In addition to being an excellent photographer, Howard was also a very good autograph collector. He pursued the Beatles heavily – more than anyone else – and got a number of items signed by them. He got John to sign at the Dakota Apartments on three separate occasions, for a total of eight items. He got Paul’s autograph many times. In addition to getting Paul to sign during a trip to New York in 1976, while he was living in New York, he was able to get Paul to sign many more times, obtaining more than 30 Paul autographs. George was Howard’s toughest to get. George was not cooperative during the promotional appearance he did in Chicago for his 33 and a 3rd album release. Howard approached George to sign his 45 RPM picture sleeve as he arrived at the Ambassador Hotel in Chicago for the press party. When George did not want to take the pen, Howard pleaded with him and told him, “Just sign George.” So George signed the first couple of letters of his first name and handed the sleeve back to Howard. Howard was able to get one more George autograph that day, on the press conference photo of all four but it was tough. The majority of his Ringo autographs were obtained at the Phil Donahue Show in Chicago in 1981. He got Ringo to sign one or two times after that, but often complained about how tough Ringo had become. I was able to get copies of some of the autographs Howard obtained of The Beatles, and here they are.
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- 1964 photo of The Beatles at a press conference before a concert at the Cincinnati Gardens, signed by all four. This was the item Howard was the most proud of. He told me when he was a kid, he saw a promo photo of The Beatles with facsimile signatures with each signature in a different color. So when he set out to get this photo and the picture sleeve signed, he decided to use different colored pens because he thought that promo photo was cool and wanted to do the same thing.
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- Picture Sleeve signed by all four. This is the item that George signed part of his first name only on the left side, while being difficult at a 1976 press party in Chicago.
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- Capital Records promo double photo, signed by all but George. On the top photo, Howard asked Ringo to sign first name only for some reason and Ringo obliged. With Ringo later refusing to sign his last name, Howard came to regret asking him to do that.
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- 1966 photo of John at Crosley Field in Cincinnati
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- Wire photo of John & Yako at the Dakota Apartments, where this photo was signed. Howard used two pens the first time he got John to sign. He used a black felt tip marker on the press conference photo and the picture sleeve, then switched to blue ballpoint for the next three items. On this item, John started to sign with the black felt tip marker after signing the other items, but Howard stopped John right after he made the “J,” and asked him to switch pens, which he did.
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- One of Howard’s original photos, of Paul arriving at Lunken Airport in Cincinnati in 1976. He got Paul to sign it a short time later.
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- Howard went to a Bob Dylan concert in New York in the ‘80’s, and brought along a couple of 8x10 photos of Dylan to try to get Dylan to sign. He didn’t get Dylan’s autograph, but to his surprise, George was there. The only thing Howard had to get signed were the two Dylan photos. So Howard got George to sign the back sides of both photos. But George intentionally made his “R’s,” different than he normally did, making them as capital “R’s.” I don’t know why but seems like George always gave Howard a hard time.
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- People magazine cover signed by Ringo and wife Barbara at the Phil Donahue Show in Chicago in 1981.