Mark Interviews 1990+

Mark Hamill

Mark, logical first question --- how and when did you start collecting Beatles memorabilia?

And I'll answer that in a roundabout way. I'm the middle of seven children, so I was predisposed to be ready for the Beatles' arrival because my older brothers and sisters listened to popular music. And I was able to hear wildly diverse groups, from the Shirelles to the Kingston Trio to James Brown... and we all watched American Bandstand. So when the Beatles really hit big on Ed Sullivan, they just knocked me out. And I've always loved the music. A Hard Day's Night was a movie that I think even people who weren't receptive to their music loved as a great film. And to me that will always be in my top ten favorite movies ever.

But it was the music.

It was always the music. Obviously, they were intriguing from the way they looked, and their accents, and being from a culture that I wasn't familiar with, but the music was the thing I loved so much. So I sort of laughed at the merchandising aspect of things. It seemed that the magazines and the little Beatle dolls and coloring books or whatever was silly.

What changed your mind?

In 1970, the fact they were breaking up came as a great shock. I hadn't seen Let it Be where they weren't really getting along very well, so I didn't see it coming. That combined with the fact that a friend of a friend said to me that he knew this girl down the street that was going to college, she needed some quick cash, and she was selling her Beatles memorabilia collection. Which up until that time, I had never really thought of in terms of following a group.

Right.

But when I heard that she was selling her whole collection, it suddenly had a different meaning to me. Because now the group wasn't going to be together anymore, weren't going to be recording together anymore. It just seemed to me that it would be fun.

How old were you in 1970?

I was born in 1951, so I would have turned 19. When the girl brought her collection over, I asked her, "What do you think it's worth?" And she said, "I don't know... like a hundred?" And I said, I remember the number, "I have $118, I'll give you that." She was happy, and I was happy. And now I look back on it as incredible. I mean, I wasn't trying to finesse some sweat deal for myself, but it was both the Yellow Submarine lunchbox and the blue lunchbox, all four bobbin' head dolls, the Coke tray, a tea towel, I don't know how many pieces exactly. But I do know that even five years later, I knew I'd done well by myself. So I got a really great starter set. And I continued to collect right through to the late eighties, when it was really getting precious. I remember wincing when I paid for the Revell model kits. I bought all four of those. Then I kind of drifted away... although I added a few pieces a couple of years ago when I was up in Canada. I think the most satisfying finds are the garage sales sort of finds, or finding things in your attic.

Can a celebrity like Mark Hamill go to garage sales?

Well, that's another thing. When I would go to comic book conventions and ask a price of a certain book, I'd get a quote. Then I'd send a friend back to ask about the same book, and the price was always lower for them than they were for me. So yeah, I think people just assume that money is no object for me, and that's not true. Part of the fun of collecting, I think, is the search and then getting it for something that's not so exorbitant...

The thrill of the hunt.

Exactly. I have a problem with that when I do signatures for STAR WARS fans. I'm happy to personalize it, but it makes me a little nervous when people say, "I don't know who I'm going to give it to," and you know that's going to be re-sold. So I try to not gauge the fans if at all possible. I make exceptions, I don't have a hard and fast rule. But for the most part, I'd much rather personalize. I mean, you know right away if they're fans, they say, "Oh yeah, put it to 'Jim'," I have no problem with that. Since I have some experience being a collector, I try and be mindful of the fans.

Do you do most of your collecting while on location, where you have a free afternoon and just start searching?

Yeah, that is exactly how I do it. We'll rent a car and drive. You find those five & dime-type stores.

Conversely, are there avenues open to celebrities that wouldn't be open to the rest of us as far as collecting goes?

Not that I'm really aware of. But let me think... I haven't had that happen where somebody says, "I know someone at Capital Records and they're clearing out their file cabinets," or whatever. It's funny, because one of my favorite bands is The Kinks, and over the years I've become friends with Dave Davies, and to a certain extent, with Roy. I've gone to their homes and seen things that you go, "Oh my God, wouldn't that be great, I'd love to have that!" But it's not really something I've asked or imposed upon them, or said, "Can you guys get into the Reprise library..." or whatever. I don't think I've ever really taken advantage of the fact that I know people. I feel I have a really nice collection. Obviously there's always things you don't have that would be nice to have.

What would be something you would like to add to your collection?

The Beatles talc in the blue metal tin. I love looking through these price guides, because you see all the items that you do have and get a general idea of where they are in the marketplace, and you see all these photographs of products you don't have.

What is the most cherished piece in your collection, to you?

I think the sillier the better. I love the Beatles hose, with the little guitars and moptop heads woven through them. Obviously I haven't had my wife put them on (laughs). And I love the Wing Ding tennis shoes. I have those in a box, and I think I paid twenty-five dollars for them, I don't know what they are worth now...

