| Heidi, a fellow Brookfield resident, came across "A Day in the Center of Beatlemania" and contacted me. She attended the 1964 Milwaukee concert and later married a man whose father, Ted Sheldon, was a night manager at the Coach House Inn and had interactions with The Beatles. Her future sister-in-law, Diane, was admitted to the Inn by her father and, Heidi said, "...took this picture (below) of them either leaving or coming back to the Coach House...you can see Neil Aspinall in the front seat, and Ringo appears to be looking in her direction." Her future father-in-law also came into possession of a pharmacy prescription and dry cleaning receipt (below) that were left in the room. |
| I posted a cropped
image--with The Beatles removed--of the photograph Heidi's
sister-in-law took on a classiccar.com forum to determine the
make and year of the limousine. Members thought it was an
early 60s Cadillac but couldn't be more exact because the
photograph doesn't show much of the car. I then reviewed
Bob Barry's video of the band being driven around town and
copied two frames (below). After comparing the limo
holding The Beatles to images of early sixties Cadillacs posted
online, I concluded it was a 1961
model. Fins are present--a vestige of 50s styling
(appropriate given the band's roots!)--but much reduced from the
heights reached on 1959 Caddies. For comparison purposes, I
requested and was given permission to post color shots (below)
of the nose and tail of a 1961 Cadillac. |
 around Milwaukee. Courtesy of Bob Barry. |
 1961 Cadillac grill. Courtesy of volocars.com |
 
Rear of Beatles-Milwaukee limousine--wide view (left) and close up (right). Note the distinctive pair of round tail lights held in an oval under the right fin. Courtesy of Bob Barry. |
 1961 Cadillac tail. Courtesy of motorera.com |
| Heidi scanned mementos that were found in the Coach House after The Beatles checked out, e-mailed the scans to me, and described the originals as, "...a receipt for pressing their suits (bottom of page)...and a prescription (directly below) written by a local doctor to John for his sore throat. Unfortunately, his name (John's) is not on it or the date, but it was a known fact that a doctor was called for his throat problems...My sister-in-law says he didn't fill it because he didn't trust the drugs in this country. What a laugh, hey?!" It was widely reported that Lennon skipped The Beatles' Milwaukee news conference on Friday before the concert due to a sore throat. |
 I took a copy of the
prescription to Walgreen's and showed it to two pharmacists.
Neither could identify what it called for other than the
"hydrocortisone oint" listed in the penultimate line which they
said was an anti-itch preparation. Next I
contacted the Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin,1 located
in Madison. My e-mailed inquiry and image of the prescription
were forwarded to Sarah
Sorum,
PharmD, vice president, Professional and Educational Services
who replied: "Several of us around the
office took a shot and no one came up with a definitive answer.
Here’s what I can make out--'hydrocortisone oint' equals
hydrocortisone ointment (a steroid ointment usually used for
itching that is available over the counter). The 'c' with the
line above it that appears after hydrocortisone oint stands for
'with,' but I can’t make out the word that starts with D that
follows; it does seem to be signed by the physician 'B.L.
Chapman.' It really doesn’t look like a valid prescription
to me, but I’m not used to reading prescriptions from the
60s. I almost wonder if it served as scratch paper and the
real prescription was turned in to be filled at a
pharmacy. Another place you could reach out to is the
American Institute of the History of Pharmacy which happens to
be located at the UW School of Pharmacy in Madison. Greg
Higby is my contact there."
Soon I was on the phone with Gregory J. Higby, Ph.D., R.Ph., executive director, AIHP.2 He reviewed the prescription and replied: "Well, this is a pretty bad Rx and pretty typical of the day. Yes, near the bottom that is definitely hydrocortisone ointment with something. As Sarah said, this product then--as now--was for an itch. A couple of the items near the top are probably Bicillin (a penicillin antibiotic), Terramycin (oxytetracycline, another antimicrobial drug). What is between the Terramycin and the hydrocortisone ointment is a mystery to me as well! :-) So, from what I can decipher, the patient probably had a bad cold or something similar (sinus infection). The ointment was for some other problem leading to an itch. What you really need is a 70-year-old pharmacist, preferably of the corner drugstore variety. Oddly enough, if you can find one of the guys who worked near Dr. Chapman's practice, he might be able to read the Rx without much trouble."  Heidi said her father-in-law also found, "...a receipt for pressing--$8.00 for eight suits." Not to forget Wisconsin's then 3% sales tax. 1. http://pswi.org/ 2. http://www.pharmacy.wisc.edu/aihp Return to A Day In The Center Of Beatlemania. |