Biggest Show of Stars 1957 Concert Poster w/Chuck Berry, Fats Domino & Many Others (AOR-1.17)....

Description

SIX MEMBERS OF THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME HERE

Biggest Show of Stars 1957 Concert Poster w/Chuck Berry, Fats Domino & Many Others (AOR-1.17). An original Globe Posters cardboard advertising window card for "The Biggest Show of Stars for '57" concert tour stop in Salem, Oregon on Friday, March 8, 1957, featuring six future members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

From the mid-50's to the mid-60's, few concert posters elicit the excitement among collectors as the colorful, exciting, hit-laden "Biggest Show of Stars" multi-act posters that national promoter Super Attractions produced. Always colorful, always dynamic, full of hitmakers, stacked with photos and song titles, you just can't beat the visual and musical appeal of a vintage BSOS original window card.

Super Attractions and Globe Posters really knocked it out of the park for their first BSOS poster, with an amazingly attractive presentation of pink, yellow, robin's-egg blue, black, white and dark blue in the venue box. That's six colors in all, and they're arranged in nothing short of spectacular fashion. Even the "Globe Posters - Baltimore" credit down in the bottom white margin was printed in pink. Man, oh man.

The arrangement of type fonts and the color scheme on this poster are awe-inspiring. Just look at Chuck Berry... great pair of fonts, different for his first and last name; killer song title, "Roll Over Beethoven"; amazing smiling head shot, and placed inside a star. It's just a crying shame that the person(s) who designed these 1950's Globe Posters never got interviewed to tell the story of how they did these - and sadly, they remain anonymous.

This historic window card measures 17 x 22 3/4" and is graded to repaired Very Good condition. COA from Heritage Auctions.

Literature: See Grushkin, Paul, The Art of Rock: Posters from Presley to Punk, Abbeville Press, New York, 1987, p.30 (illus.).

More Information: It's with great pleasure that we're able to offer in this auction the very first Biggest Show of Stars poster ever produced, from what's commonly referred to as the "spring '57" trek... although the tour actually started in February, and this poster's from early March. But this tour did extend all the way into early May.

The doo-wop vocals of Rhythm & Blues and the pounding pianos and new electric guitars in Rock 'N Roll were intertwined and inseparable in the 1950's, as baby boomers witnessed in the American Graffiti movie a generation later. And few 1950's concert posters illustrate this fact better than this beauty.

As we mentioned, a half-dozen future members of the Rock Hall are present... Fats Domino, LaVern Baker, Clyde McPhatter, Chuck Berry, the Moonglows and Charles Brown. They dominate the all-black line-up that also included co-headliner Bill Doggett (calling him a slouch? His seminal instrumental "Honky Tonk" was #1 R&B for three months the previous year). The bill was rounded out by the 5 Keys, the 5 Satins, Ann Cole, the Schoolboys and Eddie Cooley and the Dimples. The legendary Paul Williams and his Big Orchestra provided the backing. Here he is at the bottom of the poster, and all Wiliams did was have a #1 R&B hit for 14 weeks in 1949, "The Huckle-Buck."

We've always been curious as to why Fats Domino didn't get a song title or two up there. It certainly wasn't for lack of material... his last two hits had been "Blueberry Hill" and "Blue Monday," both Top 5 national pop crossover hits. And his next three sides, all in this spring of 1957, would be national pop top-tenners: "I'm Walkin'," "It's You I Love" and "Valley of Tears." Talk about a prolific hit-maker! If we cited you the R&B charts instead, just the first three discs named above spent a combined total of 25 weeks at #1. Get outta town!

Condition details: Poster has been meticulously repaired by Chameleon Restoration. There was once a large diagonal crease in the lower right corner area which has been addressed and mitigated. Some touch-up work was done to the margins as well, with the large center artwork block barely being touched at all. Good solid 1950's board with strong bones and vintage patina fully intact. General toning throughout.


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