Bloomfield Man Captured Rare Images of the Beatles

BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, MI — Doug Elbinger got a couple of lucky breaks on Aug. 13, 1966, the last time the Beatles played Detroit and one of the last concerts before iconic British rock group stopped touring for good.

Elbinger, now of Bloomfield Township, but at the time a 16-year-old with a dream of becoming a professional photographer, was talented enough that his work caught the eye of Detroit Free Press chief photographer Tony Spina, who took him under his wing.

The apprenticeship came with a press pass, which the aspiring photojournalist — still at student at Henry Ford High School — used to get through the backstage door at the Beatles concert at the former Olympia Stadium. He was armed hand-me-down twin-lens Rolleiflex box camera Spina passed along, a couple of rolls of film, and healthy doses of both patience and determination.

Eventually, he elbowed his way through a gaggle of photojournalists to the stairs to the stage.

“I said, ‘Is it OK if I go up there and take pictures?’ ” Elbinger said to a man who turned out to be the Beatles’ road manager. And he said, ‘Sure, kid. Take all the pictures you want.’ ”

He had just 24 frames to work with during the 40 minutes he had unfettered access to the biggest rock-and-roll bands of all time.

“I got 13 decent pictures. I thought that was pretty good,” he told the Detroit Free Press. “Usually I was hoping to get one good picture.”

Some of the images he caught have never been seen before, or have only been seen by Beatles collectors.

The pictures helped launch a four-decade career during which he shot photos of celebrities, politicians for some of the country’s preeminent newspapers and magazines. He retired from full-time photography about a decade ago, and in 2014 self-published “Encounters with Remarkable Men.”

The book opens with the 13 photos of the Beatles shot at Olympia Stadium.

“I know that in terms of 20th-Century history, there’s two main events: There’s World War II, and there’s the Beatles,” Elbinger told the Free Press. “I wasn’t at World War II, but I was right there when this happened. As a historian, it’s kind of like being in the crowd at the Gettysburg Address.”

» See the images, read more on the Detroit Free Press

Image: Public Domain