LIFESTYLE TUESDAY, MARCH 18, 2014 Music38 & Movies ‘12 Years a Slave’ Author’s Death Still a Mystery Early George Harrison guitar leads Beatles memorabilia auction n electric guitar played by Hold Your Hand” and “This Boy” in George Harrison on British October 1963. Harrison later gave Atelevision prior to the Beatles’ the guitar to friend and musician “invasion” of the United States will George Peckham, who played it in an go on the auction block along with a appearance on UK TV show “Top of rare album cover signed by the Fab the Pops” with the band the Fourmost. Four, Julien’s Auctions said yester- Also up for sale is a copy of the day. Harrison’s black-and-white 1962 album “Beatles ‘65” signed by Lennon, Rickenbacker 425 electric guitar is Harrison, Paul McCartney and expected to fetch between $400,000 Ringo Starr. The album is expected to fetch between $200,000 and and $600,000 at an auction on May $300,000 because it was rare for 16-17 at the Hard Rock Cafe in New all four members of the group to York City. sign copies of albums after their Harrison, who died in 2001 at popularity exploded in the United age 58, played the guitar on 1963 States in 1964. A used Hofner bass appearances on British TV shows rented by McCartney in the mid- “Ready Steady Go!” and “Thank Your 1960s is expected to sell for $30,000 Lucky Stars” months before the group to $50,000, while a signed cover by brought Beatlemania to the United the group of the 1963 album “Please States with a series of performances Please Me” is expected to bring in on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in February between $40,000 and $50,000. 1964, launching the British Invasion of An original artwork by Lennon rock bands. The guitarist bought the called “Shroud of Tourin” is estimated instrument in 1963 in Mount Vernon, to sell for $20,000 to $30,000. The In this July 18, 2012, film publicity image released by Fox Searchlight, Chiwetel Ejiofor portrays Solomon Northup in a scene from Illinois, while on a trip to visit his piece of un-stretched canvas, created “12 Years A Slave.”—AP sister, according to the Beverly Hills, circa 1966, shows a man who looks California, auction house. like Lennon with a Batman symbol on istorians know where Solomon Northup was born, where he he published a memoir of his ordeal that led to a speaking tour sup- The guitar, which Harrison had lived and where he worked. They know whom he married and ported by abolitionists. He got involved in the Underground Railroad, his chest and words scrawled across painted white and black to match it.—Reuters Hhow many children he had. They know he played the fiddle and helping escaped slaves find freedom in the Northeast and Canada. John Lennon’s Rickenbacker guitar, spent 12 years enslaved in the South before being freed. But around 1863, the height of the Civil War, he dropped out of sight was also used during the sessions What historians don’t know about the author of “12 Years a Slave” is and was never heard from again. Even the movie notes at the end that when the band recorded “I Want to when and how he died and where he is buried. It’s a lingering mystery “the date, location and circumstances” of Northrup’s death remain in the final chapter of the life of the 19th-century free-born African- unknown. American whose compelling account of enforced slavery in pre-Civil Theories abound about what may have happened to him. One War Louisiana was made into the Oscar-winning film of the same title. scenario has him being captured and killed while serving as a spy for “That’s sort of a big blank spot in the story, for sure,” said Rachel the Union Army. The man who helped rescue him said he believed Seligman, co-author of “Solomon Northup: The Complete Story of the Northup had taken to drink and was kidnapped yet again. Or Northup Author of Twelve Years a Slave,” published last year. This month, “12 could have died in a place where no one knew him or cared to prop- Years a Slave” took home the Academy Awards for best picture, best erly bury an African-American at a time when a war over slavery was adapted screenplay and best supporting actress. The accolades have tearing the nation apart. sparked new interest in Northup’s story, which was little known until “He may have just wandered around from place to place and died recent years even in the upstate New York communities where he somewhere nobody knew who he was, and he was buried in a potter’s spent most of his life. field,” said David Fiske, co-author the 2013 Northup book along with Northup was born July 10, 1807, in what is now the Essex County Union College professor Clifford Brown. “There’s no paper trail for him,” town of Minerva, in the Adirondack Mountains. His father, a former Brown added. slave, moved the family to neighboring Washington County, eventu- Fiske said Northup’s descendants also couldn’t provide any docu- ally settling in the village of Fort Edward, on the Hudson River 40 miles ments or hard facts, so he has followed numerous threads while trying north of Albany. Northup married Anne Hampton in the late 1820s, to track down where Northup may have been buried. He checked and the couple lived in an 18th-century house in Fort Edward that is cemeteries in communities outside Saratoga and other upstate com- now a museum. munities where Northup’s wife and their children later lived, but came Northup worked on his father’s farm and rafted timber on the up empty. No death records have ever been found for him. Fiske, a Champlain Canal between Fort Edward and the southern end of Lake former state librarian, points out that death records weren’t kept in a Champlain. The couple and their children moved to nearby Saratoga systematic form in New York until the 1880s. Springs when Anne got a job in one of the growing spa resort town’s For Seligman, a museum curator at Skidmore College, host of this big hotels. Northup found work as a musician, and in 1841, two white July’s annual Solomon Northup Day, the mystery surrounding Nor- men lured him to Washington, D.C., with the promise of more work. thup’s demise and resting place is part of the allure of being a histo- Instead, they kidnapped him and took him to New Orleans, where he rian. “It’s what keeps historians going,” she said. “It’s just a puzzle to be was sold into slavery. solved.”—AP Controversial scenarios Northup endured the next 12 years enslaved on a Louisiana cotton plantation before friends in Saratoga finally won his freedom. In 1853, George Harrison Paul Stanley: Future has his mind on Kiss miffed at Rock the future at SXSW uture had one last spot to fill on his deeply in love each is with the women Hall over snub upcoming album and he wanted in their lives. West is engaged to Kim FKanye West to guest. He sent over Kardashian and Future will marry Ciara a few tracks and what happened next later this year. The song compares their was completely unexpected. “He picked relationships with the feeling of winning this ‘I Won’ track,” the Atlanta producer- a trophy. “When you have songs like that, rapper said Saturday during a two-day they empower women,” he said. stop at South By Southwest. “He did the verse in one day and sent it back. That’s ‘Superstar’ baby rare when you get a Kanye verse back “I just feel like I want to big up women in one day, so you know it’s one of them just in general, from my lady to his lady, records when he does the verse and to all women, to make sure they get their sends it back in 24 hours. That’s the icing light on them and just knowing they’re on the cake with the album.” important.” Future has much more going Future began to debut tracks from on this year than just the album. He’s got “Honest,” out April 22, at the annual mu- a tour to rehearse for and can’t take all sic conference and festival on Friday and the outside production opportunities said he was excited for the wider world he’s being offered. He’s also launching an to hear what he feels is a very personal apparel line. That’s just the business side. album. “Honest” also includes guest ap- In his personal life, he’s preparing for the In this May 8, 2008 file photo, members of Kiss, from left, Paul Stanley, Eric pearances from stars like Pharrell, Drake, birth of a child with Ciara and trying to Singer, Gene Simmons and Tommy Thayer, poses for a photograph during a B-52s’ Fred Andre 3000 and Wiz Khalifa. West’s ap- plan their wedding.—AP news conference to promote the start of their KISS Alive/35 European Tour in pearance on “I Won” is one of the more Oberhausen, Germany.—AP Schneider says personal moments, encapsulating how aul Stanley of Kiss wants to shout inducted rap artists, or they’ve inducted don’t eat the lobster it out loud: The band is miffed at people who have been in the band for Pthe Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for seven years as opposed to ..