Collector Richard Merkin, my Dear Friend, Has Died

[barrysloate]

Jodi- Richard never even met the Beatles. But he spent the summer of 1966 in England, and became friendly with an associate of Michael Cooper, the photographer who designed and shot the cover. All of the photographs used for the album were assembled, and then each of those pictures were glued to lifesize cardboard backings. After those figures were arranged as they would appear on the cover, the four Beatles came onto the set and stood in the center for the final photograph.

In the 1980's those cardboard figures went to auction- Richard gave me a copy of that catalog many years ago- and they sold for several thousand dollars each. Many of the people pictured did have some significance to the Beatles, but my guess is they did not know who Richard was.

Richard once showed me the actual photo used for the cover. It was originally full length, but was cropped from the shoulders up as it was used.