Rare Beatles film fetches £4,100 ($6600 U.S.)
Wednesday, 5 November 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/berkshire/7710600.stm
The Beatles were filmed playing in Kansas City
See a report and some of the footage here:
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/ynews?ch=4226714&cl=10532696&lang=enA rare 8mm film reel of a gig by The Beatles in the US has sold at auction for £4,100 ($6600 U.S.).
The two-minute long footage, taken in Kansas City during the Fab Four's first tour of the US in 1964, went under the hammer in Reading, Berkshire.
It was found in a drawer by fan Drew Dimmel who, as a boy, smuggled the movie camera into the concert hall.
The silent footage shows John, Paul, George and Ringo playing at the Municipal Stadium in Kansas City.
Mr Dimmel was one of 20,000 fans who attended the concert, which had been hastily arranged after manager Brian Epstein accepted an increased offer of $150,000 - around $1m (£627,000) in today's money.
Mr Dimmel explained that for the concert his father agreed to lend the boy and his brother a brand new colour movie camera.
The plan was to stand at the front of the stage and record the show.
But after being told to go back to his seat, Mr Dimmel passed the camera to a journalist who offered to film from the press pit.
After getting the film developed, the young fan placed it at the bottom of a desk drawer, where it remained for almost half a century.
Mr Dimmel said: "We cleared out my parent's estate two months ago and there we discovered it at the bottom of the drawer, still lying in its original photo-lab box with 'Beatles 1964' on the back of the box where I'd feverishly scrawled it in blue ballpoint pen.
"It is the one and only motion picture in existence of the one and only concert the Beatles would ever perform in Kansas City."
Description from the auction website:
"The Beatles: Rare footage from a 8mm colour film reel from September 17th 1964, un - scheduled gig on the Beatles first tour of the USA. approx 2 min long pictures only. When confirmation was announced on my local
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