Ringo Starr's Pic

"Every time I see your face

It reminds me of the places we used to go

But all I've got is a photograph . . . "

- Ringo Starr, lyrics from "Photograph"

Forty nine years ago, in 1964, the Beatles visited the US. In a limousine on the way from the airport, a Chevy Impala pulled up alongside and Ringo Starr snapped a pic of the teenage occupants waving at Starr and the other Beatles: 

Fast forward to October 2013. Ringo Starr, now aged 73, launches his book “Photograph”, which includes the above pic, and states at the launch that he would like to know their identities.

The publicity results in their identities becoming known - Bob Toth, Gary Van Deursen, Suzanne Rayot, Arlene Norbe Ressler, Charlie Scwartz and Matt Blender – and that they had skipped school for the occasion. All had been suspended as soon as they got back to High School.

US TV station NBC took it one step further and recreated the photo using the same persons in the same positions in an Impala:

Starr invited them to attend Las Vegas to watch his show this month and to meet with him after the show.

According to Gary Van Deursen, who was driving the borrowed Chevy Impala, they had cut class to go see the band arrive, and got lucky as they passed a row of limousines carrying the Beatles. "We went back up to the front (of the limousine line), waved to each one of them, and the last one was Ringo, he's the one who went, 'Roll down your window!'" 

They did and Ringo took the photograph.

Gary Van Deursen holding a copy of the Starr pic.

Bob Toth points to his position in the car

The Beatles arrive in the US

The Beatles

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Don’t go rushing off to your bookstore for Ringo's book or try to order it on Amazon because it is only available by ordering it from Ringo’s website, www.RingoPhotoBook.com. There are only 2,500 copies, each is signed by Ringo and it is bound in leather with gilt lettering. Each page is edged in gold foil. The price is £345 and the royalties go to the Lotus Foundation, a centre in London in which small groups of people can explore such fields as mysticism, healing, and meditation.

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