I am traveling to Cleveland, and went to the RRHF today, spent about 4 hours. I gotta say I was completely blown away.
Amazing stuff, in no particular order:
1) John Lennon's leather jacket from Hamburg 1960 (yes, THAT one)
2) John's Sgt. Pepper jacket.
3) John's Passports from 1960 and 1962.
4) Actual pages from John's grade school "Daily Howl", with pics! They read a lot like "In His Own Write". They're funny.
5) Report cards from John - 13, 14, and 15 years old. Across the board his teachers say he's smart, but bit by bit you can see him slipping away from society (his teacher's comments).
6) John's guitar from 1964.
7) George's guiter from 1963.
A few 1963 collarless jackets.
Now some non-Beatles stuff
1) I went straight to Eddie Cochrane's and Gene Vincent's items. For EC, I could not believe it - they had his guitar, the one he is seen playing in all the old clips and in the movie "The Girl Can't Help It". Sadly, it was in the vehicle with him when he died. THey also had the guitar of Gene Vincent's lead guitarist there, with photos of the Blue Caps and him playing it. Thought of you here, pc31.
2) Sam Philip's original studio equipment, and the piano that Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins recorded on.
3) A big display about Alan Freed. I really didn't know how important he was to RxR, or that Cleveland Ohio had such a legitimate claim to RxR history.
4) A great display about Les Paul. Amazingly, they had his first two guitars and harmonica ... like the ones he had when he was 10!
5) 3 or 4 movie theaters, including acceptance speeches by Paul and George.
And a zillion other things. If anyone has occasion to spend a few hours in Cleveland, I'd recommend this as the place to be!