'Eleanor Rigby' Document Goes for $177K

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.
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