U.S Memorabilia

Currently on display at the Beatles Story Pier Head is a special collection of rare 1960s American memorabilia including a Fab Four bubblegum wrapper, talcum powder, plasters and Beatles lunch box set.

US collector Jeff Thelen has been gathering his anthology of Fab Four merchandise for 46 years ever since the Beatles made their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in New York. It is the first time that such a comprehensive collection of Beatles American memorabilia has been on display in the UK.

Exhibits include a set of Beatles bobbing head dolls worth £1,400, a 1964 Beatles ‘Flip Your Wig' board game valued at £170, Beatles talcum powder from 1964, a rare Beatles record player worth £3,500, Beatles hair pomade, all three colours of sealed hairbrushes, a Fab Four ice cream glass and a pair of Beatles ‘Wing Dings' merchandising sneakers valued at £830.

Several of Jeff Thelen's items are high quality first editions in very good condition such as a Corgi Yellow Submarine, a still-sealed ‘Meet The Beatles' album, the original Yellow Submarine figures and the first 45 record released and aired in America in 1963, one year before the Beatles landed in New York! This record features The Beatles' name misprinted as ‘The Beattles'.

The exhibition also contains one of the most sought after Beatles albums, ‘Yesterday And Today' featuring the highly controversial ‘butcher' shot on the cover. The sight of the Fab Four dressed in butcher's aprons, adorned with raw meat and dismembered dolls proved too much for the US mainstream. The cover was swiftly banned and replaced with a more sedate looking shot of the band.