By Ronnie Blair
In Dunedin, Florida, up a not so long and winding stairway, you will find Penny Lane: the Ultimate Beatles Museum, which boasts a massive Beatles memorabilia collection more than 4,000 miles from Liverpool, England, where the group got its start.
This unexpected find in the Florida town of 36,000 people was the idea of longtime Dunedin resident Dr. Robert Entel, with the help of former Liverpool resident Colin Bissett. The museum opened in 2017, tucked in the back of an art gallery it shares space with.
If you visit, you will see a pair of John Lennon’s sunglasses. You will see old newspaper clippings, including some from the days when Pete Best was still the drummer and had not yet been replaced by Ringo Starr. There is a plastic toy guitar with the images of the Fab Four. There is an actual guitar played by Paul McCartney. There are records and posters and other miscellaneous memorabilia. The items seem endless, giving visitors a magical mystery tour of a time that is long past (the Beatles disbanded in 1970) but still has an impact.
Admission is free but there is a donation box where you can toss in $5 or $10 or whatever amount you are so inclined to contribute to the cause of keeping the museum operating.
Like many Baby Boomers, I have memories tied to the Beatles. When they appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, I was among the millions of Americans watching, although I was a mere 6-years-old and my memory of that February night is slightly faulty, placing me in the wrong house from my childhood, as I once explained in an essay I wrote for the Brevity Blog.
Beatles music made up a good portion of the musical library we had in my home growing up, with 45 singles such as “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “Paperback Writer,” along with albums like “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” On TV, beyond Ed Sullivan, we watched The Beatles cartoon that was broadcast on ABC from 1965 to 1967. For a brief period, until I outgrew them, I owned a prized pair of Beatle Boots that my mother bought at a bargain price at one of our town’s thrift stores. Perhaps it’s a tribute to the world of the 1960s that a British pop band could influence the fashions of a boy growing up deep in the mountains of Kentucky.
Penny Lane: the Ultimate Beatles Museum will bring back many such memories for nostalgic Baby Boomers – or for anyone who is captivated by pop culture history, whether they lived in that time or not.
In the fall of 2025, the museum is scheduled to move to a new location in the Ybor City area of Tampa. Until then, you can find it on the second floor at 730 Broadway in downtown Dunedin. Plan your visit carefully because the museum is open just four days (not eight days) a week. Hours are 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday through Sunday.
Just look for it beneath the blue suburban skies.
Ronnie Blair is author of the memoir Eisenhower Babies: Growing Up On Moonshots, Comic Books, and Black-and-White TV.
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