Dear Deadlist Gents:
You have a surpassingly fantastic site that provides a
great service to a Grateful community. But, you've
made a HUGE mistake alleging that the "Tour of the
Great Pacific Northwest" poster depicted for 2/4/68 is
fake. The one offered on ebay was genuine. I've been
collecting "Quick and the Dead" (another name for the
tour) posters and handbills and memorabilia for almost
twenty years. I've put together (and broken) in that
time two complete sets of posters and handbills. You
write "It's unfortunate that these quite scarce
posters are so easy to duplicate". The "Notice!"
poster (another name) is the only Grateful Dead poster
I know of that is absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to forge.
Why? For the very reason that you think the 2/4/68
poster is a forgery
That wrinkled, dirty area that you mention is the same
on most versions of the "Notice!" poster. It is a
photograph of a wrinkled, dirty piece of paper that
was PRINTED onto the thick paper as the background.
The concert info was printed over this. I believe that
the background differs on the Eureka 1/20/68 poster
and perhaps, Seattle/Eagles, but I'll have to check my
copies and I'm at my office as I write this. In
short, the wrinkled, dirty area is not actually
wrinkled and dirty. It's a photograph.
You may have heard that some of the Dead's
less-intelligent people took a stack of these and
burned the edges with a blowtorch. These are very,
very, very hard-to-find, but the burn pattern has to
be right. Some even less-intelligent poster fools
have tried to manufacture rarity in an already very
rare piece. Real "Notice!" collectors can spot these
a mile away. I even met one (now reformed) idiot who
burned up his Crystal Ballroom and Eureka posters!!!!
Two of the rarest.
There are variant backgrounds on the "Notice!"
handbills. I've seen them vary even from copy to
copy. For instance, I think that your pictures of the
Eureka and Seattle/Eagles posters are, in fact, the
handbills. Again, I'll have to check this when I get
home. And, not to belabor the point, but the
wrinkled, dirty background is PRINTED.
"Notice!" posters are extremely rare, especially in
good condition. I and two other "Notice!" nerds (and
we're a weird crowd) recently broke their complete
sets of posters and handbills, which is why so many
have dropped onto ebay in the last two years. It has
affected the price by giving the false impression that
they're common. They aren't. Now, it's almost
impossible to put together complete sets of these six
images in both handbill and poster form. It's easier
to assemble complete sets of Family Dog and Fillmore
first printings. They're that scarce.
If I'm not mistaken, the guy who put his 2/4/68 poster
on ebay is "dead44004". He is a respected member of
the poster-collecting community, a committed Deadhead
(hence, the ebay handle) and he would never put fake
trash up on ebay. In all my years of collecting
posters, I've NEVER seen a fake "Notice!" poster or
handbill. You really should fix this mistake ASAP.
If you have friends in the Laguna Beach area of Orange
County, I'd be happy to take them for an in-person
tour of the "Notice!" material. I also know most of
the other hard-core "Notice!" collectors and I'd be
happy to put you in touch with them. I'd also be
happy to send you some pix for your site. I have a
beautiful Crystal Ballroom that's signed by all of the
Dead, by John Cipollina and by George Hunter and Mike
Ferguson (who also contributed to the piece). A shot
of the Crystal Ballroom handbill would be good too,
since it's completely different from the poster. You
have a signed EMU handbill. I have a picture of the
poster, if you want it. You have a picture of David
Faggioli's thrashed (and very rare) P.S.C. handbill.
I have a shot of the mint poster. I can probably help
you put together side-by-sides of both poster and
handbill for the whole tour.
I also have a beautiful copy of the alternative Eagles
poster that was done by John Moehring. It's
black-and-white and has been signed by most of the
Dead and, I think, by Chip. There is a photo of an
unsigned one in the editorial section of chapter 3 of
"The Art of Rock".
I'm always happy to help out fellow D.H.s, but I
really think you owe it to the poster-collecting
community and, especially, to that honest seller on
ebay, to fix your error post haste.
Congratulations again on a great website. Hey,
nobody's perfect! Wellllllll, except the U.S.C.
football team.
Yours,
Rob Gunning
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