Legend has it the Beatles rubber ball drew inspiration from The Cyrkle’s hit “Red Rubber Ball” — a band discovered by Brian Epstein, with a name coined by John Lennon himself. Manufactured in the U.S. by Holland Hall Products, Inc., this inflatable ball turned any playground game of Four Square into a Fab Four occasion.

No mid-’60s party favor list was complete without these. Manufactured by United Industries Incorporated of Southington, Connecticut, the latex balloons came in six colors — red/pink, blue, yellow, white, green, and orange — each printed with a black-and-white band portrait, in a 5½” size.

An unlikely instrument for a band that never played one on record — until you trace the connection to John Lennon’s mother, Julia, who taught him “That’ll Be the Day” on her own banjo. That thread of authenticity is likely what pushed manufacturers to add a Beatles banjo to the wave of mid-’60s musical-instrument tie-ins.

“Follow the sun” took on a whole new meaning with the official Beatles Beach Hat — cotton twill, flocked with the band’s faces and facsimile autographs, and licensed through a chain running from Kangol in the U.K. through Puritan Fashions in the U.S. One phone call from February 10, 1964, the day after Sullivan, locked in the sublicense — and a $1,000 down payment.

Chasing the Fab Four across the globe was hungry work — good thing the Beatle Belt was there to cinch up those suddenly-roomy trousers. Dame Belt & Bag, Seltaeb’s third licensee, ran through a surprising range of designs — soft black leather with metal medallions, plastic-and-brass loop belts, cord versions with vinyl or silhouette medallions, even vinyl belts in red and blue with the Fab Four’s faces on the buckle.

Pat Boone commissioned artist Leo Jansen’s oil-style portraits of the band — sourced from Peter Hall’s May 1963 photos of John and Paul — then built a nationwide contest around them, flying 30 winners to see the Beatles’ Las Vegas show on August 20, 1964. One of those winners, then-eighth-grader Chris Barnes, still remembers being greeted personally by Boone on the tarmac. By October 1964, Boone had sold 10 million of the portraits.

n 1964, tiny British label Oriole Records cashed in on Beatlemania with the novelty single “We Love You Beatles,” recorded by a studio group called The Carefrees and built on the melody of “We Love You Conrad” from Bye Bye Birdie. American Beatlemaniacs made it a hit, driving the song to #39 on Billboard in April 1964 — making it the highest-charting Beatles novelty record ever released and the only one to crack the U.S. Top 40.

Every “paperback writer” needed somewhere to stash lyrics, sheet music, and daydreams about the Fab Four instead of algebra homework. Standard Plastic Products released the earliest “early 1964 issue” binders that April in a striking range of colors — white, beige, grey, powder blue, hot pink, lavender, gold — wrapped around a sepia-toned Dezo Hoffmann photo that originally showed Paul McCartney holding a cigarette, quietly airbrushed out once New York Loose Leaf Corporation

When the sounds of the outside world became “all too much,” and you just needed to escape to your little Beatle world, here was the item...

What do you do on that cold morning when you are wondering how to stay warm for the day? For starters, slip into your Beatles Socks, and...

Here is a blog with info from the faBgear.company about Beatles memorabilia from the '60s.

Here is a blog with info from the faBgear.company about Beatles memorabilia from the '60s.

Here is a blog with info from the faBgear.company about Beatles memorabilia from the '60s.

Here is a blog with info from the faBgear.company about Beatles memorabilia from the '60s.

Here is a blog with info from the faBgear.company about Beatles memorabilia from the '60s.

"I'm looking through you…" Not with this item. Celebrate the moptops as you neatly tend to your style! No wonder it takes you so long to...

On December 23, 1963, Paul Russell, National Album Merchandising Manager for Capitol Records, sent out a memo for sales managers and...

As you are bound for your friend's house on your bicycle to listen to the latest Beatles record, you gaze at the flags attached to your...

Whoa, dude! If you needed to catch some rays and hang ten with the lads, a Beatle skateboard was your item of choice. Surf Skater...

We want to preserve the valuable stories about the historic merchandise that has already started to disappear. We continue researching those cool and wacky Beatles dimensional items in the US from 1964-66 featured in the book, including examining the companies and people connected to the items and researching topical, intriguing stories, and more. Uncovering exciting things about this wonderful, magical world of 1st generation Fab Four items helps fuel the mania by keeping