Lost Photos of the Young Beatles and Rolling Stones (1964-66) to Debut at New NYC Gallery

NEW YORK, Feb. 26 /PRNewswire/ — Forty-five years after The Beatles and
The Rolling Stones first came to America, an extraordinary collection of
“lost” photos of the young bands has just been discovered. The 3500
photographs — extraordinary, intimate and unpublished — were taken by Bob
Bonis, their U.S. Tour manager, during their first U.S. tours (1964, 1965 and
1966) and document perhaps the most critical point in their careers: coming to
America.

The Bob Bonis Archive of photographs is now exclusively represented by the
Not Fade Away Gallery, which has announced its first show, “The British Are
Coming: The Beatles and The Rolling Stones 1964-66,” to inaugurate the
Gallery, March 4-April 14. The Not Fade Away Gallery is located in New York
City at 901 Broadway, 2nd floor, at the corner of 20th Street.

The Gallery’s first exhibition will feature 50+ images of The Beatles and
The Rolling Stones that establish the unparalleled access and close friendship

Bob Bonis (1932-1991) had with the young men who became the most significant
rock musicians of the 20th century. Revealing a private, behind-the-scenes
glimpse into the early days of rock ‘n’ roll, the photos show the boys in
candid, intimate shots on stage, in rehearsal, in concert, backstage (tuning
up, waiting to go on stage and clowning around), dressing and relaxing, on
vacations or en route to shows or cities, getting haircuts, bowling, recording
in the studio, at press events and just hanging around being themselves.

“The discovery of so many never-before-seen photographs of the two most
influential bands in rock history, captured at the most pivotal time in their
careers, is a once-in-a-lifetime event,” says Larry Marion, founder/director
of Not Fade Away Gallery (http://www.NotFadeAwayGallery.com) and an
acknowledged expert in the field of music memorabilia. “In more than twenty
years as a rock ‘archeologist,’ I’ve never come upon a discovery of this
magnitude — thousands of extraordinary unpublished photographs of The Beatles
and The Rolling Stones — young, innocent and unguarded. This is likely the
largest single trove of such important unknown photographs ever uncovered.”

For over forty years, the negatives and slides were safely stored away
unbeknownst to anyone but Bob Bonis’ family. Bob’s son Alex recently
unearthed them and brought them — along with his father’s collection of
memorabilia from his Tour Manager days — to Larry Marion for appraisal. In
fact, the photos were at the bottom of a duffel bag of memorabilia — brought
out almost as an afterthought. Now, Alex Bonis is one of the partners in Not
Fade Away Gallery, which will begin to make these images available for
exhibition and for sale as museum-quality fine art photographic prints (both
black-and-white and color), in extremely limited editions, printed on
era-appropriate paper, utilizing traditional photographic printing methods.

A private man, Bob Bonis never sought publicity and wasn’t interested in
pursuing attention based on his past exploits. He started out as a New York
City talent agent in the late 1950s and through a series of unremarkable
circumstances, he came to hold an extraordinary position at a pivotal time in
rock history — U.S. Tour Manager for both The Beatles and The Rolling Stones
during their first U.S. tours in 1964 and continuing through 1966. Since his
personal passion was photography, he took his camera along wherever he could
and took photos of everyone he worked with — capturing incredibly intimate
photos that the world is about to see for the very first time.

In addition to more than 3,500 photos he took of The Beatles and The
Stones, Bob photographed Simon & Garfunkel, The Hollies, Cream, The Lovin’
Spoonful, Buddy Rich, Frank Sinatra and many of the jazz greats he worked
with. Not Fade Away Gallery has upcoming shows of these photographs scheduled
for the coming year.

The extraordinary private moments Bob Bonis captured are now available for
all fans and collectors of music and fine art photography to see and
experience at Not Fade Away Gallery, honoring the life and work of Bob Bonis.

     "The British Are Coming: The Beatles and The Rolling Stones 1964-66"
     Not Fade Away Gallery, 901 Broadway (at 20th Street)
     March 4th-April 14th
     All photographs by Bob Bonis, copyright 2009 by 2269 Productions, Inc.

This press release was issued through 24-7PressRelease.com. For further
information, visit http://www.24-7pressrelease.com.

SOURCE Bob Bonis