A thousand. In the box.

See, the tissue's in there as well. I would never ever sell these things.

Have you ever met any of the Fab Four?

I met Ringo and George. I sent a little note over to George on an airplane. He was across from me and I didn't want to bother him, but I gave the stewardess a note that said, "Dear George, thanks for the music and being so much a part of my life." And when she gave him the note, she told me he would like to say hi. So I rushed over and basically repeated what I said in the note. It was around the time of his 33 1/3 album, and I was a big booster of the album, thinking it was my favorite of his solo projects up till that time. It had such a whimsical air to it, and was light on the Hare Krishna aspect of things. I didn't tell him that. (laughs) I just told him it was really fun and great. I love Crackerbox Palace.

Good song.

It was weird, because I got a lump in my throat talking to him. Almost like I was in the principal's office, where you want to talk but you're overwhelmed with emotions. Which shows me what a fan I am. I didn't know what to say, I just said, "Thanks so much, I just think you're so great." And he looked up and he said, (with Liverpool accent), "You're not so bad, yourself." (Laughs) I could have just fallen over, it was just great. And Ringo, I just bumped into at a club in London called Stringfellows. They had told us where to sit, you see, I was getting comp'd because of my dubious celebrity qualities or whatever. So they sat us in this one area, and the next thing you know, Ringo came over and sat down! And I said, "Ringo! Ringo Starr! I'm Mark Hamill, it's so great to meet you!" And I hugged him. And he winced in severe pain. I had no idea he just had some kind of car accident in Italy. Turns out his ribs were taped. So here I was doing the last thing you would ever want to do to someone you admire so much -- physically hurt the man. He couldn't have been nicer. And you know, I'm not a huggy kinda guy, believe me. I don't kiss and hug, but I just lost it. It just seemed the right thing to do at the time. I was wrong. (laughs)

Very interesting point you bring up. In May Pang's book Loving John: The Untold Story, she recounts a party they went to in New York, which was filled with rock stars --- David Bowie, Lou Reed etc. Lennon walked into the room, stayed a while, went home, and nobody had really approached him. So he said to May Pang later, "I guess they don't like me." And May said, "You've got to be kidding, they're totally in awe of you. They were afraid to talk to you." And it's interesting you had that same kind of reaction to George.

I had seen John in New York at least twice. Once with Yoko and once by himself. One time on Columbus Avenue and I was on foot, and I walked by, and I knew who it was, and I turned around and watched him walk off. But one of the things that had made an impact on me was the fact he had praised New York as a place where he could walk down the street and not be accosted. So I made a real effort not to turn into Mr. Fanboy. I saw him again with Yoko in Central Park, realized who it was, and made a conscious effort not to accost them in any way. I just thought, wow, there they are! And if you asked who my favorite Beatle was, I'd have to say John, although I love them all. We had heard that Sean had seen Empire Strikes Back, and they wanted me to come by and see Sean and bring him a picture or whatever. And I was really excited, are you kidding, I get to go to the Dakota and meet them and everything! It was around the end of November, and I said, you know what, with all that's going on with the holidays and everything, why don't we just wait till after Christmas? And of course, that horrible day in December... To me, that still strikes me as the worst of the assassinations in this country or anywhere, because it was the first one that wasn't political. It was entertainment-related. And to this day, it's just so tragic.

Let's change gears. A general question --- if you were stranded on a desert island, which Beatle album would you want with you?

Oh wow... that's really tough... probably I would say... uh... Rubber Soul. I loved that album.

Rubber Soul was a real transition album, so it's an interesting choice.

It is a transition album. Even at the time there was some regret at leaving the moptop era behind and getting into the more cerebral stuff that peaked with Sgt. Pepper. I remember the first time we put the needle down on Rubber Soul, and being just stunned by Norwegian Wood. What's that weird, twangy guitar? They were just amazing, I don't think there's ever been a more magical entity in show business. Not in my lifetime. For my mom, maybe, it was Frank Sinatra. For my older brother, it was Elvis. But for me, personally, it was the Beatles.

Mark, STAR WARS memorabilia is huge. Do you collect any of those pieces?

