PH14 The Only Known Beatles Photograph Signed By All Four After The Break Up Of The Band
Description
This one-of-a-kind Beatles signed rarity is a 10″ x 8″ black and white photograph features a shot of the Beatles with microphones in front of them and reporter surrounding them at a press conference just prior to their performance at Cincinnati in Ohio on August 27, 1964. Directly behind the Beatles are four DJs From the radio station WSAI-AM and to the far left is pictured Beatles publicist Derek Taylor. Complete Beatles autograph sets from the solo era are as rare as rare can be. There were not many in-person graph obtainors in the 1970s who would have had the ability to get all four on separate occasions and separate locations – but there was one. His name was Howard Siegel. Howard was a huge Beatles fan and photographer from Cincinnati, was without question one of the pioneers of in person autograph obtaining, who while an untrained photographer, got many good candid shots of bands and artists such as the Beatles, Elvis Presley, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, the Who, Bruce Springsteen, and others. Of these, he pursued getting The Beatles to sign for him on several occasions.
Howard got this photograph directly from the Cincinnati Enquirer in 1976 – prompted by Paul’s then current tour with Wings and the fact that he was going to be out on the road and potentially accessible to sign the photograph. And he did – on May 24th, outside of the Stanhope Hotel in New York City. Below is a photo of Paul and Linda taken at the time of signing. George signed the photo at the Ambassador Hotel in Chicago on November 15, 1976, when he was in town to promote his album “33 1/3”. Howard got John to sign on December 20, 1976 outside of The Dakota building in New York City. Below is a shot of Howard with John taken on this occasion. Ringo was the last to sign this photo, on March 24, 1981, at the Phil Donahue Show in Chicago, thus completed this extremely rare full set of post- break up autographs.
There are very few Beatles full signature sets on one item signed post break up (less than 5 known) that are not on a signed document – with Ringo signing as “R. Starkey”, his legal name as required on documents.
The overall condition of the photo is good – there is a crease on the lower right hand side. Oddly enough, the areas in which Paul and George have signed have a light grey cloudy area that provided for an area to sign boldly. This is exactly the way the photo was given to Howard. He wanted something related to Cincinnati and that’s why he went to the Enquirer newspaper, He also got a photo of John Lennon onstage with The Beatles at Crosley Field in 1966 that he had John sign (also on December 20, 1976), Howard got John to sign for him on three separate occasions, all at the Dakota building in New York City, for a total of eight autographs. Obviously this was key to being able to get a full set of all four on any one item after the breakup of The Beatles, and Howard was only able to do this twice – with this signed photograph, and the other was a 45 RPM record sleeve on which George Harrison signed quite hurriedly in first name only.
These is only one known signed photograph of The Beatles on which all four autographs were obtained post break up, and this is it.