London - Rare footage of an "unscheduled" Beatles gig during the band's first US tour in 1964 has been sold for 4,100 pounds (6,500 dollars) at auction in Britain, it was reported Wednesday. The two-minute silent footage, captured on 8-millimetre film, shows John, Paul, George and Ringo during a performance at the Municipal Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri.
It was re-discovered in the bottom of a drawer by fan Drew Dimmel who, as a 15-year-old boy, smuggled the movie camera into the concert hall.
Dimmel was one of 20,000 fans attending the concert, which had been hastily arranged after manager Brian Epstein accepted an increased offer of 150,000 dollars - around one million dollars in today's money.
"We cleared out my parents' estate two months ago and there we discovered it at the bottom of the drawer, still lying in its original photo-lab box with 'Beatles 1964' on the back of the box where I'd feverishly scrawled it in blue ballpoint pen," Dimmel said on the auctioneer's website.
It is not known who bought the film at the sale organized by Cameo Auctioneers, in the county of Berkshire, north of London.
