Where's Brando?
It was (nearly) 40 years ago today. On the evening of March 30, 1967, four young musicians gathered with a large group of artists and assistants in a London studio to shoot a photograph for an album cover.
The album, to be called "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," would, of course, become synonymous with the creative revolution of the 1960s. The cover artwork, a photomontage of the Beatles posing for photographer Michael Cooper among a gallery of several dozen celebrities ("People We Like," as the crew took to calling them) was itself a radical departure, with its elaborately designed "gatefold" layout, bonus insert, and printed song lyrics -- the latter a first in pop.
Behind the real-life Beatles, who were dressed in candy-colored military-band costumes and sported newly cultivated mustaches, the "crowd" was actually made up of wax figures and cardboard cutouts of singers, actors, writers, artists, athletes, and critical thinkers -- some of them (Marlon Brando, Bob Dylan) as familiar as the Beatles themselves, others (Bobby Breen?) now as obsolete as monaural recording.
The cover concept was originally conceived by Paul McCartney and London art dealer Robert Fraser as a tableau for a fictitious Salvation Army-style brass band. But in the hands of its designers, then-husband-and-wife Pop artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth (who ended up choosing more than half of the faces), it became a droll satire of celebrity and influence. While many of the famous figures in the gallery were heroes to the Beatles, others were chosen out of sheer, Beatlesque audacity. The group's record company, EMI, rejected three of John Lennon's suggestions -- Jesus, Gandhi, and Hitler.
Inspired by Victorian-era composite photographs, Dada collage artists, and Pop artist Richard Hamilton's surreal cut-and-paste suburban scenes, the "Sgt. Pepper" cover has become a visual touchstone. Haworth, now living in Utah, still has the Grammy she and her ex-husband shared for the graphic design: "I let the children play with it," she says with a laugh. "The trumpet fell off, and the dog chewed on it. It's been destroyed in an iconoclastic way."
James Sullivan is a frequent Globe contributor and the author of "Jeans: A Cultural History of an American Icon."
The "Sgt. Pepper" cover:
1. Sri Yukteswar Giri: Indian guru, one of four chosen for the cover by George Harrison.
2. Aleister Crowley: Notorious mystic, polymath, and drug user chosen, designer Jann Haworth says, by John Lennon.
3.Mae West: "What would I be doing in a lonely hearts club?" she reportedly joked. Ringo Starr appeared in her 1978 film "Sextette."
4.Lenny Bruce: By 1967, the Beatles shared some of the late comic's persecution complex.
5.Karlheinz Stockhausen: Avant-garde composer who (though chosen by McCartney) once credited Lennon as the crucial link between pop and "serious" music.
6.W.C. Fields: Wisecracking actor, apparently chosen by Peter Blake.
7.Carl Jung: Psychoanalyst who famously dreamed of "dirty, sooty" Liverpool (the Beatles' hometown), where he discovers Self in the form of a blooming magnolia.
8.Edgar Allan Poe: Chosen by Lennon, who would soon write the line "Man you should have seen them kicking Edgar Allan Poe" ("I Am the Walrus").
9.Fred Astaire: McCartney, a big fan, has said "Here, There and Everywhere" was inspired by "Cheek to Cheek."
10.Richard Merkin: Self-proclaimed "literary painter" chosen by Haworth and/or Blake.
11.Vargas girl: Iconic pinup. Haworth now finds the cover's preponderance of blond bombshells (and lack of other influential women) "scathing, terrible."
12.Leo Gorcey (missing): Actor who starred in 1930s-'40s comedy-drama serials "Dead End Kids" and "Bowery Boys" asked for $400 for permission to use his image and was painted out.
13.Huntz Hall: Gorcey's fellow actor in "Dead End Kids" and "Bowery Boys" series.
14.Simon Rodia: Immigrant construction worker who created the Watts Towers in Los Angeles.
15.Bob Dylan: The man who introduced the Beatles to marijuana.
16.Aubrey Beardsley: Influential Victorian-era illustrator whose work enjoyed a '60s revival.
17.Sir Robert Peel: UK prime minister of 1830s and '40s who reformed the police force.
18.Aldous Huxley: Author of "Brave New World," advocated psychedelic drug use.
19.Dylan Thomas: The Welsh poet, who died in 1953. As a child, Lennon took comfort in stories about artists such as Thomas and van Gogh, who "seemed to see things other people didn't see."
20.Terry Southern: Novelist and satirist. Ringo starred in 1969 feature film of his novel "The Magic Christian."
21.Dion: Besides Dylan, the onetime heartthrob was the only pop music figure in the gallery.
