Rare Beatles photos from ’65 Portland show go on sale

Published 12:00 am Friday, January 30, 2015

Two rare photographs from The Beatles’ August 1965 appearance at Memorial Coliseum go on sale Monday on eBay as part of a collection of rock ‘n’ roll photos taken nearly 50 years ago.

Photos of John Lennon backstage at the coliseum posing as “Lennon of Arabia,” and another of Lennon on stage playing an organ with his elbow, will be offered through the online marketplace as part of the Bob Bonis Archive of photos.

Bonis, tour manager for The Beatles and The Rolling Stones from 1964 to 1966, took dozens of photographs of both bands during their American performances. The photos can be found starting Monday, Feb. 2, at http://stores.ebay.com/Bob-Bonis-Archive.

Hamming it up

During The Beatles’ second U.S. tour, the band performed Aug. 22, 1965, in back-to-back shows at Portland’s Memorial Coliseum. Backstage between shows, Bonis caught Lennon with a towel over his head waving the British flag. Another Bonis photo shows Lennon on stage hamming it up on a Vox Continental organ during the song, “I’m Down.” Lennon used his elbow to sweep across the keys, ala Jerry Lee Lewis.

The Memorial Coliseum performances included “She’s A Woman,” “I Feel Fine,” “Dizzy Miss Lizzy,” “Ticket to Ride,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “Act Naturally,” “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Help!”

According to Bonis, Mike Love and Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys showed up for one of the Memorial Coliseum shows.

Certificate of authenticity

Kurt Benjamin, chief executive officer of Ho’okipa Capital Partners Inc. in Los Angeles, is selling 30 limited edition photos from the collection with a portion of the proceeds going to the Grammy Foundation and Grammy Museum. Benjamin also is connected to Rare Rock Photos LLC and Rare Photo Archives LLC.

Benjamin plans to release more photos from the collection during the next two years.

Prints in the first batch to be sold begin at $175 for an 11-by-14 photograph (edition of 250); $385 for a 16-by-20 (edition of 75); and $625 for a 20-by-24 photograph (edition of 50). Each photograph is gallery-embossed, hand-numbered and printed on Fujicolor Crystal Archival paper. eBay officials say that once an archival print sells out, it will not be reprinted.

All photographs are accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from the Grammy Museum.