Beatles Etc.

We've got a trio of brief Beatles-related items.

A portable '60s record player decorated with Beatles logos has sold on eBay for more than $12,000. The portable unit that was sold by Brian Epstein's family store NEMS in Liverpool were among the earliest Beatles-licensed souvenirs and are now extremely rare -- only 5,000 were made nearly 50 years ago.

There's encouraging news on Tony Sheridan. His musician pal Ted "Kingsize"Taylor posted yesterday on Facebook that the singer whom The Beatles backed on an early Hamburg, Germany recording session, is "still very weak, but was delighted that so many people care, and sends his thanks to you all."

A bizarre story out of Brazil, where there's been a recent rash of crimes by people named John Lennon. London's Daily Mail says the most recent arrest came on Friday, when 19-year old John Lennon Ribeiro Siqueira was caught as he prepared to rob a lottery shop in Belo Horizonte. He joins fellow perps John Lennon Fonseca Ferreira, 22, busted during an attempted robbery on January 8th and John Lenon Camargos Gomes, also 22, who is accused of five murders in Belo Horizonte. The Mail says that John Lennon became a popular name for boys in the years since the ex-Beatle's murder.