The girl in the blue dress - still an enigma

The Abbey Road cover (back) before retouching?

In the aftermath of yesterday's story about the retouching of the Abbey Road cover, Guus Limberger has sent us a photo of the back cover without the "BEATLES" sign, which indicates that the girl in the blue dress was already part of the photo before it reached the retouching stage. Of course, it could have been an intermediate version, with the girl superimposed on the photo, but before John Cockcroft started piecing together the "BEATLES" sign.

However, the "O" and "A" letters are mended, so some manipulation may have taken place. That is, if these letters were really damaged in the first place.

The "Alexandra Road" photos indicate this, as can be seen in the photo of the "cover tourists" from yesterday's post, but also in the black and white shot, taken at a different date.

The "O" is clearly damaged in this photo, too.

Thorsten Knublauch doesn't believe the story about the girl being added "by darkroom trickery" either, and quotes from Wikipedia: "After the shoot Iain went to find a road sign for use on the back cover. It was taken on the corner with Alexandra Road. During photographing the sign a girl in a blue dress walked through the shot. Iain was angry but later it was chosen as the back cover. The wall with the sign was demolished several years later."

Why Macmillan would be upset about the girl walking by is strange. After all, all he needed to do was snap one more photo, sans girl. Still, we just have to conclude that the mystery girl is still an enigma, unless someone comes up with the original back cover photo before the girl was added.

Update: Abbey Road - Back cover again