One of the most expensive Beatles auctions ever will include the sale of items this month, including a collection of documents from John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s 1969 peace demonstration.
Memorabilia having a maximum estimated value of $8 million (£6.3 million) will be put up for auction online. There are clothes, speakers, signed contracts, a piece of the TV set wall that served as the backdrop for the Beatles’ historic performance on the Ed Sullivan Show, and an odd birthday card from George Harrison to his caregiver addressed to “Adolf Schinkengruber.”
GottaHaveRockandRoll auctions in New York will host the auction.
The bed-in material offers the fascinating tale of an enterprising teenage admirer who blagged her way into the bedroom and secured an interview in addition to offering insights into Lennon and Ono’s mental state.
Gibraltar was the location of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s marriage in March 1969; he cited Gibraltar’s “quiet, British, and friendly” qualities as the reason for his decision. After spending a few days in Paris, they boarded Lennon’s white Rolls Royce and traveled to Amsterdam to start their bed-in, a week-long peace demonstration held against the backdrop of the Vietnam War. Journalists were welcomed in to interview the pajama-clad pair, turning it into a major media event.
Constance Vrijdaghs, a 16-year-old Beatles devotee, was reading all of this in her upstairs bedroom. She made the decision that all she needed to do was get from the village of Aerdenhout to the Amsterdam Hilton. When she arrived, she began conversing with children who were gazing up at the rooms that had “Hair Peace” and “Bed Peace” banners posted inside of them.
If someone had tried to enter the room, Constance questioned. Everyone’s rejection gave her the confidence to enter the hotel, calmly inform the doorman that she was there for coffee, and then sprint to the elevator to press the button for the ninth level.
A porter stopped the doors from closing in time to catch her. She revealed: “I am from the Dutch Beatles Fan Club and I would like to congratulate John and Yoko on their marriage and I am here to interview them.” as she produced her membership card for the Beatles Club Fan Club.
The girl was taken out of the elevator and instructed to wait while a call was made upstairs because the porter had doubts. Two Dutch Beatles record company employees from Bovema arrived twenty minutes later and led her to room 902, the presidential suite, on the ninth floor.
Constance congratulated the newlyweds on their union while chatting with them from the edge of the bed till it was signaled that time was up. Constance asked whether they would respond to inquiries she would send up from the hotel lobby before leaving. Naturally, they responded.
119 lots
The archive of the materials used in the peace protests will be sold on September 22 and is expected to fetch between $200,000 and $300,000. Total, there are 119 lots. They also contain a card that will support the notion that George Harrison harbored an unhealthy fascination with Hitler.
Harrison was successful in his lawsuit against a US tabloid for publishing excerpts from a biography claiming he was enamored by Hitler. “Beatle George is a big Nazi fan,” read the headline.
Harrison wrote the card to the person in charge of looking after his Hawaii estate and is selling it. Happy birthday, dear friend! It is written in German and signed, “from Adolf Schinkengruber – George, Olivia, and Dhani” (Hitler’s father’s birth name was Schicklgruber). Hitler is depicted in a drawing in it.
According to the auction house, it might imply “a certain degree of intrigue” that sparked the reports that were subject to legal dispute. Perhaps it was just an allusion to the housekeeper’s tight rules at Harrison’s Hawaiian manor, it reads.
The purchaser will have to reach their own judgment. They expect to pay between $20,000 and $30,000 for the card.