I use this great photo of the Beatles standing in front of an impressive all-white Phantom V Rolls Royce in my blog banner from time to time:
This 1969 photo reminded me of a similar car that John Lennon took ownership of in 1965 – and had substantially and dramatically re-painted:
Or if you prefer it in colour for the full effect:
Lennon’s psychedelic Roller wound up in 1993 as a display item at the Royal British Columbia Museum in, of all places, the city of Victoria, British Columbia in Canada. How did it get to be in Canada? You can read the full story here. It is still owned the Royal British Columbia Museum, but is now on display at the motor shop which takes care of it’s maintenance and servicing.
How do I know this? Well, when I posted on Paul McCartney and the portable Sony TV set which can be seen on the front cover of the famous “Sgt Pepper” album, it prompted some comments including one from the very knowledgeable WogBlog, who said that the TV was actually owned by John Lennon. WogBlog’s post then got a comment from Jim Walters, who is a volunteer at the museum in Victoria, saying that he looks after maintenance on the Rolls. He says the restoration work is all done at Bristol Motors in British Columbia which now credits itself as “the home of John Lennon’s Rolls“.
Anyway, the volunteers are looking for a replacement portable Sony TV. The original from the Rolls had gone missing (you can see it in the black and white YouTube clip above) – and it indeed looks just like a Sony TV9-306UB – the one on the “Sgt Pepper” cover:
Jim Walters is determined to find a replacement TV. He also posted on a Sony collectors page called Sony Insider saying of the little portable TV:
Paul McCartney bought two while they were on tour in Japan. One was used on the cover and I think the other was for John Lennon. I look after John Lennon’s yellow Rolls-Royce Phantom V for the owner, the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria, BC, Canada. This same model was installed in the rear seat console when JP Fallon Coachworks painted the car yellow and had artist Steve Weaver do the Romany style scrolls and flowers in 1967. The TV went missing from his car over 25 years ago. I am trying to find the same model of TV so I can donate it to the museum to fill the big hole in the console where it used to be. If you can think of anyone who may be able to help please forward this message to them.
This kind of fits with what I wrote about the TV on the cover of “Sgt Pepper”, that it was actually owned by Paul. It kind of makes sense because John’s TV of course would have been installed in the Rolls Royce at the time of the photo shoot. The article I was quoting from the Japan Times in my post said that the Okazaki City Mindscape Museum would be displaying the actual receipt for the purchase of the TV in an exhibition called “Swingin’ London” from January 2011. So, I decided to look and see if the Okazaki City Mindscape Museum in fact has that “Swingin’ London” exhibit on at the moment. And it does!
My Japanese is non-existent so I put some text from the site into Google Translate and it came back with:
“Famous Beatles record jacket ・ (・ サージェント・ペパーズ・ロンリー・ハーツ Club Band) that was captured on television unravel the mystery of the “bill signed by Paul McCartney (invoice).”
So I reckon we are still working out the mystery of the who owned the TV set. Seems it might have been Paul McCartney after all……
Beatles Blog 
I quite enjoyed the pictures and commentary on this blog. The pictures speak to a more “carefree” time.
Malcolm
http://www.vancouvercorporatelawyers.ca
LikeLike
There is still at least one more “missing” Beatles Rolls Royce. I am the son of a Rolls Royce dealer from Kansas City. It had more purple color. In about 1971, it was being shipped (driven) from New York to Los Angeles when the transmission went out. The road crew couldn’t wait on parts. My Father traded them a white 1965 Rolls Silver Cloud III that had been traded in by a woman. He was amazed that these “hippies” could wire in the money. It was not a Phantom. The broken down one sat in our lot for about 2 months waiting on parts. Then, a man from New York called and bought the car from Dad and paid us to repair the transmission. I have not seen that car at auction, nor have I heard about it even existing, since. Tom Heshion
LikeLike
Just actually saw a replica of this in my neighbors New Orleans Warehouse. wonder if its the missing rolls Royce Tom is referring to. Owner has a number of vintage cars that he claims are beetles cars but we assumed are likely replicas. If I recall correctly the interior on this one was a tan color
LikeLike
Pingback: Yeah Yeah Yeah – The Beatles and Bournemouth | Beatles Blog
I love the pictures of the rolls royce. Its just not what you think a rolls should look like.
LikeLike
Was there another one? Or does my memory decieve me? I could have sworn he had one more intricately painted in gold and earth-tones. Help?
