by Carla Occaso-
One special surprise we got during the Kickstarter campaign for The Bridge was a phone call from Jeff Jacobs, owner of the establishment Charlie O’s World Famous. For those who don’t know Montpelier, this is a bar whose motto is “good drinks and bad company.” Jeff was calling Nat with an offer to donate the proceeds from one night of entertainment rather than to give money directly to the campaign.
Now our planning is underway, together with Jeff’s son, Jesse, and Charlie O’s manager, Jen, Nat, myself and Marichel. We are cooking up what we hope will be an extravaganza. We have set the date for Friday, July 10 starting at 5 p.m. Please mark your calendars and start thinking about what you will wear.
First of all, the party/event/anti-gala will have a Beatles theme. So, obviously there will be a costume contest. Come as a Beatle, come as a fan, come as Ed Sullivan, Linda McCartney or Yoko Ono — you name it.
Secondly, and growing increasingly more exciting, is the raffle, which will culminate in one special item that may be auctioned off separately. Jesse has gotten word from Buch Spieler that they will provide some Beatles vinyl records and other Beatles memorabilia. Cabot Cheese has agreed to offer a $25 gift basket of some of its prize-winning cheese (as well as additional cheese for everyone else to consume during the event.) Bo Muller-Moore has offered two “Eat More Kale” items, a drinking cup and a metal drinking vessel with the “Eat More Kale” logo and our own Rick McMahan has donated one valuable pair of his fabulous “freedom pants” called Unjeans! Thank you to these contributors!!
The special item to be auctioned off separately is an an authentic archival black and white print of The Beatles during their second 1964 tour of the United States taken by Curt Gunther, one of the photographers who had more exclusive contact with The Beatles while they were on that tour than others. I found the photos in an old Rolling Stone magazine in a local thrift store and searched for Curt Gunther on the Internet. I learned Curt had died in 1991, but his son, Steven, continues to show his father’s photos. I learned the Ice House Gallery in Petaluma, California, had a current exhibit, so I contacted them to find out how to contact Steven.
I got enough information to locate Steven’s email and requested the use of the photos I found to promote our Beatles-themed fundraiser. In a return email, Steven praised The Bridge for having the passion to continue producing a newspaper. He not only agreed to allow us to use the images I found in the thrift store, but also offered to send an authentic print taken by his father. We got this item from the post office recently. This amazing print should be of value to those of us who are still caught up in the magic of The Beatles.
Hopefully there will be more news to share as the date gets closer.
We named our fundraising party “Bridge Mania” after that Beatles tour in America in 1964 and we hope everyone will enjoy the fun of fundraising, especially in one of Montpelier’s most well-known establishments.
facebook.com/pages/Charlie-Os-World-Famous/99321270843
So far we have contributions from:
