Isley Brothers Concert Poster 1960s – Weekend Kennedy Was Assassinated

Posted on December 9, 2015 by postercentral

A really fun, collectible Isley Brothers window card from the weekend our 35th president, John F. Kennedy, was assassinated. That tragedy happened on a Friday, and this show was slated for the Saturday.

Did the show happen, or not? Was it postponed or canceled? I put that question to you, my viewer, if any of you live in the area or have access to records, etc. that would provide us with the answer.

But whether it happened or not, this cardboard Isley Bros. poster board is quite the cool collectible. Who doesn’t like the Isleys? To this day, I still hear their “Shout!” and “Twist & Shout” songs played by bar bands all the time.

But remarkably, neither of those important records is on the poster… instead, a couple of clunkers are. But more on that in a moment.

This 14-by-22-inch Isley Brothers placard was made by the Murray Poster Printing Company out of NYC. It was done on thick card stock, or cardboard, all the better to withstand the fall weather elements such as rain.

It’s a B&W poster that uses just one additional color, yellow, to great effect, making it quite attractive to the eye. Buddy Holly’s famous Winter Dance Party poster was entirely in yellow, black and white, and looked great also.

“Show & Dance!”, it proclaims at the very top of this Isley Bros. in-person poster. That was a very common phrase used constantly on R&B and rock & roll concert posters of the ’50s and early ’60s.

And then, “Salisbury Armory,” located in Salisbury, MD. That’s just a couple of hours from our nation’s capital.

The date of this Isley Brothers billboard is “Sat., Nov. 23rd,” and the year isn’t given, but we all know that it’s 1963… and exactly what that means.

Our nation’s 35th president, JFK, was assassinated this very weekend… on the Friday. And this “show & dance” was supposed to take place on the Saturday. So did it?

This Isley Bros. window display would still be collectible even if the show never happened. But even in my deep research, I couldn’t ascertain whether it did or not. So I’m reaching out to my viewers… do you know a way to find out?

Other concert posters exist from this weekend with varying results. The Beach Boys in Marysville, CA… the show went on as scheduled. The Rat Pack featuring Frank Sinatra in Santa Monica, CA… postponed for a month. Joan Baez elsewhere, on Sunday night… undetermined.

But as a serious collector, I’m still bullish on this Isley Brothers event poster as a collector’s item. There’s a lot of good concert posters out there for which the event was canceled… FD-27, for example, with Howlin’ Wolf and BBHC featuring Janis Joplin. One of the more popular Family Dog posters, and yet the whole weekend was canceled.

OK, continuing with the venue information up top… “Hours 8:00 P.M. until?” – except the typesetter at Murray left out the last letter of “until,” so a gap appears there instead. Oops!

And then the ticket prices on this Isley Bros. show placard are given as, “Advance $1.50, Door $2.00.” Not that expensive – but then, there were no 2nd and 3rd acts like most of these posters have.

Actually, the “I.B. Specials Orchestra” at the bottom looks like an opening or support act, but it was just the brothers’ back-up band, of course. Clever marketing, though.

And then you’ve got the three smiling “floating heads” of O’Kelly, Rudolph and Ronald on this Isley Brothers concert sign, greatly enhancing its appearance.

But the song titles found on this poster, underneath their heads? That’s an entirely different matter altogether.

Why in the world this Isley Bros. boxing-style concert poster doesn’t have “Twist & Shout” and “Shout!” on it, to help sell tickets, I’ll never know in a million years. Both were recent hits.

Instead, it has “Shout ’N Shimmy” and “Twistin’ with Linda.” The latter was their current single release, so at least that we can explain that one. But “Shout ’N Shimmy”?

That has absolutely no place on an Isley Brothers ticket poster. It was James Brown’s song! And besides that, the Isleys were hopping mad that JB had ripped off their sound and style, both writing and recording it, and taken it way up the charts!

The claim is that “Shout ’N Shimmy” was a direct rip-off of the Isleys’ aforementioned “Shout!”, a hit for them in 1959.