22.Tony Curtis: The actor, a family friend of the Haworths, inspired a generation of hairstyles in late '50s England.
23.Wallace Berman: West Coast collage/assemblage artist chosen by designers Haworth and Blake.
24.Tommy Handley: BBC comedian of the Beatles' childhood eulogized by the bishop of London for his "satire without malice."
25.Marilyn Monroe: Famously sang "Happy Birthday" for JFK; contrary to popular belief, McCartney does not own the rights to the song.
26.William S. Burroughs: Experimental writer, influenced McCartney with his cut-up tape recordings.
27.Sri Mahavatara Babaji: Indian guru.
28.Stan Laurel: British-born comic actor, one half of the duo Laurel and Hardy.
29.Richard Lindner: "Mechanistic Cubist" painter chosen by the designers.
30.Oliver Hardy: Laurel's comic partner.
31.Karl Marx: Though an avid reader of his work, Lennon was an uncertain revolutionary ("Don't you know that you can count me out").
32.H.G. Wells: Science fiction pioneer ("War of the Worlds," "The Time Machine") and utopian thinker.
33.Sri Paramahansa Yogananda: Harrison liked to give away copies of his "Autobiography of a Yogi."
34.(Window dummy)
35.Stuart Sutcliffe: Ex-Beatle whose premature death haunted Lennon.
36.(Window dummy)
37.Max Miller: Risque comedian of McCartney's beloved music hall era.
38.Petty girl: Like Vargas's, George Petty's pinup girls were World War II icons.
39.Marlon Brando: In "The Wild One," the rival biker gang is called the Beetles.
40.Tom Mix: Early Western film star.
41.Oscar Wilde: Another of the artists who "suffered because of their visions," as Lennon once told Playboy.
42.Tyrone Power: Hollywood star of the Beatles' formative years.
43.Larry Bell: American sculptor who worked as a bouncer at the Unicorn in LA.
44.Dr. David Livingstone: Scottish explorer and African missionary.
45.Johnny Weissmuller: Movie Tarzan whose famous whoop preceded McCartney's.
46.Stephen Crane: "Red Badge of Courage" author who died at 28 after living the last years of his life in England.
47.Issy Bonn: British comic and singer whose raised right hand just behind Paul's head -- an Eastern death symbol? -- was seen as a clue to the rampant "Paul is dead" rumors.
48.George Bernard Shaw: Playwright, critic, socialist, vegetarian.
49.H.C. Westermann: American sculptor and printmaker, chosen by the designers.
50.Albert Stubbins: Midcentury English footballer whose best years were with Liverpool.
51.Sri Lahiri Mahasaya: Indian guru.
52.Lewis Carroll: Lennon, a big fan of the "Alice" author, took Carroll's verse "The Walrus and the Carpenter" as inspiration for "I Am the Walrus."
53.T.E. Lawrence: "Lawrence of Arabia" famously portrayed by Swinging Londoner Peter O'Toole.
54.Sonny Liston: Wax image of the former heavyweight champ, whose nemesis, the future Muhammad Ali, posed for photos with the Beatles.
55.Petty girl
56.George Harrison (wax): Wax images of the youthful Beatles were provided by Madame Tussauds, which threw in Liston and Diana Dors for good measure.
57.John Lennon (wax)
58.Shirley Temple (hidden behind wax Lennon's left shoulder): First of three images of the child star (including the doll wearing the Rolling Stones jersey), a bit of overkill for which Haworth blames herself.
59.Ringo Starr (wax)
60.Paul McCartney (wax)
61.Albert Einstein (hidden behind real-life Lennon's right shoulder): Scientific genius who said, "I live my daydreams in music."
62.John Lennon: "Sgt. Pepper" outfits designed by Manuel Cuevas, who still sews flashy costumes in Nashville. He hardly remembers it: "I made a bunch of funny outfits for them," he says.
63.Ringo Starr: Declined to make any suggestions and doesn't recall the photo shoot -- "I suppose I must have been there because I'm in the photograph," he has said.
64.Paul McCartney: Originated the "Sgt. Pepper" concept; chose most of the showbiz celebrities.
65.George Harrison: "Within You Without You," his sole contribution to "Sgt. Pepper," reconfirmed his interest in Eastern philosophy.
66.Bobby Breen: Child star of the 1930s.
67.Marlene Dietrich: Once shared the stage at the Prince of Wales Theatre with young Beatles.
68.Mohandas Gandhi (blacked out).
69.Order of the Buffalos Legionnaire
70.Diana Dors: British Marilyn whose second husband was Richard Dawson.
71. Shirley Temple 