Beatles' photographer opening archive
Previously unseen photos of the Beatles' 1964 visit to Cincinnati will be released for sale in October.
Cincinnati photographer Walt Burton, now 80, shot about 200 pictures of the Beatles – from their arrival at Lunken Airport to performing at Cincinnati Gardens on Aug. 27, 1964 – for use in the souvenir "Beatles in Cincinnati" 24-page magazine-style booklet sold by WSAI-AM after the concert.
"When I first saw them, I was blown away. They show the entirety of what happened that day. The intimacy is amazing," said Christopher Hoeting, 34, a local art professor and artist who is the Burton estate Beatles project archivist and art director.
Three 50th anniversary print series will be available starting Oct. 18, during the monthlong regional FotoFocus photography festival.
Burton, as the official event photographer, had special access to take pictures of John, Paul, George and Ringo emerging from their plane and waving to the Lunken crowd; entering the Gardens; speaking to reporters during their press conference (including Ringo lighting a cigarette); and performing on stage.
His 35 mm images include teenage fans rushing their limo at Lunken, and a photo of Dusty Rhodes and fellow WSAI DJs waving to Burton's camera while standing behind the Beatles during their Gardens' press conference.
"I've never seen this," said Rhodes, one of the WSAI DJs who brought the Beatles here 50 years ago.
Hoeting, who teaches at Xavier University and the University of Dayton, said Burton provides a rare look at the band early in their first North American tour.
Cincinnati was the Beatles' seventh stop in a 25-city tour from Aug. 19 through Sept. 20. The Fab Four played San Francisco, Las Vegas, Seattle, Vancouver, the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles and Denver before coming here Aug. 27.
They left immediately after the Gardens concert and flew to New York for two shows at Forest Hills, in the Queens borough of New York City on Aug. 28-29. The tour ended in New York's Paramount Theatre Sept. 20.
"I'm not sure how many other photo collections in the U.S. are out there like these," Hoeting said. "This shows them in their mop-top phase. It shows their humor, the way they came off the plane (at Lunken)."
Burton, who lives in Clifton's Scarlet Oaks Retirement Community, helped select the 50th anniversary photos, Hoeting said.
A Withrow High School graduate, Burton shot publicity photos for Playhouse in the Park and the old Playboy Club Downtown, and his work was published in Newsweek, Vogue, Playboy and Look magazines.
By the 1980s, he operated a Fourth Street gallery dealing in rare and antique photographs, including Ansel Adams prints. His historic Wright Brothers photos were published in a 2002 book with former Enquirer art critic Owen Findsen called "The Wright Brothers' Legacy: Orville and Wilber Wright and Their Aeroplanes."
"He was pivotal in creating a market for fine photography in Cincinnati," Findsen said.
Burton's rare Beatles prints will be available three ways:
• Up to 50 photos will be displayed Oct. 18 at Bromwell's, 117 W. Fourth St., Downtown, during FotoFocus, Hoeting said. The framed 8½ by 11-inch prints, made using the fine-art silver gelatin process, will be sold for $500 each, Hoeting said.
• Ten 16- by 20-inch silver gelatin prints, signed by Burton and numbered, will be sold by his estate by emails to BeatlesinCincinnati@gmail.com. Each print will cost $375 (unframed) to $525 (framed), he said. Only 25 sets of the 10 prints will be produced, he said.
• Ten different images, in 8- by 10-inch silver gelatin prints signed by Burton and numbered, also will be sold by his estate through the BeatlesinCincinnati email address. Each print will cost $150 (unframed) to $300 (framed), he said. Only 25 sets will be printed, he said.
"We're not printing 100 million of these so everyone can have them. We want these to be like little gems," he said.
According to Hoeting's research, Burton's Beatles negatives are worth more than $10,000.
"They are currently not for sale," he said. ■
Join our Beatles anniversary celebration Sept. 3:
WSAI-AM DJ Dusty Rhodes, 1964 Beatles concert photo curator Christopher Hoeting and Beatles fans who attended the historic Cincinnati Gardens concert 50 years ago will share their memories during a special Enquirer discussion 6:30 p.m. Sept. 3 at the Main Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, 800 Vine St., Downtown.
Enquirer TV/media writer John Kiesewetter will host the event. Kiesewetter has invited more than 30 people to the library who saw the Beatles here Aug. 27, 1964, along with local Beatles historians and collectors. Some of their Beatles memorabilia will be displayed that night.
Rhodes was one of five WSAI-AM DJs who brought the Beatles here for $25,000.
Hoeting is preparing to release some of the 200 photographs by Walter Burton documenting the Beatles visit 50 years ago.