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Help me on a piece of music's art history....

I recently and for reasons not known to me stopped into a small antique store while on vacation.....I saw a poster that caught my eye. It was the billboard poster for the 1972 Watkins Glenn '' Summer Jam'' concert that featured three of my all time favorite artists ; The Grateful Dead, The Allman Brothers Band and The Band....it ended up being larger in population than Woodstock. It is in great to mint shape and I am 98% sure this is not just a recent reproduction but very well could be the first run of this poster. I went on the Internet and saw where the promotor of these bands the late Billy Graham, ( I do believe the site was called Wolfgang Productions ) had one which is probably the original and it was NOT FOR SALE !!! He had other concert posters from ''that era '' for sale on that site. This could be and I am hoping that this is the first run of these posters used for the promation of that concert. I was almost 16 and had my backs packed to go along with my brother and his friends and my mom stopped that from ever happening...NO it is not for sale but does anybody have an idea of it's worth or who would possibly know if this is in fact the real deal....!!!!
garebear
8 responses Add your response
garebear OP
1,154 posts
 
Sorry..it was in 1973
slipknot1
1,423 posts
 
Saturday July 28, 1973 to be exact. The promoters were Shelly Finkel and Jim Koplik. It was called Summer Jam.
Crowd estimates were between 500,000 and 650,000 depending on the source. I was there and it was a wild weekend. We arrived on Thursday evening and by then they had pretty much given up on collecting tickets. As a result, I still have my entire 10.00 ticket. Friday late afternoon/evening, the Grateful Dead's soundcheck was about 90 minutes long. I have the tapes from it and listen to them often. There were rumors of a movie and soundtrack album to be released but it never came to fruition. Too bad too. There was some remarkable music that weekend, including a monumental "Mountain Jam" featuring the Allmans and the Dead. Of course the obligatory torrential rain on Saturday afternoon as well, creating a lot of mud. If the Finkel/Koplik boys are not mentioned on the poster, it's a phoney. If the date on it is 1972, well, that's a dead givaway (pun intended).
slipknot1
1,423 posts
 
As a followup, if, as a re-read your correction to the date, it has Finkel and Koplik on it and is the real deal, my guess of a rough estimate of worth is 275.00 - 400.00. If it is a mint first run maybe more. There was not a whole lot of memorabilia spewed from this show, including photos. As my previous post indicated, the most numerous stuff is intact tickets. I can't recall seeing many posters around, though I have seen some repros. I hope you grabbed it. If not, where is the store? ;)
garebear OP
1,154 posts
 
Slipnot1....it is the same poster that Billy Grham has on his web site called Wolfgang's Vault that is listed as ''not for sale''. It has the two promoters who you mentioned above; Finkel and Koplik at the top....and that was my mistake saying it was 1972 ...I have since corrected that eror. It does in fact read ; 1973. How do I know if it a first run...or a repo worth about $275-$400. Ohhhh, I picked it up and I am going to have it framed and plan and contacting my insurance company. I picked up a first run 1987 Grateful Dead New Year's Eve Poster back in 1987 as a promotion for that concert for $10....it is now worth about $500 !!! Thanks for your help and if you know anything else about this poster it would be greatly appreciated...I just want to make sure if it the real deal !!!! I think it is....but is it a first run ???
jsonic
227 posts
 
Wolgang's Vault bought the rights and the existing inventory for the BG productions Fillmore series posters. They are monopolistic and own the rights to the visual images to these posters and regularly threaten ebay sellers to cease and desist showing the image of their own posters for sale as a deterrent to competition. Most of the Watkins Glen posters I've seen are 2nd run. They look just like the first run. I would get Eric King's Price Guide or contact Psychedelic Solution in Manhattan to find out how to differentiate the 1st run from the 2nd on this poster.
slipknot1
1,423 posts
 
Jsonic offers solid advice re: validating it. I'm not really sure what to tell you as far as how to tell for sure. If you know of a good printer in your area, one thing they might be able to help with is the age of the stock it's printed on. Circa 1973 card stock would be a pretty reliable indicator. Repro or not - great find! Good job on the NYE poster as well. I recently got my hands on a minty poster from the 1980 run at Radio City Music Hall.....
Congratulations and enjoy!! I happen to be a long time fan of the GD as should be evidenced by my user name.
garebear OP
1,154 posts
 
Slipnot>>> Help's on the Way>>>> Franklin's Tower....and ending with a beautiful Crazy Fingers..... I was wondering about that but I also figured that one out !!!! Thanks again
jsonic
227 posts
 
Serious poster collectors also use a micrometer to measure the width of the paper the poster is printed on. Different print runs often use different width paper.
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