ABOUT BOB BONIS
In the early 1960s, Bob Bonis was selected to serve as the Tour Manager for The Rolling Stones first-ever US Tour. He continued in this role for their first three US tours, became close friends with the Stones and traveled with them to the UK and Germany. When The Beatles decided to come to America, Brian Epstein asked the Rolling Stones office for a recommendation and Bob was selected to be the Tour Manager for The Beatles first US tour. He continued with them for all three of their US tours.
Bob was a serious photographer and took his camera everywhere. His archive consists of approximately 3,500 black-and-white and color photographs of the two most important bands in rock history on stage, backstage, rehearsing, recording, swimming, bowling, walking in the countryside, traveling on planes, cars and trains, posing and candidly relaxing, in the hotel and with the press. These images document that extraordinary point in their careers as they are poised to conquer America, taken by someone who had an unprecedented level of personal access.
Bob was a private person who never spoke about these days nor published or distributed his photographs. In 1984, on the twentieth anniversary of The Beatles coming to America, he gave a handful of interviews for the first and only time about those days. In the late 1960s he allowed a handful of the photos to be published in a teen magazine and otherwise these photographers are all unpublished and unseen since they were taken over 40 years ago.
We hope you enjoy Bob's extraordinary and historic images.
