Just out of high school, I was working in a Northeast Minneapolis music store called B-Sharp Music. James Lopes was a character someone needs to write a book about: sharkskin suit, hair swept up in what I guess is would be called a "pompadour", one of those guys who could sell anyone anything. He was a hugely successful Fender guitar dealer
and when the wind blew in from England, he became a Rickenbacker dealer, too.
I thought I was some kind of clever PR or promo person at like 18 years old, but I did come up with an idea that I thought was pretty good. The Beatles were coming in to Minneapolis to play at the baseball stadium on August 21, 1965 and I thought of an idea. I told Jim Lopes, "Instead of giving them the keys to the city, let's give them a guitar." He liked it, and I called Bill Diehl who was a DJ on WDGY, the popular teen AM station. (Heck, we didn't even listen to FM in those days, it was all classical music!) Anyway, the best part of the idea, I thought, was to keep the second key of the Rickenbacker case and give it away to some swooning teenager over the radio.
According to http://www.rickbeat.com/beatles/beatles.htm
"George Harrison receiving his second 360/12 in Minneapolis on August 21 1965. When George received this guitar he "retired" his first from stage performances. The first recording in which this guitar was used was "If I Needed Someone", recorded on October 16 1965 (first take). "
In searching for the date of the concert, I just came across an article where a "drummer" we used to call "Ron Buthead" either mistakenly remembers the origins of the event or he is lying about it. Tsk, tsk, Ron... if it had been your idea, wouldn't you have been the one shaking hands with all four Beatles that day?
So the event happened, there were other better photos of it, including some snapshots of poor photographic quality but where you see more of the interaction during the press conference. Maybe some day I can get my hands on those. Anyway, my brilliant career in advertising ended when I saw that somehow, the radio contest only received one postcard from a girl who really wanted that key, so we had no choice - literally - but to award it to her.
