Beatles Museum is almost ready for its St. Pete debut

You’ve got to admit, it’s getting better.

After nine years jammed into a tiny, upstairs art gallery in Dunedin, the Penny Lane Beatles Museum will re-open in downtown St. Petersburg in September.

Dr. Robert Entel has been collecting Beatles memorabilia since the early 1970s. The Clearwater-based radiologist leased the space in Dunedin to share his collection with other fans – he built it, and they came – but at 500 square feet, it was just a tad cramped.

The Penny Lane Beatles Museum is the only such facility dedicated solely to the Beatles in the United States. Nearly 10,000 people per year visited the hard-to-find Dunedin location.

The new place, at 146 2^nd Street N. (across from Green Light Cinema) quadruples the available space. Still, Entel says, a percentage of his collection, which includes everything from stage costumes, musical instruments, signed photos and documents and gold record awards to vintage 1960s toys, games and dolls, will remain in storage. And he’s still collecting.

“We have room to expand, we’ve pretty much decided,” Entel explains. “There’s a room connecting to it, which will double the capacity. What we wanted to do was expand the museum from where we were in Dunedin; and then once we get a foothold in St. Pete, expand even further.”

The nonprofit museum’s board has hired an executive director (Craig Bachner), and a professional curator (Allison Holuban), and contracted with a design company (Creative Arts Unlimited of Pinellas Park, designer of the Tampa Bay History Center) to create the display cases and showplaces, which will now be chronological and organized by subject. A children’s section and other special areas are planned.

“We’ve gone many steps above where we were in Dunedin,” Entel believes.

Entel’s collection of Beatles memorabilia on display in Dunedin. Photo by Bill DeYoung.

Arguably the greatest cultural phenomenon of the 20^th century, the Beatles – more than 50 years after their breakup – continue to attract and fascinate people the world over.

“Sometimes,” enthuses Entel, “people come in and it solicits memories. Others come because they just love the music. Kids come in – and some of them are trivia experts! This has transcended through all the generations.

“And that’s what’s so amazing about the Beatles. They just continue their legacy. They transformed music, culture, the arts, hairstyles, fashion, political issues … they just permeated society.”

In his teenage years, the physician explains, “I found them charming and witty. They were almost like the best friends who I never met. They always lifted my spirits. They brought me up when I was down. And they brought out the best of me.

“I liked them, but that’s as far as it went. I listened to their music, and really enjoyed just hearing about them.”

It’s been a long and winding road from there to here.

Photo by Bill DeYoung

“When I studied medicine, I did a few months in London,” Entel continues. “I went to Portobello Road, and I saw this card table set up that had some little pieces of memorabilia on there. Maybe an ashtray, maybe a handkerchief, maybe a record.

“I brought them back to the United States, and I put them in my sock drawer. Then I started going to flea markets and antique stores, and I collected more. Pretty soon all my dresser drawers were filled with Beatles. Everything on top of my dresser. I had to put slat board up in my bedroom.

“I just kept collecting and collecting. Initially, it was pins and buttons, small trinkets. And as I progressed, and was able to afford a little more memorabilia, it went on to more of the rarer stuff, which is what we’re going to be presenting at the museum.”

The “new” Penny Lane Beatles Museum is inside the Palais Royale, built in 1926. The façade has already been re-painted. “Before you ever enter the museum, and you see the outside of the building, you know that you’re arriving somewhere special,” declares executive director Bachner.

“Here, where more people can come to see it, and the presentation is so much bigger and brighter and better, it’s going to be phenomenal.”

Bachner and Entel agree that Penny Lane – again, the only place of its kind in the country – will slot in well alongside St. Petersburg’s already established world-class museums.

“This is a fan museum,” Entel says. “It’s not an esoteric, academic, historical museum. It’s not a curatorial museum, it’s a fan museum, for Beatles fans who just want to enjoy the legacy of the Beatles.

“We’re not the biggest collection in the world, we’re not the rarest, but we’re certainly, I can say, the most eclectic collection and the most fun collection.

“ I don’t want anything for myself except to have a successful museum in a wonderful city. To bring culture and more tourism to St. Petersburg.

“And celebrate the legacy of the Beatles, who were transformational.”

Penny Lane Beatles Museum website

Photo by Vicky Fulop