SI28. A “PYX Book”With A Color Version Of An Iconic Pose On The Front Cover, Signed By The Beatles.

Description

Very shortly after the July 1963 Dezo Hoffmann photo session in London that produced 2 of the most recognizable shots of The Beatles ever taken, a publishing company called Highlight Publications set out to capitalize on The Beatles’rapidly growing popularity. The publishing company put together a magazine for the fans, licensed through PYX Productions, which was filled with many new and unseen photos of The Beatles. All of the photographs were taken by Dezo, some candid, some posed, and also included in the ‘fanzine’ were bios of each band member. With text that was often humorous in tone throughout the 24 page book, the color ‘centerfold’ with facsimile autographs of all of The Beatles served as a small poster to be taped to the wall of a fan’s bedroom. The book, which measures 7 ½” x 9 ½”, was a quality product for the 2’6 price tag (two shillings and sixpence –or one-eighth of a pound). It sold well and was a hit, thus making Highlight a nice profit. Although mostly sold on newsstands throughout Great Britain, these ‘PYX books’ were often available for purchase by vendors at concert venues.

Here is one of those PYX books that has been autographed on the front cover by all four members of The Beatles. The cover features the iconic Hoffman ‘standing collarless suits pose’ – from the aforementioned London photo shoot – which also appears on the back cover of the U.S. Capitol Records “Meet The Beatles” album, as well as in numerous, multi-sized publicity photos that were available for fans to purchase.

Although shot by Hoffmann in black and white, this image used on the front of the PYX book has been colorized – hand tinted by artists and impressively done, it looks as good as would have been possible in 1963. This color version of the classic image is magnificent and certainly much closer in reality to what The Beatles looked like at the time Hoffmann’s camera shutter clicked, locking onto his film roll one of the most seen photographs in history. Above the image of the band (although at the time it was not needed for most to identify them) “THE BEATLES” is written in big block letters.

All four have autographed on or above their respective image, with John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr signing in blue ballpoint pen, while Paul McCartney has used a dark blue fountain pen to sign. In another hand the name of the original owner “A. Richards” is written in small letters. Over the years, approximately 6 or 7 PYX books authentically signed by The Beatles on the front cover have surfaced, certainly qualifying them as very rare. Although the backstory of this piece has been lost to time, the time frame of the signatures and the inks used to sign are consistent with two other PYX books that were autographs by The Beatles in August of 1963, when they played at The Springfield Ballroom in Jersey, Channel Islands, England. This is a great image to have signed by The Beatles, especially in color.