So the IB’s resented that song, and James, like heck. So what on earth is that song doing on an Isley Bros. street sign? If you have any answers or clues for me, please let me know… either by commenting below my video, or writing me directly and I’ll pass it on.

So that’s two big question marks I have unanswered about this poster. It’s not a habit of mine to pose questions for my viewers, but I’m never afraid to say “I don’t know,” and in regards to two things about this item, I just don’t know!

But it’s still a great Isley Brothers fence poster souvenir, even with the wrong song titles on there and whether the show happened or not. You just don’t find many of these things surviving… they’re just not out there in quantity at all.

It still amazes me that these things were made to last for just a few weeks… always to be torn down and thrown away the day after the show. Just remarkable, because some of them simply look so nice.

This Isley Bros. concert advertisement wouldn’t be so collectible except that the brothers’ management company and booking agency simply didn’t use posters to get the word out back then. A few musicians definitely eschewed the use of concert posters, including most big Motown artists.

Others, on the other hand – contemporaries of the Isleys – used concert posters for their whole career… three that come to mind are James Brown, Ray Charles and Jackie Wilson.

This Isley Brothers pole poster is happily shown to you today by long-time music historian and collector Pete Howard. Yes, that’s me writing this, and I can be tracked down via either (805) 540-0020 or by using pete@postercentral.com. As a serious hobbyist, I pay the BEST PRICES IN THE HOBBY, PERIOD, for vintage rock and R&B advertising signs like this… I just love them.

If you’d like to see a few more old, cool rhythm & blues concert placards from the era, just slide over one page to here: http://www.postercentral.com/rhythmnblues.htm

Posted in **All Posters, 1950s Rock ’N' Roll, Boxing-Style Concert Posters, Soul and R&B, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Led Zeppelin Window Card 1970 Seattle Center Coliseum

Posted on December 8, 2015 by postercentral

A really fun, and early, Seattle Led Zeppelin concert poster dating to September 1 of 1970, a Tuesday night in the middle of summer.

Almost all concert posters give the day of the week as part of the date, which is especially helpful for people buying tickets in the week leading up to a show. But once in a while you find one like this that doesn’t provide the day, just the date.

That’s one of several unusual things about this Seattle Led Zeppelin show poster. It also doesn’t have a photo of the band, but rather a locally-created Zeppelin logo of sorts that doesn’t appear anywhere else.

“Exit Arts” is credited down in the lower left-hand corner as the graphic-arts company that put this together. One can assume they were a Seattle-based outfit.

But interestingly, no printer’s credit is given anywhere on this Seattle Led Zeppelin tour poster. It was certainly printed locally, but by whom, we don’t know.

Then again, perhaps Exit Arts was the designer and printer. That would make perfect sense, especially if they worked closely with the local promoter.

Speaking of which, this Seattle Led Zeppelin broadside leaves no doubt who that promoter was… “Presented by Concerts West,” it fairly screams down at the bottom.

That company was headed by one Tom Hulett, a famous promoter in the Pacific Northwest who brought every name act of the 1960s and ’70s to town during his heyday.

And then, naturally, this Seattle Led Zeppelin window poster provides ticket information for customers. Tickets were priced at $3.50, 4, 5 and 6 dollars, and available at Fidelity Lane and various suburban outlets.

Remember, this was before the days of Ticketron and computer ticketing, which had already gotten a foothold in bigger markets like L.A. and N.Y. So these were hard tickets being sold.

I’d say this Seattle Led Zeppelin concert placard is very sparse in its information, compared to others, and yet it gets the job done. It’s a poster of few words, but very direct messaging.

And that logo in the middle… have you ever seen Zep’s name rendered that way anywhere else? That’s why I’m thinking this was totally locally produced, without help from the band’s home office.

Just the fact that this Seattle Led Zeppelin appearance poster doesn’t utilize the band’s zeppelin dirigible image suggests it was done independently, and without the band’s input.

That dirigible hadn’t been used much at this point, but right about now it started popping up as a regular feature in the group’s image and advertising… although granted, in many different shapes, sizes, colors, etc.

