At Seattle Tacoma Airport in Washington, The Beatles boarded their chartered American Flyer Airlines Lockheed Electra plane bound for Vancouver, BC to give their first-ever Canadian concert, at the Empire Stadium, on Augst 22, 1964 which would be the fourth show on this first US / Canadian tour.
The Beatles only toured the U.S. and North America three times before retiring from performing concerts and touring forever; once each in the summers of 1964, 1965 and 1966. Bob Bonis held the position of U.S. Tour Manager for all three of these tours, and during this time was rarely without his Leica M3 camera. He recorded nearly 800 historic, intimate and extraordinary photographs of The Beatles, their opening acts and entourage during these tours including photographs of them backstage and/or on stage at Municipal Stadium in Kansas City, MO in 1964; at the Sam Houston Coliseum in Houston, TX, Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, MN, and Memorial Coliseum in Portland, OR in 1965; at Olympia Stadium in Detroit, MI, JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, TN, and Crosley Field in Cincinnati, OH. He photographed them at Seattle-Tacoma Airport in 1964, at Midway Airport in Chicago in 1965, on their chartered plane heading to San Francisco with Joan Baez in 1965 and traveling from Minnesota to St. Louis to perform their second show on one day in two different cities in 1966.
He documented their press conference at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Canada in 1964 as well as their brief vacation in Bel Air, California while there to perform at the Hollywood Bowl in 1964. During his lifetime Bob only allowed a very small number of his images to be published in a teen magazine in 1967, and otherwise refused all approaches to exhibit and publish his historic photographs.
The Bob Bonis Archive will be releasing photos from this unique and remarkable archive of never-before-seen photographs as limited edition fine-art prints in small numbers. Each archival print is hand-numbered and embossed with the official Bob Bonis signature logo as authorized by the Bob Bonis Estate, and is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity from the GRAMMY Museum®. Enjoy these extraordinary and historically rare photographs of The Beatles as you’ve never seen them before.
The Beatles at Seattle Tacoma Airport in Washington, 1964
ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHS: This photograph was taken by Bob Bonis, who was the U.S. Tour Manager for both The Beatles and the Rolling Stones from 1964 through 1966.
This is a Limited Edition fine art photograph, derived from the original negative or slide, and is printed on professional grade Fujicolor Crystal Archive paper by the master printers at Duggal Visual Solutions in New York.
