A Face in the Crowd

I'm looking thru a high-res reproduction of the cover of Sgt. Pepper and thinking what a fantastic photoshoot wrap party it would have been - so many fascinating people to chat with. I'm imagining the cover stars fragmenting into little groups - Bob Dylan and Stockhausen discussing the electrification of music, Aleister Crowley and William Burroughs swapping stories of astral-projection and exotic drugs, W. C. Fields sneaking a few deprecatory asides as Lenny Bruce moans about his legal troubles, Edgar Allan Poe talking with Aubrey Beardsley about collaborating on an illustrated collection of Gothic tales, H.G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw and Karl Marx hotly debating the pros and cons of Stalinism, and Mae West and Oscar Wilde flirting with Johnny Weissmuller, whose attentions are focused on Diana Dors (unaware that she’s a wax model)…