FD-2 "King Kong Memorial Dance" 1966 Family Dog Fillmore Poster Signed by Wes Wilson, Graded 8.0. ...

Description

AN 800-LB. GORILLA IN FILLMORE CONCERT POSTERS

FD-2 "King Kong Memorial Dance" 1966 Family Dog Fillmore Poster Signed by Wes Wilson, Graded 8.0. An original first-printing San Francisco concert poster for The Great! Society w/Grace Slick, the Grass Roots, Big Brother and the Holding Company and Quicksilver Messenger Service playing at the Fillmore Auditorium on Saturday night, February 26, 1966.

Known as FD-2 in the Family Dog numbered series, this poster was co-designed by Wes Wilson and Family Dog chief Chet Helms (who supplied the animal picture and the poster's theme). This terrifically rare timepiece was signed by the late Mr. Wilson down at the bottom, and subsequently graded to 8.0 Very Fine by CGC (the Certified Guaranty Company), a pretty strong grade for such a rare, early poster.

Truly an 800-pound gorilla of a collector's item in more ways than one: only the second Family Dog concert poster, still in the primeval month of February 1966, once again nearly impossible to find in its pre-concert first printing like this. The "King Kong Memorial Dance" poster was printed by graphic artist Wilson in the little Contact Printing shop in San Francisco where he worked. Less than 500 of these were printed, just like with FD-1, and very few of them survive today.

For the poster's design, Chet Helms simply cut this simian image out of a picture-magazine of the day, perhaps Life, Look or The Saturday Evening Post. That original magazine-page cut-out measures only about 7" x 10". The logo and lettering were then added by Wes Wilson, and the whole image was blown up to print as posters (and shrunk down for handbills).

This poster also marks the debut of the new, fully formed Family Dog logo. On FD-1, Helms had come up with the idea of a Native American Indian with a joint in its mouth instead of a peace pipe. Only the oval-shaped photo ran on that poster. For this poster, FD-2, Wes Wilson added the design elements you see surrounding the oval, and the new company had its identity.

To the uninitiated: Slogans like "King Kong Memorial Dance" were just catchy phrases and themes creatively thought up to give the earliest events a little more cache and marketing clout. The Family Dog's FD-1 had been named "A Tribal Stomp," and you might remember how the previous fall (1965) the first founders of the Family Dog named their shindigs after comic-book heroes.

None of it mattered once you walked in the door; for this show, there were no apes swinging on trapezes from the ceiling. Bill Graham tried it once in the early days, using "Batman" for his BG-2 marketing, but then let the idea more or less die. And the Family Dog quickly moved to brief names instead of theme dances, preferring non sequiturs like "Euphoria," "The Laugh Cure" and "Hayfever" at the top of their posters.

The show was headlined by The Great! Society featuring Grace Slick, who wrote "White Rabbit" while in this band, and her brother-in-law Darby Slick, who wrote "Somebody to Love." This was the very month that North Beach Records released the latter song as the band's only single (using the original title of "Someone to Love"). As you know, the Jefferson Airplane's version the next year would become the Summer of Love's national anthem.

Also on the bill were The Grass Roots, undergoing a personnel turnstile in their earliest days. They had released one single, a cover of Bob Dylan's "Ballad of a Thin Man" from Highway 61 Revisited, which ABC/Dunhill decided to call "Mr. Jones (A Ballad of a Thin Man)." It didn't stick, but a couple of months after this show the Roots released "Where Were You When I Needed You," which achieved national Top 30 success due to heavy airplay in California. A lot of success followed over the next five years.

Big Brother & The Holding Co. needs no introduction, although Janis Joplin was still four months away from joining the band. Still, the twin guitar attacks of Sam Andrew and James Gurley were starting to draw a lot of attention in the Bay Area. Managed by Chet Helms - yes, Mr. Family Dog - the group had 'gone public' only two months prior to this. This is their debut appearance on any Family Dog or Bill Graham concert poster. It's also the only BBHC poster with their original drummer Chuck Jones, before Dave Getz took over the stool in March.

And Quicksilver Messenger Service were no more experienced than BBHC; they had also debuted under their final name just in December. Their core members had met at the "Tribute to Dr. Strange" dance-concert the previous October. QMS had their own sublime dual-guitar attack in John Cipollina and Gary Duncan. Although never having a national hit single, they would come to be known as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, live San Francisco bands of the era.

This gorilla of a poster measures slightly under 14" x 20" and grades to 8.0 Very Fine. From the David Swartz Concert Poster Collection. COA from Heritage Auctions.

More Information: Examining the poster through CGC's plastic holder, the upper left corner has two pinholes pretty close together, almost like a very small staple was used; the top right corner has two pinholes spaced normally, like a standard staple would leave; and the top center margin has two pinholes, far enough apart that they had to be independent. The lower left corner has three pinholes, one of them running off the paper's edge in a very tiny tear-away. And the lower right corner has just one pinhole. The lower left corner area also has a little bit of grime, or possibly ink scumming, along the bottom edge, and some dot blemishes in that corner as well. No corners appear creased, just a tiny-tiny bit soft and rounded on the very tips.


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