Beatles vendors come together
Is it a big selection? Yeah, yeah, yeah
by Tamara Ikenberg
The Courier-Journal

Money can't buy you love, but it can buy boatloads of Beatles memorabilia.

As Abbey Road on the River, the biggest Beatles festival in North America, kicked off yesterday outside the Kentucky Center, fans already were swarming the merchandise tables.

Vendor Steve Freedman said a riot almost broke out when he ran out of $60 baseball jerseys with "Fab Four" written on the back. "People were actually fighting over them," said Freedman, who came to Louisville from New Jersey. One of his most expensive items, a $300 gold record of "Abbey Road," sold just minutes after the festival opened.

David Holland, director of public relations for the Kentucky Center, confirmed that the festival, which has been held in Cleveland for the past three years, will return to Louisville in 2006. He said 9,000 tickets had been sold before the celebration officially began yesterday. The festival continues through tomorrow.

Even though the Beatles disbanded nearly four decades ago, many people still want a piece of them. It's difficult to gauge how much money Beatles memorabilia generates each year, but experts agree it's in the multimillion-dollar range. In December, auction house It's Only Rock and Roll sold a poster from a 1966 Beatles concert at Shea Stadium for $132,000.

There was nothing quite that dear on sale yesterday. The priciest items were gold records ranging from the low $100s to about $500; poster-sized photographs and drawings from $300 to $1,000; and a brass container in the shape of the Apple from the Apple Records insignia that the seller hoped to hawk for $2,000. For $125, you could rest your head on a tan, black and red Beatles pillow.

The Beatrips, a cover band from Japan, provided the shopping soundtrack yesterday as fans fished through piles of $1 to $5 buttons, bobble-heads ($70 for the complete set), Beatles busts ($100 a set), vintage magazines topping out at about $50 and more.

Beatles fans born long after the band broke up were in the shopping spirit.

C. J. Tatar, 8, smiled as her mom, Colista, bought her a Blue Meanie magnet. Colista Tatar, 40, who came from Parma, Ohio, said it was her influence that turned her daughters -- C. J.; Kate, 15; and Elizabeth, 11, who prefers to be called "Dizzy Miss Lizzie" -- into Beatle lovers.

The Tatars said that whatever Beatles memorabilia they found would fit in well with the collection they have at home.

"We've got coffee cups, pens, lighters, John Lennon jewelry," Colista Tatar said.

The Tatars' friend, Beth Cornelius, 21, was a bit put off by some of the prices though.

"I'm contemplating a hoodie, but I don't know -- they're $50," she said.

Some visitors walked away with their own mini-set of the Fab Four.

Deb France, 47, from Fort Wayne, Ind., put down $70 for four cartoony figurines. "My husband is a Beatles nut, and my son and I wanted to get something for him," she said.

Many of the vendors are seasoned veterans, having worked at the Cleveland festival and others around the world. But this was the first experience selling at a Beatles enclave for New Yorkers Bob Belive and his partner, Rocky DeLorenzo.

They recently got the OK from Apple Corps. Limited, the company that licenses Beatles products, to sell their own Beatles mugs.

The process of applying for permission was "almost like writing a book proposal," said Belive, who had to provide a detailed marketing plan and samples before being approved. The mugs feature album covers, along with a corresponding track listing. One is $16; a set of two, $30.

For those who want to dress the part of the legendary band, Louisvillian Jon Pritchard is selling Beatles boots and "Chesterfield" and "Shea Stadium"-style coats from the British line Beatwear.

Greg Steinlein, 55, from Struthers, Ohio, attending the festival with his wife, Jean, 52, said the coats caught his eye. But he wasn't sold on the boots.

"I don't know how they wore those with those pointed toes like that."

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