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Moments to treasure

Previously unpublished photos of the Beatles on their first visit to the United States show the quirks and individuality of John, Paul, George and Ringo.

By SEAN DALY
Published October 6, 2005

[Times photos: Lara Cerri]

In this 1964 photo taken by Life photographer Bill Eppridge, enthusiastic Beatles fans are seen properly seated and conservatively dressed. Photos in the exhibit, “The Beatles! Backstage and Behind the Scenes“ at the Florida International Museum in St. Petersburg, illustrate the cultural divide Beatlemania caused.

	Copies of the Beatles’ instruments are featured in the exhibit. Other memorabilia is included, but the core is the collection of photographs, which focus on February 1964, when the Beatles first came to the United States.
	Complementing the Beatles photographs in the exhibit is a collection of memorabilia, including magazines, records and even a Beatles board game. There is also a ’60s-inspired living room where visitors can watch news clips, and a small theater showing a short film about the Beatles.

Ringo was a chain-smoker.

George had a unibrow.

Paul wore painfully snug swimsuits.

John was already a rebel.

There are myriad cozy revelations to be discovered at "The Beatles! Backstage and Behind the Scenes," an ab-Fab exhibition of recently unearthed photographs and memorabilia. The traveling show, organized by the Smithsonian, opens Friday at the new Florida International Museum, which this weekend celebrates a move from its previous haunt in the now-demolished old Maas Brothers store.

But step back from the display of 70-plus black-and-whites, which focus on February 1964, when the Beatles emerged from a Pan Am jet at New York's JFK Airport and turned America into a scrum of youth gone wild. The show's really Big Picture is a moving history lesson in Mop Tops gained, innocence lost and how the world changed with the first few notes of All My Loving.

That was the first number performed by the Liverpudlians on the Feb. 9, 1964, broadcast of The Ed Sullivan Show. There have been scores of books and movies chronicling the British Invasion. But chances are good that even the most fervent Fab Four freak has never spied many of the candids on display in downtown St. Petersburg.

This is an "event" exhibition, and for good reason. Culled from the unpublished collection of Life photographer Bill Eppridge, the CBS News archives and Pembroke Pines collector Bill Haack, "The Beatles!" was previously at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. This is only the show's second stop.

The Florida International Museum's new location, which it shares with St. Petersburg College's Downtown Center, is an intimate venue, with 8,000 square feet of display space. The old location was basically the size of a cruise ship, which made it ideal to host "Titanic: The Exhibition," which attracted more than 830,000 visitors in 1998.

"The Beatles!" benefits from the new digs. Curator Cynthia Duval was smart to streamline the narrative, as John, Paul, George and Ringo travel from New York to D.C. to Miami and are seen morphing from wide-eyed to downright ecstatic.

The Beatles' inaugural hop across the pond was nothing less than baptism by flashbulb, and the twentysomething stars appeared to revel in every minute of the maddening press swarm. There's a playful shot halfway through the exhibition that features the four musicians frolicking in the waters off Miami Beach, their hands thrust in the air, their beaming faces thrust into the sun. The shot, silly yet touching too, should prove a popular loitering point.

The exhibition's centerpiece is a display replicating the instruments the band played on the Sullivan show. Several cases hold memorabilia from the time, including Beatles pins, Beatles 45s and a Milton Bradley Beatles board game called Flip Your Wig. There's also a 1960s-vintage living room, where visitors can sit on an ugly flowered couch and watch news clips. A small theater will show a short film on the Beatles' U.S. visit.

The extra tchotchkes are fine and fun, but nothing can trump the crisp, clear black and white prints. Bill Eppridge was a sly photog, and many of his subtly framed shots unveil like narratives. Many of the CBS shots were taken from behind the television cameras, the flimsy sets and the related smoke and mirrors - a major moment on a small soundstage.

America had lost a president just a few months before the Beatles showed up, and to some extent, the band was able to provide relief to the nation. Well, at least the kids seemed to dig them. Many adults weren't so sure about these young foreigners, and Eppridge is especially good at capturing the band's polarizing effect.

The collection's most pop-culturally significant shot doesn't even feature the Beatles. In front of New York's Plaza Hotel, a handful of police officers stand on one side of a steel barricade, while on the other side, a mob of excitable young women strains and stretches for a glimpse of the band. The harrumphing look on one cop's rumpled face lets you know what he thinks of the racket. Next to him is a younger officer, looking bemused at all the pretty girls heating up the bitter winter morning.

No matter who your fave Beatle might be, you'll get a fresh peek into their younger selves. I'm a George man myself, and was surprised to see Mr. Harrison, always known as the Quiet One, horsing around much more than the others, especially on the train to D.C., where he not only dresses like a conductor but treats the luggage rack like monkey bars.

Almost always caught with a cig between his lips, Ringo seems a lot hipper than his goofball rep - a smart man about to be made into the comic relief.

Even at that young age, Paul McCartney looks remarkably savvy, working the phones, working the press, and processing the insanity with a cool businessman's stare.

And then there's John Lennon. In a series of shots taken during a rehearsal at the Deauville Hotel on Miami Beach, Paul, George and Ringo are dressed in white beachwear and hotel slippers. John, however, is all in black. Maybe that's all that was clean that day. Or maybe he already was distancing himself from his mates.

Ultimately, we know what happens to the fresh-faced versions of John, Paul, George and Ringo - the success, the tragedy, the legacy. And because of that, "The Beatles!" makes for an epic, moving exhibition, not to mention an auspicious start for a reimagined museum.

- Sean Daly can be reached at sdaly@sptimes.com or 727 893-8467.

"The Beatles! Backstage and Behind the Scenes" is at the newly relocated Florida International Museum, 244 Second Ave. N, St. Petersburg, Friday through Jan. 7. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission: $10 adults, $8 seniors and military, $7 students, free for children younger than 6. 727 341-7900 or www.floridamuseum.org

What do you think of the Beatles exhibition? Tell us at www.sptimes.com/blogs/popmusic

[Last modified October 5, 2005, 10:24:08]