Tony Curtis meets the Beatles on 'Sgt. Pepper'

Tony Curtis was among the well-known and not so well-known celebrities used on the cover of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." (He's in the second row between Dion and artist Wallace Berman.)

Barry Miles says that wasn't the original idea. Author Clinton Heylin in his book "The Act You've Known For All These Years," quotes Miles as saying, "The original cover concept was northern dignataries -- the mayor with his chain and everything ... the Lord Mayor presenting Sgt. Pepper's brass band with some kind of medals, with the floral clock and all that northern stuff. It was very much Paul's idea."

At this link is a picture of Curtis signing the cutout used on the album. And here's the signature. He wrote "The Beatles chose me for 'Sgt. Pepper.'" Here in Vegas News, he is photographed in a "Sgt. Pepper" t-shirt.

And there's another Beatle connection: Curtis starred with Ringo Starr in the 1978 film "Sextette," a strange movie that starred Mae West, another celebrity on the "Sgt. Pepper" cover. Keith Moon, Alice Cooper and Timothy Dalton are in it, as well. With a cast like that -- add in Dom DeLuise, too -- you know it's one wild film.

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