07 December 2008

Which Beatles album cover did Stuart Sutcliffe appear on?

Now there's a pub quiz question if I ever saw one. Stuart Sutcliffe was an early member of The Beatles who left before they hit the big time. Yet he still appeared on the iconic cover of the band's 1967 album cover, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.






It's difficult to imagine how utterly different not only the music but also the cover of this album was at the time of release: it was the first gatefold sleeve ever and also the first to print the lyrics for the songs. In this age of cd's and downloads the role of the album cover has diminished to some extent but Sgt Pepper will always stand out as a classic, a work of art in itself packaging one of the most influential records ever.



But all the people depicted (as life sized cardboard cutouts or waxwork figures), who are they? My first list in a long time is a list of people shown on the collage created by influential Pop Artist Peter Blake (it even won a Grammy for the artwork).

  • Sri Yukestawar Giri (guru)
  • Aleister Crowley (occultist, writer, mountaineer, poet, drug experimenter and yogi)
  • Mae West (actress)
  • Karlheinz Stockhausen (composer)
  • W.C. Fields (actor/comedian)
  • Carl Gustav Jung (psychologist)
  • Edgar Allen Poe (writer)
  • Fred Astaire (actor)
  • Richard Merkin (artist)
  • Das Varga Girl (by Artist Alberto Vargas)
  • Leo Gorcey (actor) - painted out because he demanded a fee!
  • Huntz Hall (actor)
  • Simon Rodia (architect)
  • Bob Dylan (singer/songwriter)
  • Aubrey Beardsley (illustrator)
  • Sir Robert Peel (politician and creator of the police force)
  • Aldous Huxley (writer)
  • Dylan Thomas (poet)
  • Terry Southern (writer)
  • Dion (di Mucci) (singer)
  • Tony Curtis (actor)
  • Wallace Berman (actor)
  • Tommy Handley (comedian)
  • Marilyn Monroe (actress)
  • William Burroughs (ariter)
  • Sri Mahavatara Babaji (guru)
  • Stan Laurel (actor/comedian)
  • Richard Lindner (writer)
  • Oliver Hardy (actor/comedian)
  • Karl Marx (philosopher/Socialist)
  • H.G. Wells (writer)
  • Sri Paramahansa Yoganandu (guru)
  • Stuart Sutcliff (artist and former Beatle)
  • Max Miller (music hall comedian)
  • Marlon Brando (actor)
  • Tom Mix (actor)
  • Oscar Wilde (writer)
  • Tyrone Power (actor)
  • Larry Bell (artist)
  • Dr. David Livingstone (missionary/explorer)
  • Johnny Weismuller (swimmer and Tarzan!)
  • Stephen Crane (writer)
  • Issy Bonn (comedian)
  • Sir George Bernhard Shaw (writer)
  • H.C. Westermann (sculptor)
  • Albert Stubbins (footballer)
  • Sri Lahiri Mahasaya (guru)
  • Lewis Carroll (writer)
  • T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)
  • Sonny Listen (boxer)
  • Wax model of George Harrison
  • Wax model of John Lennon
  • Wax model of Ringo Starr
  • Wax model of Paul McCartney
  • Shirley Temple (actress)
  • Albert Einstein (physicist)
  • John Lennon (holding a french horn)
  • Ringo Starr (holding a trumpet)
  • Paul McCartney (holding a cor anglais)
  • George Harrison (holding a flute)
  • Bobby Breen (singer)
  • Marlene Dietrich (actress)
  • Mohandas Karamchand Ghandi (Indian political and spiritual leader) - painted out by request of EMI as they feared it would offend record buyers in India.
  • Diana Dors (actress)

As well as the known "famous" people the collage also includes:
a wax hairdressers' dummy, Legionnaire from the Order of the Buffalos, The Petty Girl (by Artist George Petty), a cloth Grandmother Figure of Jann Haworth, a cloth figure of Shirley Temple by Jann Haworth, a Mexican candlestick, a television set, a stone figure of a girl, a statue from John Lennon's house, a trophy, a four-armed Indian doll, a drumskin designed by Joe Ephgrave, a hookah water tobacco pipe, a velvet snake, a Japanese stone figurine, a stone figure of Disney's Snow White, a garden gnome and a tuba! A guitar and the word "Beatles" are made of flowers.

Have I missed anything/anyone out?

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