B.B. King, Ruth Brown, Bobby Bland & Jimmy Reed 1957 Jumbo Globe Concert Poster....

Description

B.B. King, Ruth Brown, Bobby Bland & Jimmy Reed 1957 Jumbo Globe Concert Poster. An original large cardboard advertising window card for several blues and R&B legends in concert in Chattanooga, TN on Monday, March 18, 1957. Just a remarkable line-up of talent on this nine-act bill from the winter of 1957 (bordering on spring), and printed by the esteemed Globe Poster company of Baltimore, MD. The provenance of this poster is great, in that it came directly from the late show promoter Ted Bryant's daughter. Poster measures 21 5/8" x 28 1/8" and grades to repaired Very Good condition. Repair Work by Chameleon Restoration, COA from Heritage Auctions.

More Information: B.B. King had released exactly one album thus far, Singin' the Blues. But he sure had a nice string of Top 10 R&B singles to his credit by this point - a dozen of them to be exact, including four which had ascended to #1. B.B. went on to become the greatest ambassador for the blues of any human that ever lived. And look how thin he is in this early picture!

Ruth Brown was a veritable R&B hit machine, with 17 Top 10's to her credit thus far. Her chart-topper from five years previous is given on the poster: "5-10-15 Hours." There's a reason Atlantic Records was known informally as "The House That Ruth Built."

Going down from there, the Heartbeats' "A Thousand Miles Away" was a Top 5 R&B hit in 1957, and was featured in the American Graffiti movie a generation later. Chuck Willis had achieved eight Top 10 R&B hits up to this point, including this year's #1 smash, "C.C. Rider." As a songwriter, Willis had his tunes covered by the likes of Elvis Presley, James Brown, Roy Orbison, Otis Redding, Buddy Holly, Eric Clapton and Jerry Garcia. Among a ton of others. Not a bad resume. And then Annie Laurie is not well-known, but she enjoyed a stretch of four Top 10 R&B hits. The great Dinah Washington once called Laurie her favorite singer.

Jimmy Reed and Bobby "Blue" Bland (notice the poster added an "s") are a tremendously heavy pair of musicians to be so far down on the poster. With Bobby it's understandable; he hadn't charted a single record at this early point, but would land a #1 R&B disc later in the year with "Farther Up the Road" and never look back in his incredibly successful, distinguished and influential career. But at this point, with nary a charting single to his credit, all he got on the poster was his name; no photo, no song title. Talk about a "rookie card" for one of R&B's greatest singers ever!

Jimmy Reed got both, because he had acquired four Top 10 R&B hits up to this point, including the poster's "You['ve] Got Me Dizzy" which hit #3. Jimmy would get three more top-tenners just this year alone. If you don't know his name, you certainly know his music. If you've heard of the Rolling Stones, you've heard Jimmy Reed.

You know you've got an incredible line-up of talent (and poster) when you get to the bottom line and the first name listed wrote "Mystery Train" and is in the Blues Hall of Fame. Junior Parker gets no respect here, but he sure had the respect of the Memphis dudes he jammed with regularly - King, Bland and, um, Howlin' Wolf.

Buddy Ace is the only name on the poster without some big trophy to brag about, but the "Silver Fox of the Blues" recorded for the magical Duke/Peacock label and performed live until he literally died on stage in 1994.

Full text up top: "Concert & Dance - Auditorium - Chattanooga [Tennessee] - Monday Mar. 18 - 8:00 PM - Advance Admission $1.50-Last Day $2.00." And then "Globe Poster - Baltimore" down at the bottom, far & away the premier cardboard concert-poster printer of the 1950's and 60's.

Condition details: This board was once sliced into two pieces, but has been perfectly mended back together by Chameleon Restoration. The cut line couldn't have been placed better... it runs right under Chuck Willis' (red) name and through the bottom of his photograph, leaving a trace that's as non-intrusive as it gets. On the verso, a wide white band of something was used to reconnect the two pieces, but it's as smooth to the touch as the rest of the verso is.

And that's it for the restoration. The poster has plenty of surface dings and flaws that any item of this vintage is expected to have. The corners are soft and rounded; the upper left one has a one-inch crease and the lower right one has a microscopic tip of material gone. The left center edge has a one-inch bump/ruffle, and over to the right there are spots of tape-lifted missing yellow by Ruth's cheek. Other smaller edge dings, surface grime, Globe's weak ink in places (such as on the two headliner's names) and ink smudging throughout all add up to a rough, down-and-dirty vintage R&B concert poster printed over 60 years ago with the intention of surviving for only a few weeks.


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