BEATLEMANIA

PHOTO: EAST NEWS/REX FEATURES THE BEATLES W BOSTONIE, AMERICA - 1964. --BEATLES PICS RETURNED 37 YEARS ON--When Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Kevin Cole retired from the Boston Herald recently, the paper's management had a special gift for him: His collection of Beatles negatives which was stolen 37 years ago! Cole had not seen the photos since the day he had taken them in 1964. As with every assignment, he filed his negatives and within days they went missing, probably stolen by a former employee of the paper. Cole says photographing The Beatles was one of the highlights of his career and he regrets having filed the negatives in that cabinet, but "Who knew how popular they would be?" he said. "I could have made thousands of dollars with those negatives over the years." All Cole had was a copy of one original concert photo. A friend noticed the photo at Cole's house and said that someone was selling framed prints of it on the internet. An investigation was launched, resulting in the newspaper's lawyers securing the return of the negatives. Another photographer played a trick on him by telling fans that Cole had the band's autograph, which led to them attacking Cole and almost tearing his shirt off. Female fans even showed up at the newspaper's office to see him because he had been close to the Beatles. The negatives of Kevin Cole's photographs of The Beatles were stolen in the 60's and only returned to him at his recent retirement party - Paul McCartney waving from the back of his limousine