SI47 A Beatles Autograph Set Obtained At Heathrow Airport Just Before They Left For America On February 7, 1964

Description

February 7, 1964. The day that everything changed. The day everything went went from black & white to Technicolor. Not only for The Beatles, but for Music and Pop Culture as well, which started to change radically from that point forth.

As The Beatles sat in the VIP Lounge at Heathrow waiting to board the plane for their first U.S. visit, they knew that they had some good momentum to lean into after they landed on the other side the pond. I Want To Hold Your Hand was the #1 single in The States, and their newly released Meet The Beatles was #3 on the U.S. album charts.

But in reality—they had no idea of the magnitude of what was about to happen.

During a filmed interview in New York four days later, John Lennon would say to an American reporter about the overwhelming public response, “We thought we’d have to grow everybody, and everybody seems to know us all as if we’ve been here for years. It’s great!” As we all know, an amazing series of events happened in rapid succession, right before our eyes—starting two days later with The Beatles historic Ed Sullivan Show performance.

This autograph set was signed just moments before they boarded Pan Am Flight 101 to New York on February 7, 1964. It was obtained in the VIP Lounge at London’s Heathrow Airport by a waiter who was tending to The Beatles in the lounge. He got the autographs for his daughter Pamela and amazingly, there is actually a photograph that was taken at the time of signing!

The page, which measures 4 1/2″ x 7″, was autographed beautifully by all four Beates in blue ballpoint, with George Harrison adding “XXX” after signing. “To Pamela” was added at the top by her father. There is a non-detracting horizontal fold on the page, which is in excellent overall condition. With this historic autograph set comes two separate signed statements of Provenance from the daughter of Pamela, including one that identifies her grandfather in the photo taken while obtaining autographs of The Beatles at Heathrow that day.

Very few collectors can boast of owning a “first visit” set, with the window for such a rare treasure being between February 7th and 21st, 1964.

Far fewer can say that they own a set signed in the UK on February 7, 1964—at the very beginning of that mythical two week period.

And NO ONE ELSE can show a photograph taken at the precise moment of signing.