Hank Williams 1947 Drifting Cowboys Tour-Blank Concert Poster. ...

Description

Hank Williams 1947 Drifting Cowboys Tour-Blank Concert Poster. An authentic vintage window card, now over 75 years old, advertising the greatest country music artist who ever lived, Hank Williams, and his legendary backing band the Drifting Cowboys. "Writer and Singer of the Nationally Famous Hit Song 'Move It on Over,'" it proclaims across the top. A key early poster in C&W music history, as Hank Williams continues to deeply touch people and influence the worlds of music and the arts. This poster remains in an unused state, without any venue information filled in at the bottom. Measures 11" x 17" and grades to Very Good condition. COA from Heritage Auctions.

More Information: A veritable piece of Country music history, this piece was made on card stock, which has grown a bit brittle with age but only underscores its absolute authenticity.

This window card used to be described as being from 1949, but we're now placing it in 1947, based on new evaluation. "Move It on Over" was a hit in the summer of '47, and Hank had an equally big hit with "I'm a Long Gone Daddy" in the summer of 1948 and the monster hit "Lovesick Blues" in spring 1949, and neither one of those is mentioned on the poster. Plus, the wording at the top of the card seems to strongly suggest that "Move It on Over" was Hank's sole claim to fame so far.

In addition, the Cowboys went through line-up changes like any group does, and only "Uncle Lum" York remained in the band when Hank relocated from Montgomery, AL to Shreveport, LA in the summer of 1948 to fulfill his weekend commitment to the Louisiana Hayride. And the photo on the poster is from WSFA in Montgomery.

Veteran collector and dealer Wayne Rogers lived in Montgomery in the early 90's and was the one who discovered the printer's stash of these posters 30 years ago, and acquired some from the original printer's grandson. "One might surmise that neither Hank or Audrey picked up the poster order when they realized they would be obsolete," Rogers tells Heritage. "Hank would certainly have wanted to update the poster to include a mention something like ‘Stars of The Louisiana Hayride.'" Rogers even recalls that the grandson had the original print order, and while not dead certain, believes it was for 100 posters at a price of 10 cents apiece, and dated in 1947. But nowhere near that many have survived.

Condition details: Poster has the obvious heavy edge toning around all four sides from 78 years of storage. Which also resulted in four slightly rounded corner tips all around. Down at the bottom, there's a 1 ¼" horizontal crease on the poster's edge, down under "Stars." There's a resulting 1/8" tear there as well.


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