Thanks to Exclamation Mike! for sending me the video that gave me the idea to research this story.
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| John Lennon's uncle Charlie with Tony Sak and the Beatles guitar |
Some of you might remember Tony Saks. Maybe you were one of his students that took guitar lessons from him in the 1960’s or 1970’s in Virginia Beach, Virginia at “Tony Sak’s Guitarland.” Or maybe you met this zany character at a Beatles convention in the 1970’s or early 1980’s. You might have paid Tony a few bucks and got a Polaroid taken holding his “Beatles guitar.” Many people remember Tony Saks as being a friendly, eccentric man who loved the Beatles and would talk about them to anyone who was willing to listen.
On February 9, 1964, back at the Plaza Hotel after the Beatles first performance on the Ed Sullivan Show, a California Rickenbacker guitar dealer named F.C. Hall brought out some guitars to show the Beatles (in hopes of them purchasing them). His friend, Tony Saks went along with him to help demonstrate the new line of guitars. At the time, Tony was in his 50’s, but he automatically liked the four guys from Liverpool and became a Beatles fan. One of the guitars the Beatles had tried was a 1964 Fireglo Rickenbacker model 365. The decided against getting the guitar, but a wise Tony Sak asked Mr. Hall if he could purchase it since the Beatles did not want it.
Tony had a plan for this guitar that had been played by the Beatles (Tony said that all four Beatles played this guitar, but really I do not see why Ringo would have played it). Tony was going to get all four of the Beatles to autograph the guitar.
Tony is a persuasive man and he got in touch with Derek Taylor and made a deal to get the autograph on September 13, 1964 at the Holiday Inn in Baltimore, Maryland. Tony had a great idea as to how he was going to seal the Beatles famous signatures onto the guitar. He came armed with gold tape that is typically used for adding a name on a Bible cover. Derek Taylor tells what happened next in his impossible to own book, Fifty Years Adrift
'He brought with him his wife, a guitar, some gold leaf and a request/instruction for me to get the guitar signed by all four Beatles. They were to write with a hard pen through the strips of gold leaf, so that he would have a guitar signed in gold. Desperate to do right by Tony Saks, a man of incredible energy and persuasiveness, I somehow managed to wake each of them... and after handing each of them an Orange Juice, handed them a pen and gently urged them to sign, through the strip of gold leaf, their famous golden names. I had many difficult duties, some of them more bizarre than others; this however was one of the easiest because it was so outrageous. In the depths of early awakening, they dutifully gripped the ballpoint pen and Tony Saks got his 'gold guitar'.
Guitar students from as early as 1965 vividly recall seeing the signed guitar each week during their lessons. Tony soon started to consider himself to be the “World’s Oldest Beatles fan.” He would take his signed Beatles guitar, Beatles Remco dolls and photos of his wife with the Beatles with him to record shows and Beatle conventions and talk to fellow fans. He would let fans hold the guitar and pose for a photo (for a small fee of course) and he gave out postcards of the guitar. Tony was proud to be a Beatles fan and he was proud of that guitar.
In 1984, when Sotherby’s of New York had their first huge Beatles auction, and auctioned of many of John Lennon’s belongings, including his psychedelic Rolls Royce, Tony was there to see the action and be with the fans. As seen in a video from the 1982 Beatlefest in Los Angeles, Tony had a passion for the Beatles and would get emotional when talking about John.
Tony Sak passed away in 1987, leaving the famed Beatles guitar in his will to his daughter. She hung onto the guitar for 10 years and then through Bonham’s auction house in 1997, auctioned it off for an unknown amount. No one is quite sure where the guitar is today, but many speculate that it was bought by a collector in Japan and is either in a museum in Japan or in a private collection.
There has been some speculation that the autograph on the guitar is not genuinely signed by the Beatles, but was signed by Neil Aspinall. Tony was not present when the autographs were signed, as he gave the guitar over to Derek Taylor, who went to the Beatle rooms and had them sign it. It is possible that none of the Beatles themselves signed that guitar and it is Neil’s work on the guitar instead. I am sure it is much more difficult to authenticate a golden signed guitar than it is a piece of paper, and since the exact whereabouts of the guitar are currently unknown, we will not know the truth. I am certain that Tony believed that the guitar was signed by the four Beatles and that he had the one and only guitar signed by the four Beatles. (There was a guitar signed by three of the Beatles, and one signed by the Beatles and other British groups, but as far as history knows Tony’s guitar was the only one in existence that had the signatures of just the four Beatles).
For the sake of Tony’s memory I really hope Neil didn’t sign it and it is a true signed guitar by John, Paul, George and Ringo.