our home phone number in the evenings (much to my Mum’s annoyance) if there was any problems. I got to speak to him a couple of times. Paul then signed the photo, and then George. John, being much more aloof than the others, was the last one to sign the photo, when they were well into the seven-week shoot, which was finished towards the end of April ’64. My brother also helped make a ‘short’ which was used to promote the main feature movie called ‘Follow The Beatles’. It was a manic, frenetic time and the unit needed as much stamina as the Beatles to get all of Dick Lester’s ideas to work. So, by the end of the shoot, this eleven year old kid was presented with a full set of The Beatles autographs, much to the envy of our neighbours and my equally Beatles-obsessed school mates".

***Signatures have been pre-verified by Roger Epperson. Please note that placing a bid on this lot means you accept the opinion of this authentication service. If you wish to have an opinion from a different authenticator, you must do so before you place your bid.