An outstanding early Rolling Stones window card from the band’s second American tour in the fall of 1964.

This gem dates from November 14, ’64, and advertised two shows to be played that night in Louisville, KY.

This Rolling Stones show poster was printed by the Murray Poster Printing Company of New York, NY.

But you can’t tell by looking at the poster itself… their credit was trimmed off (actually, in half) down in the lower left margin. Oops! Some early owner probably did that to fit it into a frame.

This Rolling Stones in-person poster is actually of the “tour blank” variety, where the color portion is printed ahead of time by the thousands. Then each tour stop would get its own personal information printed in the blank white box at the bottom.

Thus, we can assume that this poster was probably made up for every stop on the tour, meaning:

Rolling Stones window card Academy of Music, New York, NY, Oct. 24, 1964; Rolling Stones window card Memorial Auditorium, Sacramento, CA, Oct. 26, 1964; Rolling Stones window card Tami Show, Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA, Oct. 28-29, 1964; Rolling Stones window card Swing Auditorium, San Bernardino, CA, Oct. 31, 1964;

Rolling Stones window card Civic Auditorium, Long Beach Arena, CA, Nov. 1, 1964; Rolling Stones window card Balboa Park, San Diego, CA, Nov. 1, 1964; Rolling Stones window card Cleveland, OH, Nov. 3, 1964; Rolling Stones window card Loews Theater, Providence, RI, Nov. 4, 1964;

Rolling Stones window card Milwaukee Auditorium, WI, Nov. 11, 1964; Rolling Stones window card Coliseum, Fort Wayne, IN, Nov. 12, 1964; Rolling Stones window card Hara Arena, Dayton, OH, Nov. 13, 1964; Rolling Stones window card Memorial Auditorium, Louisville, KY, Nov. 14, 1964; and Rolling Stones window card Arie Crown Theater, McCormick Place, Chicago, IL, Nov. 15, 1964.

One of the fun highlights of this Rolling Stones billboard is the fact that it carries two photos of the new sensations. Both are standard publicity stills, but hey, you’ve got 10 Stones faces staring back at you on a relatively small poster… it’s very effective.

And notice how it says “Direct From England” at the top… they wanted to be sure you knew it was a British Invasion group!

This Rolling Stones concert placard measures the very standard 14 by 22 inches, and was made of cardboard material rather than paper. It was simply more durable that way.

With red and blue inks added to the white cardboard and standard black printing, you wind up with a very effective four-color advertisement… very eye-catching.

Plus notice how all of the borders on this Rolling Stones window poster are curved or jagged… no standard square boxes or rectangles for this renegade band from across the pond.

I like the way is says both “In Person” and “In Concert”… a little redundant, perhaps, but really drives home the point that the five young men were going to be in your home town.

Actually, on this occasion, the Rolling Stones telephone-pole poster was slightly inaccurate… there were only four Stones playing the gig in Louisville. Brian Jones was ill and missed the shows.

And it wasn’t the only shows he missed, either… Brian had to sit out their concerts in Milwaukee, Ft. Wayne and Dayton as well. Man, that was quite a bug he caught. I would’ve been bummed if Brian wasn’t on stage at a show I was catching!

It’s kind of unusual how this Rolling Stones tour placard gives the year (1964) as part of the date. Usually these old posters didn’t; there was no reason to.

That’s because the poster was probably printed up in September or October, and then was completely worthless on November 15^th… the day after the show. So its entire intended lifespan was only something like 10 weeks or less.

I love the ticket-buying locations that are given on this Rolling Stones concert sign. Two Variety record stores (including downtown Louisville) and the Vine Record Shop. So quaint, and so refreshing compared to today’s Internet bar-code tickets.

But interestingly, no ticket prices are listed. Other posters from this tour do give some prices, usually starting at $2.50 and ranging up to $5.00 or a little more. Today a bottle of water at a rock concert costs that much!

This Rolling Stones boxing-style concert poster was the first tour blank poster ever used for them in America. They didn’t use one for their brief first U.S. tour in June of ’64 (see my other video blog).

And in 1965, the Stones also used a tour blank for the fourth (fall) American tour, but not for their third (spring) tour. And for their only American tour of ’66, they also didn’t use a tour blank.

I’ve seen this exact Rolling Stones fence poster from about five other dates on their second American tour; if you know of another copy, from any city, I’d love it if you could send me a photo so that I can complete my picture set of every date.

But as I said earlier, it’s quite possible that it wasn’t made for some of the stops on the tour, because radio and newspapers were competing for those ad dollars.

And on that note, this Rolling Stones poster board is presented today by collector Pete Howard, who speaks in the video. That would be me, yes, and I can be reached by E at pete@postercentral.com or by phone at [805] 540.0020. And do be aware that I would pay THE BEST PRICE, BAR NONE for this particular Stones concert poster from any date along the tour… I presently don’t have one in my collection!

And to glimpse a few other ’60s Rolling Stones concert posters, be sure to stop by this exact page of my web site (which you’re on right now): http://www.postercentral.com/rollingstones.htm