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'Eleanor Rigby' Document Goes for $177K

Price for Beatles relic misses $750K projection

By Matt Cantor, Newser Staff

Posted Nov 28, 2008 9:31 AM CST

(Newser) – A 1911 document that lists “E. Rigby” among the employees of a Liverpool hospital sold at auction for $177,000 yesterday, failing to match hopes of a $750,000 haul for the Beatles relic, Reuters reports. The possible inspiration for the song "Eleanor Rigby" is a salary register signed by scullerymaid E. Rigby. Paul McCartney sent it to a music charity in 1990 in response to a donation request, the group's head says.

“I wonder just how much Paul McCartney meant to unmask when he passed it on,” said a rep for the seller. McCartney has said Eleanor Rigby was fictional, though he says he may have subconsciously registered a headstone bearing the name in a Liverpool cemetery as a boy.

[Images (3)]

[Videos (1)]

An entry for Eleanor Rigby, a scullery maid, fifth line from bottom, is seen in a page from a 1911 Corporation of Liverpool accounts book, in London, Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2008. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

Annie Mawson,head of Sunbeams Music Trust charity, poses with a page from a 1911 Corporation of Liverpool accounts book with an entry for Eleanor Rigby, in London, Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2008. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

In this Sept. 16, 2008 file photo, Paul McCartney arrives for the National Magazine Company's 30 Days of Fashion and Beauty viewing of 30 photographs taken by Mary McCartney, in London. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan)

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The Sunbeams Music Therapy Trust raised money by auctioning a document signed by Eleanor Rigby given to the Trust by Paul McCartney. (YouTube)

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'Eleanor Rigby' Document Goes for $177K