Are there any photos of the late 61/early 62 Beach Boys with Al?

[ajsmith]

I don't think I've ever seen a photo of the original 5 man group of Mike/Brian/Carl/Dennis/Al from around the time of 'Surfin' before Al left and David Marks was recruited. The earliest photos of the Beach Boys as a group I've ever seen are already with David in the group. As obscure as they were at the time, I find it kind of hard to believe that there were no publicity or otherwise photos taken of the group before David replaced Al. Is this indeed the case, or are there any out there?

[Rocker]

AFAIK there are none that we know of. I guess the best chance to find something would be in the families' private archives or in the hands of some old friends from those days. Surely, I would love to see such a picture.

[Pretty Funky]

Well video came to light a few months ago of the PS shoot at the zoo, so anything’s possible.

[guitarfool2002]

A few years ago there was an auction of various letters and photos that had been stashed away for years and eventually found in a dresser owned by Milton Love. I believe the selling price was around $2,500 US. If there were such photos in existence, and there's no reason to think someone in the band and their extended families didn't snap a photo of their Boys at this time, that would be the kind of previously unknown place to find it. But as with a lot of events, it is pretty amazing nothing like this has turned up in the 60 years or so people have been archiving and collecting items from the band.

Of course before cel phones and digi-cameras, when you actually had to take a roll of film to be developed if you didn't own a Polaroid instant camera, isn't it amazing how many life events we look back on and wonder why no one took a photo?

[Ian]

We’ve discussed this numerous times over the years but again no photo has turned up as of now. I have had the privilege to interview a number of members and the impression I get, tragically for us, is that the only pack rat/ collector was Bruce. The others seem to have saved very little. Of course when they are all no longer with us -forgotten boxes of paperwork and memorabilia may appear. That being said-The early BBs shows were advertised without photos in all papers I’ve come across. It’s only when they were signed to Capitol that professional pictures start to accompany ads.

[guitarfool2002]

Not relative to the lack of early Jardine photos, but in the past year it has been amazing to see how much previously unseen or unknown material has been "found" or has been popping up on YouTube and other outlets from other prominent bands from the 60's and 70's. I watch so much of it I can't remember specifics, but there are many clips that surfaced in recent years that even 10-15 years ago no one knew about. And even outside of music, clips of Johnny Carson's Tonight Show in New York keep showing up, and that's literally video thought to have been destroyed but clips which somehow survived and were found in various places are leaking out. It's been pretty cool to see all this stuff thought to have been lost permanently. It's probably been around for years and I just never knew about it, but I recently saw a Doors promo clip for "Light My Fire" which had them miming on a fire truck with girls dancing around them, and that was new to me lol. Same with some 60's dance shows showing up.

I guess it's a case of mining all the storage spaces, vaults, boxes, closets, etc and something new may just turn up. Not saying photos of Al and the band in '61 are under that category, if they simply weren't saved, but for other bands of the era it's been pretty fun in the past year.