Notice how four British flags – Union Jacks – are the centerpiece of this Seattle Led Zeppelin telephone-pole poster. That’s a nice design element, and perhaps they correspond to the number of musicians in the band.

The Union Jacks substitute nicely for the usual, standard publicity stills that old concert posters so often used… pictures are good, yes, but they were usually bland photos you’ve seen a million times before.

There’s a ton of red and blue on this Seattle Led Zeppelin tour placard, a smaller amount of white, and just a little bit of black. The latter is used only to box off the three square areas of the poster.

White is often overlooked as an important “color” on these old posters, but it was as important as any other color. Notice how all the lettering, except the band’s name, is in white.

This lovely piece of Seattle Led Zeppelin concert memorabilia was printed on durable card stock, which collectors just call ‘cardboard,’ and measures the standard size of 14 x 22 inches.

There would be a lot of paper Zep posters printed up throughout the years, but once those were posted somewhere, their survival rate was much lower. That’s because when they were torn down, they often were just ripped apart in the process. Cardboard posters tended to stay in one piece.

One fun aspect of this Seattle Led Zeppelin street poster is that the band was touring off their landmark second album, Led Zeppelin II. That’s my favorite Zep album, and it is for a lot of others, too.

But they were about to release Led Zeppelin III the following month, so they were playing lots of that album’s material, too, opening their shows with “Immigrant Song” from that record.

This Seattle Led Zeppelin concert announcement represents a band at the peak of its touring powers, with both the Beatles and the Stones out of the way. Only Zep and The Who were British powerhouses doing scorched-earth tours.

The Beatles had just disbanded and the Stones were on a two-year American touring hiatus (1970 and ’71), so Zep had the field practically to themselves, other than Townshend & Co.

This Seattle Led Zeppelin boxer style concert poster is just one example of the group expanding to 15,000-seat halls on this trek. Their manager, Peter Grant, had extremely ambitious plans for his band.

And America was eating it up. The critics were bashing everything the band released, including Rolling Stone magazine, but their legions of fans were multiplying at this stage, and it was one hot concert ticket.

This Seattle Led Zeppelin pole poster is brought to you today by collector and long-time fan Pete Howard (saw them in ’72, Long Beach Arena). That’s me, and feel free to reach me at pete@postercentral.com or by calling 805.540.0020. And please remember that I pay the TOP PRICES IN THE HOBBY, PERIOD, for original, vintage Led Zeppelin concert posters like this.

And if you’d like to see another scarce Zep 1970 American concert poster – this one from Nashville, Tennessee – just slide your mouse over to this page right here on my site: http://www.postercentral.com/the1970s.htm

Posted in **All Posters, *Led Zeppelin, Boxing-Style Concert Posters, British Invasion, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lloyd Price 1950s Concert Poster – Specialty Records Star

Posted on December 7, 2015 by postercentral

A really outstanding, compelling Lloyd Price window card from the fall of 1958 in the city of New Haven, CT.

In this video I also show you a poster from two years later, after Price had put together a string of three highly successful and important pop-chart hits. I always love it when I can do two posters in one video blog, when they’re both relevant and closely related.

This cardboard Lloyd Price poster board – the 1958 one – has a dazzling design, featuring bright red & yellow colors. Throw in black ink, white poster board and blue venue information up top, and suddenly you have five colors at work here.

And look at all the movement and action in it. The three spinning discs – fashioned like 78 RPM records, if you ask me – have shaking action lines around them, a really cool visual effect.

And then this Lloyd Price placard does something really unusual… it tries to date one of his hit singles. The hit single which launched his career… the landmark “Lawdy Miss Clawdy.”

The only problem is, they got the year wrong. They proclaim it to be from 1953, but it was actually #1 R&B for almost two months in the year of… 1952. See, that’s dangerous stuff for a poster designer to try to do! Back then, there was no Internet for them to consult… if somebody told them “1953,” they’d run with it.

