Grateful Dead Handbill
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The Grateful Dead headlined Big Mama Mae Thornton's second appearance at the Fillmore. Balance is the message in this poster; just as the playing card visage could be folded to form an almost perfectly symmetrical Rorschach blot, Big Mama balanced the Dead.
There are two variations to the 1st printing handbill. Both were printed before the concert.
The 1st printing handbill has a red left half of the ying-yang symbol above the face, as do all the posters, and it measures 4 5/8" x 7 11/16".
1st printing A is rare and has a very dark, almost black left half of the ying-yang symbol. It also measures 4 5/8" x 7 11/16".
When the Avalon Ballroom and Bill Graham's Fillmore Auditorium began to hold weekly dance concerts, Wilson was called upon to design the posters. He created psychedelic posters from February 1966 to May 1967, when disputes over money severed his connection with Graham. Wilson pioneered the psychedelic rock poster. Intended for a particular audience, "one that was tuned in to the psychedelic experience," his art, and especially the exaggerated freehand lettering, emerged from Wilson's own involvement with that experience and the psychedelic art of light shows.