Bob Dylan 1961 Gerde's Folk City Handbill Mailed Back Home by Dylan Himself; Displayed in Eight Museums. A spectacul...

Description

THE MASTER WHEN HE WAS PAID JUST $14 A NIGHT

Bob Dylan 1961 Gerde's Folk City Handbill Mailed Back Home by Dylan Himself; Displayed in Eight Museums. A spectacularly unique, seminal concert handbill for Bob Dylan opening for John Lee Hooker at Gerde's Folk City in Greenwich Village, New York for two weeks beginning on Tuesday night, April 11, 1961.

This piece is special in so many ways it's hard to count them. Firstly, its provenance is off the charts. This exact artifact, coffee stains and all, was mailed back home by the teenaged Dylan to a close musician friend of his, Tony Glover in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Mr. Glover reaffirms this fact in his liner notes for an official Bob Dylan release on Columbia Records. In his liner notes for the 1998 release on Sony Legacy called The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert, Glover wrote the following:

"Bob headed east in late 1960. We exchanged letters and he proudly sent back a flyer advertising him playing at Gerde's Folk City on a bill with John Lee Hooker." (Note: Dylan actually first arrived in New York City in late January '61.)

Could the provenance possibly get any better? Glover also supplied a Letter of Provenance at the end of the 1990's which recounted this fact, and explains all the writing on the back of it. Yes, that LOP is included in the lot.

Just running off all the statistical greatness about this piece is dizzying. This flyer is no less than the first fully fledged concert-advertising piece in Dylan's history, unless something turns up from Minneapolis in the late 1950's - and nothing has yet. Opening for John Lee Hooker marked Dylan's major professional debut, and it was only his second-ever documented paid performance.

Dylan was paid $14 a night to perform five songs before Hooker took the stage. Rock's greatest-ever single songwriter had written only one song at this point, "Song to Woody." Anthony Scaduto's book, Bob Dylan: A Biography, called this gig "Dylan's first real job – he was jumping up & down." Dylan had no professional experience yet in a recording studio; two months later, he would debut with a harmonica cameo on Harry Belafonte's Midnight Special album.

A week before this gig started, Dylan had to borrow $46 from a friend to get his union card. Scaduto's biography again, about opening night: "When he came on stage, he seemed very uptight. Some of his friends felt like he was standing up there thinking, ‘Will they like me? Anybody gonna be sore that a new kid got this break so fast?'

"As he bounded off the stage, he ran, he hopped, over to Bob Gleason and shook his hand – the first time anyone remembers Bob Dylan shaking hands." And Bob Spitz's Dylan biography states, regarding opening night: "If ever a star were born, it was that night at Folk City."

This handbill has made the rounds of museums over the years, thanks largely to a traveling exhibit called Bob Dylan's American Journey, 1956-1966 which was organized in 2004 by Seattle's Experience Music Project museum (now MoPOP). The exhibit spent three & a half years traveling the U.S., spending time at several museums, including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio and New York City's renowned Morgan Library.

Another fun bit of provenance for this historic handbill is that it was reproduced in a very high-quality coffee-table book 20 years ago called The Bob Dylan Scrapbook, 1956-1966. Author Robert Santelli chronicled Dylan's formative years through rare photos, memorabilia and documents, including handwritten lyrics and a CD with interview excerpts. This book served as a companion to Martin Scorcese's No Direction Home movie documentary. We mention all this because this Gerde's Folk City flyer with John Lee Hooker is presented in 3D form in this book; you can actually fold it out. There's no danger in it ever being mistaken for the original, however, given the modern card stock, etc. that it's printed on, and its size.

So this amazing lot consists of four pieces: one, the handbill; two, Glover's Letter of Provenance; three, a letter from the Grammy Museum thanking the then-owner for loaning it to a 2012 exhibition; and four, another original handbill for John Lee Hooker playing at Gerde's Folk City with Jimmy Gavin as the opening act. This latter handbill covers the two-week period of March 28 to April 9, 1961. Why would this second flyer be in this lot?

Because in the days leading up to Dylan's debut performance on April 11, he excitingly attended many the Hooker nights and sat in the audience, studying every detail he could, watching the blues great perform, checking out the audience, the stage set-up, you name it. So since Dylan was so present for the Jimmy Gavin stand, it's just naturally a very nice added touch to this lot.

As for the main handbill, it's not very often that the backside of a special piece is as interesting as the front, but this is surely an exception. As Tony Glover explains in his LOP, he used the flyer's verso as a scratchpad of sorts. First he wrote a minor poem snippet which you can read about in his letter. But then, at another point, his car broke down and he had to leave it by the side of the road, so he scribbled a note to the police so they wouldn't tow it away, and left it on his windshield. Those scribblings say: "This car broken down. Will remove today. Owner of this junk pile." Wow!

In the interest of full disclosure, this writer needs to point out that it was I who purchased this artifact from Tony Glover last century. That's why my name appears in Tony's LOP and the Grammy letter. Since there was no hiding, I'm explaining my presence to you. I had to "move the piece along" many years ago when financial needs called for it; no shame there, it's the bane of any middle-class collector. Now the person I sold it to, after possessing it for many years, is ready to send it off to the heavens via Heritage. Because that's where this piece belongs: in heaven.

This first-ever Heritage offering measures 8 3/8" x 10 7/8" and grades to what we have to call Poor condition, but... does anyone really care? COA from Heritage Auctions.

Pete Howard
Director, Concert Posters
Heritage Auctions

Heritage Auctions provides detailed information when available but strongly encourages in-person inspection. Condition statements and photographs are offered as general guidance only, not as complete representations of facts, and do not constitute a warranty or assumption of liability by Heritage. Framed artworks are not examined outside their frames, and additional details from Heritage may be unavailable; therefore, the condition of unexamined works is not guaranteed. Heritage is not responsible for damage to frames, glazing, original boxes, display materials, or for works that have shifted within the frame. All lots are sold "AS IS" in accordance with our Terms & Conditions of Auction.