Rock Hall Celebrating Chuck Berry's Birthday With Special Exhibits

The exhibits will open to the public on Thursday, October 18 to coincide with Berry's 86th birthday and kick-off the 17th annual American Music Masters series, Roll Over Beethoven: The Life and Music of Chuck Berry, beginning Monday, October 22 through Saturday, October 27.

See Chuck Berry's stage clothes, a guitar and more at the museum at 1100 Rock and Roll Blvd. Highlights include: � Vest worn at the Toronto Rock and Roll Festival in 1969 � An original photograph of three-year-old Chuck Berry in his St. Louis neighborhood called "The Ville" (c. 1929) � Chuck Berry/Chess Records recording contract (1958) � Handbill from a performance in Jamaica in 1961

See additional photographs, handbills and handwritten lyrics of Berry's at the Library and Archives located at 2809 Woodland Avenue (five minutes from the museum). Highlights include:� 1964 United Kingdom Tour program � Handbill for Chuck Berry with the Grateful Dead at the Fillmore West 1968 � Letter from Chuck Berry to Jann Wenner at Rolling Stone (1972)

The spotlight exhibits at the museum and the Library and Archives tell the story of the first artist to ever be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 by Rolling Stone icon Keith Richards. Berry has had a lifetime of brilliant musicianship and has inspired nearly every rock artist to date. The spotlight exhibits reveal nearly 40 exclusive artifacts from Berry's life such as sheet music to his 1955 hit song "Maybellene" that helped ignite the rock and roll revolution and his 1998 Samick San 450 guitar that features his trademark double-string, semi-hollow electric acoustic style.

The spotlight exhibit at the museum will be open indefinitely and the exhibit at the Library and Archives will be open through the end of 2012.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum's Library and Archives is located just five minutes from the museum on the campus of Cuyahoga Community College in the LiPuma Center for Creative Arts, 2809 Woodland Avenue. Hours of operation are: Tuesday � Friday 9 a.m. � 5 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. � 5 p.m. and Sunday and Monday: closed. Admission is FREE.