Never Before Seen

Exclusive: The First Color Beatles Footage Revealed

An auction house specializing in rare celebrity paraphernalia has gotten it’s hands on a few items that will have the die-hard Beatles fan salivating and breaking open their piggy banks. Coming under the gavel from Nate D Sanders is the very first known color footage of the band performing, and a series of photographs of John Lennon and Yoko Ono from just days before his assassination.

This video clip, shot on August 25, 1963, was shot by fellow musician Chas McDevitt on 8mm film while the Beatles performed at the ABC Theatre in Blackpool, England. Much of the film shows the band backstage, giving a rare, intimate look behind the scenes. This show took place just after the Fab Four had topped the charts for the first time.

The photos are from Lennon’s final interview, with the BBC, and are shot at iconic New York recording studio the Hit Factory. Shot by BBC producer and photographer Paul Williams, they were taken on December 6, 1980, two days before Mark David Chapman shot Lennon to death in Central Park. While there are 33 total images on the negative strips, only nine of them are of Lennon, and another one of just his wife, Yoko Ono.

Bidding for the video and photos are set to start at $14,000 each.

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James Joiner

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