“Lawdy” is the only song title cited on this Lloyd Price in-person poster because he hadn’t really lined up additional hit singles yet. Those would come just after this poster… three really big ones in a row.

We’re talking “Stagger Lee,” “Personality” and “I’m Gonna Get Married.” All too late for this poster, designed and printed in the summer of 1958.

But not for the second Lloyd Price billboard I show you in this video… from the spring of 1960 in Rochester, New York. And from a Roller Rink no less!

Check it out: “Chestnut Street Roller Palace, Rochester, New York. Saturday evening, July 11th. 9:30 to 1:30. Advance $2.00, At Door $2.50.”

And then this Lloyd Price window display lists the four local locations at which you could buy those tickets, two of them (apparently) on the same block. And right below that, Rochester promoter Arnold King is stripped in, in rather big lettering.

Then you’ve got “The Star of Stars – In Person – Creator of ‘Personality,’ ‘Stagger Lee’ and ‘Come Into My Heart’ – In Person [again] – ‘Lawdy Miss Clawdy’ [can’t overlook that one, ever] – LLOYD PRICE and his Orchestra.”

The Murray Poster Printing Corp. out of NYC made this Lloyd Price event poster. Every concert-poster designer always had their distinct style, and Murrays are as easy to spot as any of them. They really liked the black & yellow look, and they very often put “In Person” in an oval like that.

But if there’s any question, down in the lower right margin it states, “Murray Poster Printing Co., Inc. – 221 W. 64th St., New York, N.Y.” Almost all poster-printers of the era did this.

This Lloyd Price show placard – the 1960 one – marked the end of an era for him. The very week of this concert, “Question” would hit Billboard magazine’s pop charts and eventually rise to #19. That record would be his last Top 20 pop hit ever.

So you have your choice: a ’58 poster just before Price’s slew of pop hits arrived, or a ’60 poster just after they did. Take your pick. For me, it’s the ’58 one hands down… but that’s based largely on its wickedly cool appearance.

I’m talking about Lloyd Price concert signs here like they grow on trees… to the contrary, finding any vintage concert placard like this is no easy task, for Lloyd or anybody. It’s a simple fact that not many were saved.

It wasn’t until the early ’70s that people started to save these things in numbers… so anything at all from the ’60s, ’50s and older is going to be scarce and hard to track down. The fun of collecting!

Both of these, by the way, could accurately be called a Lloyd Price boxing-style concert poster. The fact that they both have lots of plain block lettering, and are made of cardboard, places them in this collector’s category.

Both measure the standard 14×22”, a size that has been used by the industry for over a hundred years, amazing as that seems. To this very day, 14×22’s are produced all the time, all over the country, always on cardboard or cardstock. (Other, close sizes are also made, too.)

In comparing the two, I’d be inclined to call the yellow one truly a Lloyd Price ticket poster, but not the red one. That’s because the Rochester one gives two different ticket prices and the locations at which to buy them.

This is in stark contrast to the ’58 poster, which gives you zero information on the ticket price or where to acquire them around town.

Notice how the red Lloyd Price street sign gives contact information for the booking agency down at the bottom, but the yellow one doesn’t. Booking agencies liked to be mentioned on posters so that other promoters might contact them for a similar booking.

But both posters do use the bottom white margin area to credit, and give the address of, their respective printing companies (who also designed the posters).

This Lloyd Price concert poster – actually, both of them, of course – are shown to you today by music historian, former Rolling Stone columnist and ICE magazine publisher Pete Howard. I can be reached using either pete@postercentral.com or by (805) 540.0020. Please know that I pay the highest prices in this hobby, period, for the best vintage R&B and rock ’n’ roll concert posters from the ’60s on back.

To see another outstanding crop of fifties R&B show placards to rival these two, just slip your mouse over to http://www.postercentral.com/rhythmnblues.htm

Posted in **All Posters, 1950s Rock ’N' Roll, Boxing-Style Concert Posters, Soul and R&B, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Great Society Concert Posters w/Grace Slick – Very First, Very Last

Posted on December 6, 2015 by postercentral

The very first concert poster (a handbill) for The Great! Society in San Francisco in the fall of 1965, followed by their very last concert poster from 11 months later – from the night the band literally broke up.

