Sunday, January 30, 2011

Dimondale duo takes love for Beatles to another level

Dimondale duo takes love for Beatles to another level

Dimondale duo takes love for Beatles to another level

Posted: 30 Jan 2011 01:35 AM PST

As a young teenager, Viki Spector-Walker fell hard for the Beatles.

The music moved her. The Fab Four - George Harrison, in particular - fascinated her.

For most folks who were teens in the 1960s, the Beatles represent a moment in time.

But for Spector-Walker, the love for John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and Harrison has endured more than four decades.

The albums and Beatles mementoes the 58-year-old Dimondale woman bought during those years became the seeds of a lifetime collection of Beatles memorabilia.

Today, the collection she shares with her husband, Jim Walker, 56, includes upwards of 5,000 items ranging from bubblegum cards and licorice to lapel pins, watches, lamps, autographed album covers, original artwork and every type of tchotchke imaginable.

The duo - who met online while buying and selling Beatles items and married in 2009 - have so many unique Beatles items that they're opening their Dimondale home as a museum.

After an invitation-only bash Saturday, Beatles fans will be able to make appointments to take the magical mystery tour of their home's expansive lower level, every square inch packed with Fab Four finds.

"This is what happens when a collection gets totally out of control," Viki said with a laugh, standing on a round, Sgt. Pepper-themed rug at the bottom of the basement steps.

"We've had a couple of parties, and when our friends come over, they always say, 'Can I bring so-and-so?'" Viki said. "After they see it they want other people to see it."

In the stairwell above Viki are framed, full-sized movie posters for the Italian release of "Yellow Submarine" and "A Hard Day's Night." Bowling pins painted to look like each Beatle line the four stairs.

At the bottom of the stairs, a glass case contains dozens of Beatles artifacts, from metal lunchboxes to a set of mod-suited Madame Alexander dolls. Each Beatle is clad in a mod suit and comes with his own musical instrument. A curvy French provincial-style desk displays Beatles stationery.

A sliding glass door leading to a sun porch is decked in Beatles neckties.

(2 of 2)

"They're insulation," she jokes.

Jim owns a total of 180 Beatle ties, in all. He wore "The Long and Winding Road" tie on their wedding day.

A bar area - or, pub, if you would, since Jim is from Scotland - features a custom-made pub table and end table built around vintage advertising cubes with Beatles images on them. An ornate cash register near the bar holds a different type of nostalgia for Viki - it's the one her dad used for decades at his Lansing upholstery business.

A guest bedroom is bedecked in Beatles pillows and even a vintage Beatles blanket; the bathroom has a Beatles cartoon painted on the toilet lid, featuring the boys soaping up in a row of shower stalls.

In Jim's office, the large windows don't leave too much wall space - so a custom-built rack keeps vintage Beatles albums pressed safely against the ceiling. A shelf around the room's outside edge holds a train with a "Yellow Submarine" car; a one-of-a-kind decoupaged table depicts the Beatles from the later sideburns-and-soldier suits "Sgt. Pepper" era.

A final room, lined with custom-built display cases, contains a dizzying array of Beatles "stuff" from licorice to trading cards to snow globes and an original "Official Beatles Fan" buttons. There even are Beatles board games.

Spector-Walker loves original Beatles artwork, and it's on display throughout the house. The guest bathroom cartoons are by Sandra Thieman of Wyoming, Mich. Other favorites are Darryl Carlisle of Traverse City, and Henry Muse of Mississippi, who does 5x7 canvases.

Mixed in with the Beatles items are a few other music and pop culture icons. Among them: a life-sized cardboard cutout of Elvis Presley, programs to a Roy Orbison show, a guitar signed by the Rolling Stones, autographed guitars from the Traveling Wilburys (Harrison, Orbison, Jeff Lynne, Bob Dylan and Tom Petty).

Viki and Jim now laughingly refer to the lower level as "The Beatles level" of their house. Viki says they've enjoyed putting the collection on display - and they hope people will enjoy visiting it.

"A collection isn't good if it's kept in boxes," Viki said. "That's where this collection was for 40 years."

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php
Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.
Posted by at

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)