Grateful Dead 1966 One-Year Anniversary Party Concert Handbill Graded 8.0 (AOR-2.185). ...

Description

Grateful Dead 1966 One-Year Anniversary Party Concert Handbill Graded 8.0 (AOR-2.185). First-printing San Francisco concert flyer for the Grateful Dead and the band Andrew Staples playing at the Old Cheese Factory on Saturday night, November 12, 1966. This show took place just days after Jerry Garcia had traveled down to Los Angeles to help his pals the Jefferson Airplane finish recording their Surrealistic Pillow album. He ended up playing lead guitar on four songs and overhauling "Somebody to Love" into the hit version we know today. Nice way to mark your first anniversary as a serous Bay-Area musician.

The Grateful Dead had actually first performed under that name 11 months earlier, at the first public Acid Test held in San Jose on December 4, 1965. But most likely they had decided on their new name in November.

Designed by Stanley Mouse and Alton Kelley, this handbill is an early collaboration by the pair, and their association with the Dead would become legendary. Down in the lower left corner of the red artwork, it says "Mouse Studios 1966" and depicts Stanley's little running mouse. Over in the lower right, there's a blank circle, and that's where a little bit of mystery begins.

On the larger poster that circle is white and says, somewhat mysteriously, "Good Times." Here on the handbill it's red, and is blank on this version. And yet when Heritage auctioned off this handbill once before - in April 2024 - not only was that circle filled in by a commercial interest (the San Francisco National Bar), but more type was added down in the bottom white margin.

And yet is the grading strips on both, CGC refers to them identically: AOR-2.185-OHB-A. Go figure!

Measuring a full-sized 8 1/2" x 11", this specimen has been graded 8.0 Very Fine by CGC (the Certified Guaranty Company). From the Tim Backstrom Grateful Dead Collection. 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.).

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