By sheer coincidence, both of these items are in complete black & white – not a color to be found on either one. There were colorful ones in between, sure, but it’s ironic that both of these are pure B&W!

This The Great Society psychedelic poster – well, at least the second one is – were both printed ahead of time strictly to sell tickets, and was never reprinted for merchandise sales unlike the Bill Graham posters.

And the 1965 handbill is certainly a very early, naïve piece of advertising that doesn’t carry a lot of eye appeal that you’d want to frame.

But I do love the way the smaller The Great! Society show poster lists all the band members and their function within the group: what instruments they played, and who sung. I guess that was appropriate, since this was their first public gig.

Interesting how you have three Slicks on there – Grace, Darby and Jerry – plus David Miner, who did a lot of songwriting and singing, and Bard Dupont.

The second The Great Society event poster carries some irony in the 21st century because “Sept. 11 – help!” is very reminiscent of the Twin Towers terrorist attack in NYC on September 11, 2001, of course.

But the plea for help in 1966 was simply to raise funds for the Both/And club in the Bay Area, which was struggling financially. So it seems like all of San Francisco’s finest came to their rescue.

The smaller piece serves you better better if you’re looking for a The Great! Society telephone-pole poster, because it was smaller and could more easily be stapled to a pole. It depended on the size of the pole, of course.

The second, larger piece was more suited for windows, fences and flat surfaces like that. Since this was during the summertime, weather elements were generally not a threat to either of them.

I would also say that the bigger piece here better fit the definition of a The Great Society ticket poster, because it gives no fewer than seven locations at which ducats could be purchased. And the price is rather prominently on there as well… “Donation: $2.50,” down in the lower-right corner.

The October ’65 handbill, on the other hand, gives no admission price. And it certainly didn’t need to list ticket locations because there were no tickets at a club like this… you just paid at the door, or perhaps admission was free and they made their money from food & drink.

Collectors looking to add a The Great! Society concert announcement to their collection can choose here between either early and seminal, which is always fun, or later and better-looking, which is where the majority of collectors fall.

The second, larger piece is definitely psychedelic in nature, which would also sway many collectors. Sure, it’s in all B&W, but that dripping-liquid paisley design looks pretty cool on there. The poster artist – who goes un-credited – made the most of what they had without being able to use colors.

Notice how many musicians are named on this The Great Society street sign… nine, if you count the M.C. And then it says, “Plus many surprise drop-in guests.” One of those surprises just happened to be The Grateful Dead, according to Darby Slick’s book, Don’t You Want Somebody to Love – Reflections on the San Francisco Sound.

Slick’s book, although riddled with typos and errors, is a great first-hand account of the band’s one-year run, and he recalls their last night together at the Fillmore in nice detail. They literally broke up while they were packing up their equipment after the show – because Grace had decided to jump ship to the Jefferson Airplane.

That’s why it’s kinda cool that the Airplane are also listed on this The Great! Society pole poster (the bigger one). Anyone who attended the show literally saw Grace Slick’s transition from one band to the next right before their very eyes.

So as a collector and music historian, it’s awesome that you can have a poster featuring both the Society and the Airplane, with Grace having one foot on the platform and one foot on the train.

This pair of The Great Society show placards is discussed with you today by Peter J. Howard, who is me. I live about four hours south of the Bay Area today, and if you wish to reach me, try using pete@postercentral.com or calling 805—540-0020. Please keep in mind that I pay the best prices in the hobby, bar none, for vintage Bay Area psychedelic concert memorabilia like this.

And to see a few more examples of nice mid-’60s San Francisco psychedelic concert posters, these ones with color, just slide your mouse over to: http://www.postercentral.com/psychedelic.htm

Posted in **All Posters, **Psychedelic Posters Only, Fillmore Auditorium, Handbills & Flyers, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Gorgeous Day-Glo Jumbo Globe 1968 R&B Window Card – Jackie Wilson, B.B. King

Posted on December 5, 2015 by postercentral

A visually stunning 1960s Supersonic Attractions Globe concert poster with amazing Day-Glo colors that pop out at you with a brightness that’s still fully intact almost 50 years later.

