On Feb. 9, 1964, The Beatles made American television history by appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show, kicking off a phenomenon known as Beatlemania, and setting the template for every other kind of mania that followed. From Donny Osmond, to New Kids on the Block, to Justin Bieber, every pop phenomenon -- past and present -- owes their rabid fan base, in some way, to The Beatles and Beatlemania.

To commemorate this historic event, a rare piece of Beatles merchandise is going up on the auction block, according to ABC News: a 4-by-2 piece of plastic wall bearing the autographs, and caricatures, of the Fab Four that became part of the Ed Sullivan show wall right after their debut performance. The owner of the rare artifact, Andy Geller, is a longtime Beatles fan and a self-proclaimed "voice over artist." He gave the artifact to the Dallas-based auction house, Heritage Auctions, and it's being sold out of New York City.

In addition, the Stamford Advocate suggests that the piece could fetch up to a million dollars at the end of it all. Believed to be the largest Beatles autograph in existence, it was obtained by a stagehand who happened to be in the right place at the right time. "It was a spur of the moment thing," 81-year-old Jerry Gort said in a telephone interview with the paper from his Calabasas, Calif., home. "They came down from stage right from their dressing rooms, I gave them a marker and asked them to sign the wall." 

There are other signatures on the wall -- most notably, one from the now pretty obscure band The Searchers -- and the wall was destined for the dumpster when The Ed Sullivan Show went off the air and the stage and set were dismantled. By yet another stroke of "right place, right time" luck, an eagle-eyed carpenter saved that section of the wall. However, even though a million dollar pay day is most impressive, this piece of the wall is by no means the most expensive Beatles artifact: that honor goes to John Lennon's hand-painted Rolls Royce Phantom V, which sold for $2.23 million in 1985. Adjusted for inflation, a lucky collector paid close to $5 million for the car in today's money.