Grateful Dead 1966 Trips Festival 196? Longshoremen's Hall S.F. Concert Poster (AOR-2.187). ...

Description

NO QUESTION MARK ABOUT THIS ONE, IT'S A CLASSIC

Grateful Dead 1966 Trips Festival 196? Longshoremen's Hall S.F. Concert Poster (AOR-2.187). An original cardboard window card advertising a reprise of the January Trips Festival exactly three months later, also at San Francisco's Longshoremen's Hall, over the weekend of April 22-24, 1966. This is a wildly cool, rare and sought-after poster by many, having been made in a much tinier quantity than any standard paper psychedelic poster of the day.

The Grateful Dead headlined, of course, and they rushed back from their failed experiment of living in Los Angeles (with Owsley Stanley) to play this weekend and earn themselves a total of $375. The organizers were hoping to continue the magic of the original Trips Festival, and they certainly did so with their poster. The very nature of "196?" on there sets this poster apart from all others. Its fascinating hybrid of psychedelic artwork and boxing-style lettering can be attributed to the Tilghman ("till-man") Press of Oakland, who almost never made psych posters but filled the west coast with boxers. Notice Tilghman's trademark "split fountain" ink coloring, too... from red at the top morphing into black in the middle and then dark green in the bottom third.

History has treated this poster extremely well, but at the time it wasn't considered gorgeous like the Wes Wilson posters all over town, so not many people saved it. Today it's a prized catch and only the lucky few have one. The only other time Heritage has had one, two years ago, it fetched a tidy $37,500. Measures 16" x 24 3/8" and grades to restored 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.186 (illus.).

More Information: According to Grateful Dead: The Illustrated Trip (DK Publishing, 2003, co-authored by Dennis McNally), "After six weeks in L.A., the Grateful Dead are no closer to getting ‘the big break' than they'd been in San Francisco. And they're homesick, and keenly aware that big things are doing around the Bay Area while they sit in [Stanley's] pink house in a cloud of acid dust and meat grease. When Rock Scully books them into Longshoremen's Hall for three nights, they leave L.A. almost as quickly as they left San Francisco, arriving with just a few hours to spare before the first show."

Condition details: Chameleon Restoration addressed sundry edge and corner issues, touching up any printing or color where necessary, mending tears or pinholes, eradicating surface blemishes and greatly reducing any creasing the poster might have had. The result is a really strong piece with little or no evidence of past damage.


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