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<\/p>\nYou\u2019ve got to admit, it\u2019s getting better.<\/p>\n
After nine years jammed into a tiny, upstairs art gallery in Dunedin, the Penny Lane Beatles Museum will re-open in downtown St. Petersburg in early August.<\/p>\n
Dr. Robert Entel has been collecting Beatles memorabilia since the early 1970s. The Clearwater-based radiologist leased the space in Dunedin to share his collection with other fans \u2013 he built it, and they came \u2013 but at 500 square feet, it was just a tad cramped.<\/p>\n
The Penny Lane Beatles Museum is the only such facility dedicated solely to the Beatles in the United States. Nearly 10,000 people per year visited the hard-to-find Dunedin location.<\/p>\n
The new place, at 146 2nd Street N. (across from Green Light Cinema) quadruples the available space. Still, Entel says, a percentage of his collection, which includes everything from stage costumes, musical instruments, signed photos and documents and gold record awards to vintage 1960s toys, games and dolls, will remain in storage. And he\u2019s still collecting.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have room to expand, we\u2019ve pretty much decided,\u201d Entel explains. \u201cThere\u2019s a room connecting to it, which will double the capacity. What we wanted to do was expand the museum from where we were in Dunedin; and then once we get a foothold in St. Pete, expand even further.\u201d<\/p>\n
The nonprofit museum\u2019s board has hired an executive director (Craig Bachner), and a professional curator (Allison Holuban), and contracted with a design company (Creative Arts Unlimited of Pinellas Park, designer of the Tampa Bay History Center) to create the display cases and showplaces, which will now be chronological and organized by subject. A children\u2019s section and other special areas are planned.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve gone many steps above where we were in Dunedin,\u201d Entel believes.<\/p>\n
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Entel\u2019s collection of Beatles memorabilia on display in Dunedin. Photo by Bill DeYoung.<\/p>\n
Arguably the greatest cultural phenomenon of the 20th century, the Beatles \u2013 more than 50 years after their breakup \u2013 continue to attract and fascinate people the world over.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes,\u201d enthuses Entel, \u201cpeople come in and it solicits memories. Others come because they just love the music. Kids come in \u2013 and some of them are trivia experts! This has transcended through all the generations.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s what\u2019s so amazing about the Beatles. They just continue their legacy. They transformed music, culture, the arts, hairstyles, fashion, political issues \u2026 they just permeated society.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his teenage years, the physician explains, \u201cI found them charming and witty. They were almost like the best friends who I never met. They always lifted my spirits. They brought me up when I was down. And they brought out the best of me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI liked them, but that\u2019s as far as it went. I listened to their music, and really enjoyed just hearing about them.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a long and winding road from there to here.<\/p>\n
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Photo by Bill DeYoung<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I studied medicine, I did a few months in London,\u201d Entel continues. \u201cI went to Portobello Road, and I saw this card table set up that had some little pieces of memorabilia on there. Maybe an ashtray, maybe a handkerchief, maybe a record.<\/p>\n
\u201cI brought them back to the United States, and I put them in my sock drawer. Then I started going to flea markets and antique stores, and I collected more. Pretty soon all my dresser drawers were filled with Beatles. Everything on top of my dresser. I had to put slat board up in my bedroom.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just kept collecting and collecting. Initially, it was pins and buttons, small trinkets. And as I progressed, and was able to afford a little more memorabilia, it went on to more of the rarer stuff, which is what we\u2019re going to be presenting at the museum.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201cnew\u201d Penny Lane Beatles Museum is inside the Palais Royale, built in 1926. The fa\u00e7ade has already been re-painted. \u201cBefore you ever enter the museum, and you see the outside of the building, you know that you\u2019re arriving somewhere special,\u201d declares executive director Bachner.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere, where more people can come to see it, and the presentation is so much bigger and brighter and better, it\u2019s going to be phenomenal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bachner and Entel agree that Penny Lane \u2013 again, the only place of its kind in the country \u2013 will slot in well alongside St. Petersburg\u2019s already established world-class museums.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a fan museum,\u201d Entel says. \u201cIt\u2019s not an esoteric, academic, historical museum. It\u2019s not a curatorial museum, it\u2019s a fan museum, for Beatles fans who just want to enjoy the legacy of the Beatles.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not the biggest collection in the world, we\u2019re not the rarest, but we\u2019re certainly, I can say, the most eclectic collection and the most fun collection.<\/p>\n
\u201c I don\u2019t want anything for myself except to have a successful museum in a wonderful city. To bring culture and more tourism to St. Petersburg.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd celebrate the legacy of the Beatles, who were transformational.\u201d<\/p>\n
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