Beatles in the locker room

One of the contest entries that I especially enjoyed receiving came from a reader named Oak Kelsey (awesome name btw!). Oak sent me this beautiful photo of the boys backstage (in the locker) room in 1965. He really explains the photo well, so I am going to copy and paste what he wrote to me in the email he sent (I hope that is ok).

Attached is a photo of The Beatles in the Met Stadium locker rooms prior to their performance on August 21, 1965 in Bloomington, Minnesota. The photo was run by the Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper on August 20, 2005 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of The Beatles performance. The gentleman in the photo wearing a white shirt is Ray Crump, Met Stadium's clubhouse manager at the time. The photo was courtesy of Ray Crump's collection and the photo is credited to have been taken by Brian Epstein. Also, as you can see in the photo's caption, Ray sold the sheets The Beatles used in the locker room. Shady sheet shenanigans for sure.

I must apologize for the quality of the photo. I scanned the photo from the newspaper which is always less than ideal. I had actually intended to send this to you awhile ago but I've had issues with trying to get a quality digital image from the newspaper photo, but with the contest going on I thought I would just send the best image I've gotten so far. If it's too awful to be used, please let me know and I will keep trying to get a better version.

Oak also points out that there is a youtube video of the Beatles in Minnesota
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11B0oAAA6-o


And a book called One Night Stand in the Heartland by Bill Carlson was published in 2007 and is full to photographs from this concert and press conference.

The stadium was torn down in 1985 and the Mall of America currently stands where the Beatles performed in 1965! (I didn't realize that!)