Binders | Beatles memorabilia

Every "paperback writer" could safely secure essential manuscripts and homework in the official Beatles Binder! Fans could now collect and save the lyrics and sheet music for their favorite Fab Four songs in one place! Students could carry notes about the band to school and daydream of the Fabs instead of the football team star!

Standard Plastic Products (SPP), 450 Oak Tree Avenue, South Plainfield, New Jersey, received its merchandise license in late February of 1964 as a sub-licensee from the Belt Manufacturing Company of Canada. The agreement allowed them to produce the "early 1964 issue" binders featuring the Fab Four. Vinyl-coated and supported with pressboard, the binders were sold with either two or three snap-rings to anchor the paper (either 10½" x 11¾" x 1" or 10½" x 11¾" x 1½" - advertised as 29cm x 24cm x 4cm). The advertisements for these binders began appearing around April 1964.

The “early 1964 binders” came in a variety of reported colors and variations - white, beige/tan, grey, blue, powder blue, hot pink, soft pink, purple/lavender, red, gold, and yellow - with either slightly sharpened or rounded corners. Note that these colors have always been speculative – were the hot and soft pink the same color, were powder blue and blue the same color or different, etc. There have been documented reports that the inside of the binders sometimes was printed with stars, etc. This would possibly happen if the printer was at the end of a run and ran out of white vinyl.

The binder's variations and corners were commented on by expert Jeff Augsburger. “There are a lot of variations in these binders. Different machines were probably set up at these companies to make binders with slight differences, based on the needs and wants of their major customers. There was probably a rush to get the Beatle binders on the store shelves as quickly as possible before the Beatle bubble burst. They may have used all the available equipment, old and new, to fill the orders, resulting in slightly different binders. This is just my guess. The Canadian 3-ring binder's major differences from the SPP ones are the 4-square corners, the print at the bottom, and only one set of autographs."

The front cover exhibited a large, highly detailed, sepia-toned Beatles photo (the famous image by photographer Dezo Hoffmann) and scattered facsimile signatures. Interestingly, this early version of the binder featured Paul McCartney brandishing a cigarette in his right hand. The contraband was "airbrushed out" of the subsequent binders, manufactured by New York Loose Leaf Corporation (labeled the 'mid-1964 issue').

"I carried my white one to school in 4th grade...until the principal sent around a note telling us that no binders were allowed. It was a Catholic school, so I guess they considered it too sexy. Years later my mom laughed and said that I should thank them because it probably stayed in better shape since it wasn’t lugged back and forth." - Mary Jo Navarra McIntyre

Newspaper advertisements for the binders – or "ringbinder" as some ads called them - really put the hard-sell on consumers:

“Famous Beatles Binder…2 or 3 ring binder with photo of The Beatles on cover” priced the item for $1.29, but for “this weekend-64¢!”

Another ad announced:

“The Beatles are here! The Beatle Loose Leaf binder. Beatle Binder Set. 3 Heavy Duty Metal Rings With Metal Base And Boosters. Consists of sturdy Loose Leaf binder, spiral notebook and memo pad. Just 500, limit 1 per customer. 99¢ set.”

The 2-ring binder connected with the bubble gum company Fleer Corporation, which produced a 10" x12" x 4½" shipping box for their Dubble Bubble© gum sent to retailers, etc. The bubble gum container held (480) 1¢ pieces of gum and a free Beatles Binder and had the promotion listed on the box as "Deal #166."

"I remember buying this binder in late '64. I was seven years old at the time. I purchased it at Woolworth's at the Interstate Shopping Center in Ramsey, NJ. I don't remember how much, but probably $3 or $4. I used it for homework and drawings I made. I think I had it for just over a year before someone stole it from my desk during recess one day." - Gregory Voutsas.

The New York Loose Leaf Corporation's aforementioned 'mid-1964 issue' binders – whose advertisements appeared around August 1964 - were available with two or three rings and were manufactured in white. The front featured a less detailed black-and-white photo of the Beatles with signatures. Paul McCartney's cigarette had been "airbrushed" out of his hand for this binder design. By mid-1964, Standard Plastic Products (SPP) most likely sublicensed the binders to the New York Loose Leaf Corporation, and their new binder version was mass-produced through the end of 1964.

Note: it did take a while for the cigarette binders to work their way out of the public and the non-cigarette ones to catch up and totally be on the shelves.

The New York Loose Leaf Corporation applied for its trademark on August 14, 1962. The brand (US Registration Number 0736031) covered "paper, items made of paper, stationery items, loose-leaf books, and ledger binders." Their trademark design was on the cover of the mid-1964 Beatles binder

“I got my binders not long ago from a guy in Detroit who had bought a derelict factory and was liquidating it. He came across these binders in a cupboard. They were being used to hold all the previous business’s documents!” – Phil Harbour

Standard Plastic Products (SPP)

Standard Plastic Products was at 450 Oak Tree Avenue, South Plainfield, New Jersey. They received their merchandise license in late February of 1964 as a sub-licensee from the Belt Manufacturing Company of Canada to start producing the “early 1964 issue” binders featuring the Fab Four, with advertisements for the binders appearing in April 1964.

New York Loose Leaf Corporation

New York Loose Leaf Corporation (whose factory was completely gutted in a mystery fire in 1965) sold to American Book – Stratford Press Inc. in October 1968. American Book – Stratford Press was then bought out by American Book Bindery, Chelsea.

Belt Manufacturing Company of Canada

The NEMS agreement was with Belt Manufacturing Company of Canada Limited, 1425 Weston Road, Toronto, Canada. The date of the first agreement for the manufacturing license was February 13, 1964, for the “children’s satchels, Open Ring Binders, Schoolbags, Briefcases”, with the initial term for ’2 years.’ The initial license territory listed for distribution was ‘Canada and North America.'

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