The Beach Boys 1962 Los Angeles Surf Fair Advertising Poster. ...

Description

The Beach Boys 1962 Los Angeles Surf Fair Advertising Poster. An original paper advertising/concert poster from the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Southern California from December 27-28, 1962 featuring the young & fresh-scrubbed Beach Boys pictured down at the bottom and listed on the right.

The "Los Angeles Surf Fair" took place in Santa Monica - one of many beach areas along Los Angeles' coastline, but the most well-known - not over a weekend, but on the last Thursday-Friday of 1962. You can enlarge our web-site picture and see all the fun surf-oriented activities that took place, including surf movies, museum artifacts, contests with door prizes, etc. And the two key Beach Boys elements that we're left to interpret: on the right-hand side, "Beach Boys - Capital [sic] Records - In Person Friday"; and down below above their photo, "See The Fabulous Beach Boys! In Person."

So did they play a concert? Quizzical collectors need to know. We would guess that they almost certainly did. The word "See" must have surely also meant "hear." Even if they performed a cappella like Brian Wilson's idols, the Four Freshmen. But equipment was very easily set up in those days; just plug-and-play amplifiers and the house PA. Surely there was a stage area (the Civic always had one) and the various musicians sprinkled throughout the two days got up and entertained the troops. Why bother showing up to be seen and not heard?

So this amounts to a Beach Boys concert poster, although an unconventional one, from when they had had only one minor hit - "Surfin' Safari," which peaked at #14 nationally that summer. And their current single, "Ten Little Indians," wasn't setting the world on fire, pretty much dying. So they were still completely accessible. Until about three months later, when the national smash "Surfin' U.S.A." would change everything and turn them into stars.

Poster measures just under 13 x 20" and is graded to Near Mint Minus condition. Poster was once quarter-folded, probably to fit into a mailing envelope. Luckily those machine folds do not break the color in any way. Light overall toning. COA from Heritage Auctions.

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