THE LOVEABLE MOPTOPS WITH FOUR OF THEIR EARLIEST SONGS
An original double-sided cardboard promotional display for the Beatles' VeeJay Records EP of early songs from spring 1964 at the absolute peak of Beatlemania in America. As vinyl collectors know, VJEP-1-903 was issued on March 23, 1964 containing "Misery," "A Taste of Honey," "Ask Me Why" and "Anna," as the label scrambled to cash in before Capitol Records took over all rights to the Beatles' catalog in October. This large 30" x 20" thick cardboard display plugged that EP along with a tie-in to Laura Scudder's potato chips.
This display uses the same basic artwork the EP cover had, with a couple of key exceptions. The EP sleeve says at the top, "Souvenir of Their Visit to America." This display adds the word "Record" to that line, having to explain what they were advertising. That tag line is blue on the EP and white on this display. The VJ Records logo is blue on the EP and orange here; and the display doesn't show the EP's catalog number. Hang on, just two more: "Misery" is orange on the record and delightful pink here; and "Ask Me Why" is blue on the picture sleeve and peach or flesh-toned here.
Although the term is thrown around loosely, this promo piece totally earns the moniker "rare" because we've yet to find a Beatle collector who's ever seen another one. About a decade ago, one of these surfaced in California but without the circular-record Laura Scudder's potato-chip portion. Now this specimen surfaces, 60 years after VJ produced it. It has shocked and delighted everyone at Heritage who's seen it; it's refreshing to know that every last Beatles promotional piece from their early years hasn't necessarily been discovered yet. There may always be one more gem to surface.
It's a very captivating piece with its deep flesh tones on the four boys' faces, plus the use of pink, black, orange and white to flush out the design. It was made of the old-fashioned corrugated kind of cardboard where there's all these little open spaces along the top & bottom edges. And yes, the exact same graphics appear on both sides of the display. In fact, you can easily detect signs of the corrugation in the Beatles' faces on one side of the display.
entertainment....
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