LikeLike
A video of the TV 9306UB TV working can be seen on youtube here
LikeLike
I just thought I’d update the search for a Sony TV 9-306 UB. I finally found one on eBay in the UK last year and now have it here on display in my shop. The Royal BC Museum’s curators have not yet decided whether they will put it in the car as it is not the actual TV that was in it, although it is the identical model. Also John Lennon’s Phantom V 5VD73 is on display in the Pointe-a-Calliere Museum in Montreal, Canada until April 2014. They have an exhibit called “The Beatles in Montreal” in which the car is prominently displayed. Jim Walters, Bristol Motors.
Link to the current exhibit: http://pacmusee.qc.ca/en/news/the-beatles-in-montreal-a-not-to-be-missed-exhibition-in-2013
LikeLike
Hi Jim – thanks so much for this update on the Sony TV, and for the info on the Montreal “Beatles in Montreal” exhibition which is about to open. I reckon the museum should put your find into the Rolls. They are never going to find the actual original one are they? Cheers.
LikeLike
Pingback: John Lennon’s Rolls Royce | daly1avcom
I recently bought this picture of the Beatles in Front of John’s Rolls Royce. The person told me the print was from the negative. Not sure if this is true but the picture is blow up to 32 1/2″!L x 21″W ion a thin press board looks nice. My question is there any value to this picture I have?
LikeLike
There is still at least one more “missing” Beatles Rolls Royce. I am the son of a Rolls Royce dealer from Kansas City. It had more purple color. In about 1971, it was being shipped (driven) from New York to Los Angeles when the transmission went out. The road crew couldn’t wait on parts. My Father traded them a white 1965 Rolls Silver Cloud III that had been traded in by a woman. He was amazed that these “hippies” could wire in the money. It was not a Phantom. The broken down one sat in our lot for about 2 months waiting on parts. Then, a man from New York called and bought the car from Dad and paid us to repair the transmission. I have not seen that car at auction, nor have I heard about it even existing, since. Tom Heshion
LikeLike
Great story! Thanks for sharing.
LikeLike
I have ALL the answers lol.
The Royal wedding prompted me to do some digging. I once rode in a Rolls Royce Phantom V in Pensacola Florida. My boss told me a very interesting story about how it was bought directly from Lennon’s estate in an auction held by Yoko Ono in NYC . He had gotten it confused with the Phantom IV that only 18 were made and only for Kings and Queens. So as I’m hearing the story of the car the princess ride into the wedding in it clicked on my mind and I just had to investigate. Turns out, Lennon and Oko owned 3 Rolls Royce Phantom V’s. The famous white one, the famous psychodelic one, and the less famous brown sable one Yoko Ono gifted to Lennon on the occasion of their last wedding anniversary.
When I finally Googled Phantom V in Pensacola, I was first amazed and then very let down BC this article claimed the Pensacola one was a Silver Cloud III which anyone from Pensacola knows has been parked dormant for decades. You pass it every time you drive to the beach. I knew it wasn’t the one I had been in though so I continued to dig. I found out there were two in Pensacola claiming to be it.
I first researched the white one and found out that Lennon sold it to his label exect, Kevin Klein, who kept in in storage and England not to reemerge until his death in 2009 when his son inherited it and announced his plans to restore it. He was also able to produce the matching chassis number this ending the mystery.
Next, the psycadelic one, was bought at auction to a Canadian billionaire name Jim Pattisen. Last year he allowed out to return home to England to be featured in the “Great Eight Phantom Exhibit.”
I thought it was completely untrue until I saw a link for a small town paper from a county over from Pensacola. It was from 1984 .You could barley make out the writing on the photo copy of the news paper but I barely made out something about a man from Pensacola buying a Phantom V from the Lennon estate. So I continued my hunt.
The last Rolls Royce Phantom V to join lemonsLe collection was a sable brown one. And sure enough it was bought by Wallace Yost from non other than Pensacola Florida. It was later sold to a man from Colorado by the name of Steve Yost. I’m not sure which owner had the idea to restore it to be white and look like the white Phantom that was still missing (in storage until 2009) turning what was a historically significant and beyond cool car that was genuinely owned by John Lennon and Yoko Ono into a fake of the white car. There is a while list of obvious differences easily debunking it as the white Phantom. Most incriminating of all these things is the chassis number, or perhaps the steering wheel being on the opposite side.
LikeLike
Here is a link to the full story of Lennon’s third Phantom V:
http://www.60×50.com/2012/07/john-lennons-white-rolls-royce-and-its.html
LikeLike
Thank you! Very interesting and a good piece of research.
LikeLike
me and my dad was standing next to the camerman when the 1969 pic of them standing by the rolls royce was taken
LikeLike
John Lennon’s Yellow psychedelic rolls royce phantom v was originally black and not the white phantom v shown above. The license plate number was FJB IIIC and the car was originally black. John Lennon had 2 Phantom V’s. One black and one white.
LikeLike