Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Horsing Around


Yes, I have been browsing around on ebay again this afternoon.  I happened upon this photo of Ringo on a horse that has some information that was new to me.  I tend to think that I know just about everything about the Beatles 1966 North American tour, and yet here is something that I knew absolutely nothing about!

According to the information taken from the ebay auction,this is a photograph showing Beatles drummer Ringo Star with band road manager Eric Storey riding at Pebble Beach. 
The day after the Beatles played their final public show at Candlestick Park in 1966, Ringo Starr and a few friends went trail riding at the Pebble Beach Equestrian Center.

The photo comes from the Pebble Beach Heritage Collection.  I have no doubt that it shows Ringo on a horse in Pebble Beach.  And looking at his length of hair, 1966 does seem to be the correct timeframe.    

However after the comments of others, it has been determined that this photo was taken when George and Ringo were in California in 1968.  :)   

6 comments:

  1. Cool pic. However, with all due respect to the Pebble Beach Heritage Collection, I have my doubts about the date given. According to "The Complete Beatles Chronicle" by Mark Lewisohn, the band played their last show of the '66 tour in San Francisco on Monday, August 29th. Then at 11pm that same night, they flew down to Los Angeles where they arrived at 12:50am. They left the USA on Tuesday and arrived back in London on Wednesday the 31st. I have a hard time believing that Ringo would've wanted to, or had time to, go to Pebble Beach which is in Monterey County, approximately 350 miles from L.A. and over 100 miles from S.F.
    I think it is much more likely that this was taken in June, 1968. At that time, George, Ringo, Pattie, and Maureen went to Big Sur (which is also in Monterey County) for George to film his appearance in the Ravi Shankar film "Raga." (See Complete Beatles Chronicle entry for June 10th, '68.) I think that Ringo's look, especially the vest he's wearing, as well as his hair, is consistent with that period. And it just makes more sense.
    -Mark

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    1. Mark---yes that 1968 trip does make a lot more sense. I wasn't sure where in CA Pebble Beach was located in relationship to L.A. and San Francisco. I think Ringo's hair looks similar to the 1966 length, but it is difficult to really tell, but you are totally right about the clothing. That was actually the big thing that made me not 100% sure about the date. As I said I don't doubt that Ringo went horse back riding at Pebble Beach, but the date I was weary about. Thanks for the help.

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    2. Glad to help, Sara. I live in California. So I know the geography well enough that I immediately thought something sounded fishy about that 1966 date. And I remembered a picture of Ringo with George, Mal Evans and an unidentified man all riding on a golf cart. (Pebble Beach is all about golf.) Ringo looks exactly the same, same hair, same clothes, same sunglasses. Probably taken the same day. And George looks just like he does in the Raga film.
      -Mark

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  2. This was definitely taken at Pebble Beach in June 1968. A few years ago a member of the Something About Pattie Boyd group at Yahoo! shared three photos from this set, including this one. That's probably Pattie in the background. The other two photos show Ringo with Maureen and Pattie - one by a fence at the stable and another of all three on horseback. George was down in Big Sur that day filming with Ravi Shankar so he wasn't in these photos.

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  3. San Fran 2 hours north LA 6 hours south of Pebble Beach

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