Beatlemania in Glasgow 1963 - 64

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Beatlemania in Glasgow 1963 - 64

Postby redbarn » Tue Aug 19, 2014 1:21 pm

I suppose this could have gone in the rock'n'roll thread, but you could get lost in there and never find your way out...

I'm researching 1960s Beatles merchandising for a book to be called A Can of Beatle Breath. The plan is to tell the stories of the non-musical souvenirs and novelties produced to tie in with / cash in on the first wave of Beatlemania.

One of the official items I'm trying to trace is a medallion, the licence to manufacture which went - in late 1963 - to a company called Allan & Co of 38 Merkland Street, Glasgow, right next to Partick Station.

Turns out that - at the time - this was the home of Merklands Jewellers & Watchmakers, which sounds the right kind of business, but that the owner was called John McCallum, not Allan. Later in the 60s, Merklands moved down the street to number 16. It closed many years later.

I don't even know what the medallion looked like: there are a few medallions and pendants from the period that might be the one, but I'd like to be able to identify it for sure. (Because my life has no meaning, obviously...)

I managed to get in touch with John McCallum's son, Calum, and he asked his dad... who couldn't remember anything about it. So, a bit of a mystery...

Back on Fri Mar 31, 2006, there was a posting on this site by KonstantinL about Merklands just before it shut down, which made me think this might be a good place to ask if anyone remembered anything about the original Merklands store at no 38, Merkland Street, a company called Allan & Co at that same address, or even Glasgow being inundated by a flood of Beatles medallions between Christmas 1963 and spring 1964...

Only a few will be able to remember that far back, but you might have old photos (or even, who knows, an old medallion?).

Also interested to learn if any other bits and pieces of Beatles merchandise were particularly popular in Glasgow at the time.
redbarn
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