Drumhead from the Beatles' Ed Sullivan debut pulls in over $2 million at auction

I was only six when the Beatles made their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show, but I'll never forget it. I don't think I went quite as nuts as my older sister did, but for the rest of my life I'd be a hardcore fan.

They're still my favourite band of all time.

Over the weekend somebody else who likes the Beatles quite a bit dropped a cool $2.125 mil for the privilege of owning the bass drumhead Ringo famously bashed during that broadcast back on February 9, 1964. Before the sale went down on Saturday at an auction in Beverly Hills, Julien's Auctions sent out a press release detailing the item's history with the Fab Four:

"This remarkable drum head was hand-painted in January 1964 by London sign painter Edwin Stokes specifically for use during The Beatles' upcoming first visit to the United States. Stokes — who had painted the Beatles' first drop-T logo drum head the previous summer and who, in fact, would paint five of the seven drop-T heads — worked his magic. The completed skin was delivered to the office of Beatles manager Brian Epstein a week ahead of the group's February 7th departure for America. In order to travel light on their maiden trip to the States, John, Paul and George only packed their guitars while Ringo made the trip with no more than his snare drum, cymbals and this drum head. Two days later, just prior to the February 9th afternoon taping of the third Ed Sullivan Show, the head was fitted onto a new kit purchased at Manny's Music Shop in Manhattan. The drum head was used for the duration of the Beatles' first American visit, not only for the three Ed Sullivan appearances, but also their first American concert at the Washington Coliseum and two shows at New York City's famed Carnegie Hall. Upon the group's return to England, the drum head was retired to Abbey Road Studios and not publicly seen again until its first sale at auction in 1984."

The biggest-ticket item at the Julien's auction, though, was a guitar used by John Lennon in the recording of the Beatles' Please Please Me and With the Beatles LPs. The Gibson  J-160E acoustic, which was lost for over 40 years, brought in $2.41 million, with half of the proceeds going towards the Spirit Foundation, a charitable organization set up by Lennon and Yoko Ono.