Beatles list of demands for 1964 Vancouver show on display
City of Vancouver Archives celebrates 80th anniversary with exhibit
The Beatles' limo and dressing room requirements for a 1964 show are among the many treasures in the City of Vancouver Archives' special collections, some of which are on display at City Hall Friday only.
City archivist Les Mobbs says in that day and age, it was unusual for touring musical groups to have dressing room demands, but the Beatles had one specific need: Coca-Cola.
"These records come from the PNE archives, papers, and it's basically the contract between [them and] the Beatles' management company: They wanted Coca-Cola wherever they went," Mobbs said.
"I think it might have been a sign of America for them," he said.
The Beatles' documents join other special items on public display from 1 p.m. PT to 4 p.m. PT Friday in the media centre on the ground floor of City Hall.
Mobbs said a 1794 letter written by Captain George Vancouver while stationed in Nootka Sound will be on display, as well as Vancouver's first voting list. The special three-hour display is in celebration of 80 years of the Vancouver Archives, and comes two days before International Archives Day.
Staff will also give away prints of historic photographs, Mobbs said.
The City of Vancouver Archives, located in Vanier Park, was founded in 1933 and is the oldest municipal archives in Canada outside Quebec.
Today, the archives hold around 50 TB of digitized material, and many photographs are searchable and viewable online.