History Detectives returned for its 10th season last week with its 100th episode. It was a great episode - all centering on music. Plus they finally showed the research interns!
The first investigation was over a Fender Stratocaster guitar. The owner's father was a pilot who flew music acts in the 1960s, including Bob Dylan and Peter, Paul, and Mary. The pilot stated that Dylan left the guitar in the plane, and his efforts to return them were unsuccessful. There was also a bunch of handwritten and typewritten lyrics in the guitar case. Elyse Luray and Wes Cowan investigated the guitar, and was able to authenticate both the lyrics and the guitar as belonging to Bob Dylan. In addition, they were able to determine that it was the same Stratocaster that Bob Dylan used during the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. The crowd was expecting him to play acoustic folk songs, but he plugged in the guitar and went electric. He got booed off the stage, although he returned later to play acoustic songs. It was a momentous event in rock and roll history.
The second investigation was done by Tufuku Zuberi and it involved Beatles autographs. Two brothers wanted to know if the autographs they got of Ringo Starr and John Lennon were real. The Beatles first visited America in 1964, and were staying at the Deauville Hotel in Miami Beach. The two brothers wrote to Charles, the Maitre d' at the Deauville that they had met the year before when they stayed at the hotel, and asked him to get them the Beatles' autographs. They got a package with a room service menu signed by John Lennon and a photo of the Beatles signed by Ringo Starr, along with autographs of Bob Hope, Cynthia Lennon (John's wife at the time), and a couple of other stars at the time. Tufuku was able to authenticate the four autographs, but discovered that the Beatles' autographs were fake. It looked like Charles signed the room service menu and the photograph in order not to disappoint the two brothers.
Finally, Gwen Wright investigated a collage that might have been created by Frank Zappa. Gwen found out that Frank Zappa did dabble in visual arts when he was young, and created this collage in homage of the Professional Drum Shop. He visited the Professional Drum Shop a lot when he was young. This investigation was particularly interesting because Gwen got to meet Frank's brother, friend who created a lot of his advertisements, and his widow, Gail Zappa. Gail Zappa was the one who made the connection between the collage and the Professional Drum Shop, because she recognized the picture of the late owner of the shop.
All three stories were very compelling. History Detectives definitely saved the best for its 100th episode.
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