See notes below (scroll down) | Page 12 | ||||
Pass your mouse over the image above. The highlighted
area has been back-lit to reveal a hidden statement written by Stuart
Sutcliffe, faintly visible beneath John Lennon's handwriting. Stuart's
statement reads as follows: "I have been informed that I may no longer work in this country. I intend to stay here from this day, as a tourist by Mrs. Kirchherr, Hamburg, Altona Eimsbüttelerstr45A, Hamburg 6th December - Stuart Sutcliffe." It appears Stuart mis-spelled the street name, which was crossed out and re-written in a German hand, likely by the attending police officer. Stuart also had trouble with the spelling of Astrid's mother's surname. |
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As a result
of the discovery of George Harrison being under-age, and also due to a
fire in the band's living quarters at the Bambi cinema (purportedly caused
by Paul McCartney and Pete Best), The Beatles were deported from Germany
in December 1960. George, Paul and Pete left immediately, but John and
Stuart stayed behind (Stuart longer than John). To arrange the extension, John and Stuart visited the police station on December 6, 1960 to provide hand-written statements regarding their plans to remain in Germany (Paul and Pete had departed on December 5). It's my theory that John and Stuart were accidentally presented with the wrong documents on December 6 -- in other words, John was given Stuart's file, and Stuart was given John's. Stuart's statement was written on John's document before the error was discovered -- and presumably John's statement had already been written on Stuart's document. John was asked to re-write his statement on a blank piece of paper which was then glued onto "page 12", covering Stuart's statement (presumably, somewhere there exists a Sutcliffe document with a glued-on correction). |
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