If you count the white poster board, which I certainly do, there are seven colors at play here to draw in your attention, with the florescent ones being red-orange, blue, green and yellow.

Just imagine yourself back in 1968 walking down a public sidewalk and then encountering this 1960s Supersonic Attractions Globe placard in a store window. Is it safe to say you’d be stopped in your tracks?

And what’s amazing is how well the colors hold up, decades later. These Day-Glo inks that Globe Posters used simply don’t seem to fade with the passage of time, unless exposed to direct sunlight or florescent lights for long periods of time.

Jackie Wilson and Gene Chandler are the obvious headliners on this 1960s Supersonic Attractions Globe window card. Jackie is the biggest name and most prolific hit-maker of the bunch; Gene was best known for his first hit record, “Duke Of Earl,” back in 1962.

But following them you have Wm. Bell, B.B. King, Barbara Acklin, The Fantastic 4, Emory and the Dynamics and Judy Clay. Rounding out the listings are ancillary talents Johnny Jones and the King Casuals Band, Peg Leg Moffet and the evening’s emcee, Gorgeous George.

Normally a jumbo poster from Globe would measure about 28” tall. But this cardboard 1960s Supersonic Attractions Globe poster board measures out to three feet tall – 36 inches! What an amazing, commanding presence this thing had.

And it was made of rigid card stock, or cardboard as we call it, to withstand the weather elements. If paper versions of these things had been nailed up to walls, fences and telephone poles around town, they would have been damaged at the first sign of rain, for example.

I love the way this 1960s Supersonic Attractions Globe in-person poster hails from Kansas City, MO. That was a great music town in the 1960s, especially for black music. It was truly part of the so-called “Chitlin’ Circuit.”

And you don’t have to guess at the city… it says right on there, “Municipal Auditorium, Main Arena, Kansas City, Mo.” Nicely takes the guess work away. So often these things would just say “Veterans Hall” and not give you any more clues as to the city.

Then the Thanksgiving holiday is identified on this 1960s Supersonic Attractions Globe billboard. Quite often the promoters didn’t identify holidays, perhaps worrying that patrons would figure they were busy and not take action.

“Thur. Nov. 28 – 9:00 PM Until – Advance Admission $3.50 – At Door $4.00,” it says. “Tickets on Sale at All Shakey’s Pizza Houses, Municipal Auditorium Box Office and Parkview Drug Store, 27th & Benton.”

And then notice the radio station plug on this 1960s Supersonic Attractions Globe window display. KUDL, the local soul-music radio station, was the concert’s co-presenter. They’re mentioned in the same breath as Shakey’s.

When I was growing up in California, we always ate at Shakey’s Pizza Parlors… so I felt right away that Shakey’s Pizza Houses on this poster was an error. Same company.

Gene Chandler is the most unusual name found on this 1960s Supersonic Attractions Globe event poster. You just don’t see his name too often on these old concert posters, even with the success of “Duke of Earl.” He just didn’t tour much.

That’s in direct contrast to, say, Jackie Wilson and B.B. King, who actually appear quite frequently on these old window cards. They toured incessantly, and very often with traveling caravans like this.

This 1960s Supersonic Attractions Globe poster show placard is explained to you in this video by Pete Howard, residing on California’s central coast. If you’d like to reach me, just write to pete@postercentral.com or give me a call at (805) 540-0020. And please be aware that I pay the BEST PRICES IN THIS HOBBY, PERIOD, for original, vintage R&B and soul-music concert posters like this example shown today.

And if you’d like to see some more beauties every bit as nice as this one, just move your cursor over one page, to http://www.postercentral.com/multi-act_1960s.htm

Posted in **All Posters, Boxing-Style Concert Posters, Soul and R&B, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment