The Key To Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart

In Sunday’s Boston Globe, James Sullivan commemorates the 40th anniversary of the photo shoot that resulted in the cover to the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band, by identifying all of the faces in the background. The online version is here, but it doesn’t include a key. The key in the print edition of the paper is small and, in my copy, off-register and nearly illegible.

I’ve made a nice, big key to the list. Click the picture above to see it. It will open a new window or tab, so you can compare it more easily to the list below. The photo is exactly 1024×768 pixels, the most common screen resolution, making it suitable for your computer’s wallpaper, if you don’t mind being unable to find anything on your desktop!

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. George 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