No. I don't. As a matter of fact, I remember saying to George Lucas, "Could you make sure I get one of everything?" And what I meant was there's going to be a soundtrack album, a tee-shirt, and a comic book. I never foresaw electric toothbrushes, wallpaper and all of it. But they started sending me big, brown mailing boxes filled with this stuff. My son, by the time of the last picture, Jedi, he was very into this. He loved the Muppets and he loved STAR WARS. I remember thinking at the time, this will all be collectible, but what kind of Dad would I be to not let him play with this stuff. I've never been a dealer, I've never said I'm going to get two of these, hold onto one and sell the other one. To me, you buy what you like, what pleases you. So I let him have everything, I just let him open it up. Then his brother came along. Course now they're looking through price guides saying, "Why'd you let me play with Princess Leia and give her that Sinéad O'Connor haircut!" Her head is on the end of a pencil in their toy box with just dots for hair. But you can't win.

Does the fact that you yourself are a collectible affect the way you collect Beatles memorabilia?

That's probably why it was fun for me. I got a kick out of all the pop aspects of being made into dolls and bubble-gum cards and comic books. When you find it particularly trying in terms of fans scrambling for minutia and picking up things you threw away and so forth --- thinking this is nutty, why would they care --- but having been a Beatle fan, I understand it in a way. I was someone who was very interested in everything they did and said. It puts it in perspective. My wife will point that out saying, "You think that's wacky? What about when you paid $140 for the Beatles shampoo?" Or the soakies, I've got the Paul and Ringo soakies.

Have you ever attended a Beatle convention?

No I haven't, but it's tempting. Even if you can't buy all these things for your own collection, it's always neat to see them.

Right.

My daughter is a big Spice Girls fan, and I went to see the Spice World movie, and watched the audience more than the movie.

Shades of A Hard Day's Night.

Yes, shades of A Hard Day's Night. But call me an old fogie, I've never seen anything that comes close to the kind of impact on so many levels that the Beatles had. I really enjoyed Backbeat as well --- in terms of acknowledging that leather-jacketed, greased pompadour part of their history.

Before Epstein cleaned them up.

Yeah. Anyway, I just love everything Beatles, that's why I loved your magazine. They'll never be replaced, they're the greatest.

Do you have any friends or fellow actors that collect?

Let me think.

We hear John Ritter is a big Beatle collector.

Yeah, John's son Jason and my son Nathan were in a band for a while, so that's how I met John. Not through the business, but through our kids. I know he's a big Beatles fan. See, he was well placed, he was making all his big dollars on Three's Company when it was all affordable, right? And he was pulling down that $20,000 a week cheque. I mean, my pattern of collecting coincides with being single, and not having kids that need orthodontists, and paying tuition. Let's see who else collects... Bill Mumy (Lost In Space) collects. He has a huge Pez collection, a Beatles collection, and a huge Golden Age comic book collection. That's how I met him, going after the same comic books, rather than through acting.

It's amazing to find 30, 35 years later, that there are still "warehouse" finds.

Well, the nodding head dolls, there was a huge warehouse find of those. There's also overlaps. Being a comic book collector, there are a lot of Beatle crossovers, some of the romance comic books had either Beatle covers or stories. There's the Beatles Life Story, I've got two copies of that. I never got a copy with a poster inside. And what was inside the Yellow Submarine comic?

There was a pullout, too.

Yeah, so I have that but the pullout is gone.

Will you complete your meetings with the Beatles by running into Paul some day?

Wouldn't that be great.

Mark, for someone who experienced a lot of fame, what is your take on what the Beatles were subjected to? And to some of the quotes George and Ringo had through Anthology --- that they lived in a fishbowl and how they gave up their nervous systems...

Yeah, well, it's nutty, isn't it? We started the tour before the movie came out, and then it came out while we were on tour. We landed in Chicago and there were all these mobs of people, and I turned to Harrison Ford and said, "Wow, there must be somebody famous on this plane!" Thinking it was Ted Kennedy or something. And then we realized, hey look, there's somebody dressed like Carrie, there's somebody dressed like Luke! It's fun to have had the precedent of the Beatles, and again, I don't want to compare us in any way, but in terms of just pop culture, there were moments where you thought, this must have been what it was like for them all the time. There was one time at the opening of Empire in New York, and there was such a mob in the lobby, we got separated from the guys that were hustling us through. So we ducked out a side door, and people were actually chasing us down the street. I thought as we were running, what would happen if they caught us? It's silly, isn't it? But we were grown-ups running full speed down the street looking for our car to jump into. When we eventually found it, we jumped in, pulled away, and there were people throwing themselves over the front of the car! And I thought, wow, that's about as close to Beatlemania as you'll ever get!

You're not kidding.

You just put it into perspective and try and keep your sanity. It must have been tenfold for those guys. They couldn't go anywhere. You never realize how much you prize anonymity until it's completely gone.

Very true. Well, thanks Mark, this has been a lot of fun.

My pleasure. I'd love to see the next issue, and I loved the one you sent me, it was great.

Beatlology, November/December 1998