By Kendra Meinert
Green Bay Press-Gazette
GREEN BAY – About the only thing missing from Addie and Tim Sorbo’s Beatles-themed vacation rental is a “Paul McCartney slept here sign,” and it wasn’t for lack of trying.
At least not on Addie’s part.
When she found out Sir Paul would be in concert at Lambeau Field in 2019, she invited her favorite Beatle to be the inaugural guest in the fabulous Fab Four getaway she and Tim had just finished in the lower level of their home. Where else was he going to find accommodations just a quick 1.6-mile jaunt from the stadium that come with not only a private entrance and a “Yellow Submarine” pingpong room but also a shower designed to look like one of those classic British red phone booths?
The welcome mat may as well have said “Let It Be.”
To prove to him the invite was legit (and she was, too), Addie sat down and chronicled her immense love for The Beatles, beginning in middle school when her dad turned her on to ’60s bands. He was a Rolling Stones guy, but she gravitated toward The Beatles.
While her friends were going crazy for New Kids on the Block, she was spending her money on Bradford Exchange collector plates of Paul, John, George and Ringo. By the time she was a sophomore, she had logged her first McCartney concert — a 1993 show at Milwaukee County Stadium. There have been seven more since.
A graphic designer and the founder of marketing communications firm Strawberry Fields Design, Addie mailed off a 28-page booklet, along with the invite, to McCartney’s publicist and to his residences in England and New York.
He didn’t take her up on the offer but plenty of other people have.
Since Addie and Tim welcomed their first guests three years ago — fans from North Dakota who came for the McCartney concert — their Abbey Road Green Bay listing on Airbnb has hosted visitors from across the country and as far away as China and Australia.
Sometimes it’s people coming to visit Door County, see family or just relish The Beatles experience. Other times, it’s Green Bay Packers fans from Manchester, England, and Spain flying in for their first game at Lambeau Field, a bucket list checkmark.
The downstairs studio apartment in the Sorbos’ family home near Parkwood Drive was booked every Packers home game last season and, not surprising, it’s spoken for during the weekend of the Bayern Munich-Manchester City soccer match July 23 at Lambeau.
For Beatles buffs, the fan experience begins before they even step inside. They can walk a version of the iconic Abbey Road crosswalk with silhouettes of The Beatles before entering the 900-square-foot space through a backyard door that mimics the red phone booths.
In a cozy living room with a stone fireplace, shelves and curio cabinets are filled with Beatles memorabilia. There are collectible figurines, Corgi die-cast model Beatles buses, plates, black-and-white photos, ornaments, buttons, records and a vintage TV Guide with McCartney on the cover.
Most of it is stuff Addie has been collecting since her school days. Don’t tell anybody, but there’s just as much in her studio upstairs, not that it keeps her from scouting for the next great find.
When a friend recently had an estate sale after his McCartney-loving aunt died, he let Addie shop early. She came away with Beatles books, Beatles puzzles and a Beatles edition of Trivial Pursuit.
“It was a complete jackpot,” she said.
That’s a little how guests must feel when they stay at the place. There are things to look at here, there and everywhere, not unlike a museum. Mementos in glass cases are locked, but many are sitting out on shelves and tables.
“We’re just trusting people to respect our stuff,” Addie said.
They have not had any issues to date with items that have been damaged or disappeared.
It’s hard not to marvel at the bathroom, which leans a little more “London Calling” than “A Hard Day’s Night.” The decor is a nod to London, right down to the Union Jack wastebasket and the framed “Keep Calm and Carry On” poster.
The Sorbos reconfigured the room to add a shower, which Addie transformed into a red phone booth with a door from Greater Green Bay Habitat for Humanity ReStore and her artistic talents. Then she found an image of McCartney talking on the phone and blew it up life-sized so it looks like he’s in the booth.
It’s hard to imagine a single guest at Abbey Road Green Bay passing up that selfie opportunity.
For Addie, the creative wheels are always turning. One Christmas she decorated an entire tree with Beatles ornaments she painted herself. She’s not sure the Cleveland Browns fans staying there truly appreciated it, but she had fun doing it.
“I’m pretty passionate about all the details,” Addie said. “I have a blast. It’s easy to go overboard.”
View the making of this Beatles-themed space in our portfolio
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