Avalon Ballroom 9/30/66 & 10/1/66

Known as the “Zebra Man,” this poster is one of the truly classic psychedelic images. The central image was produced by shining a light through a Venetian blind onto a man’s face. The photograph of this image first appeared on a Life Magazine cover dated December 6, 1954. Mouse and Kelley added the orange color to the original black-and-white image and placed it on the blue background with great effect. The handbills for this image are the first known to have been hand-addressed, hand-stamped, and sent to people on the Family Dog mailing list.

The original poster was printed on vellum and measures approximately 14″ x 20″. The notation “The Bindweed Press San Francisco” appears in the lower right corner. There is notable color variation from a true orange to a reddish orange, but all are from the original press run of 2,000 copies.

There is also a very rare original with a green background which was possibly a test run.

The second print poster was printed on vellum and measures approximately 14″ x 20″. The notation “28(2)” appears in the lower left corner and the Bindweed credit appears in the lower right corner. Only 1,000 of this printing were produced.

The third print poster was printed on uncoated index stock and measures approximately 14″ x 20″. This poster has the notation “28( )” in the lower left corner and the Bindweed credit has been deleted.

There is also a reprint made by Capitol Records. This poster carries the notation “28(3)” in the lower left corner.

There are also two forgeries of this poster, both bearing the “San Francisco Poster Co.” credit. One of these forgeries has yellow “zebra” stripes while the other has dark pink stripes.

The original handbill was printed on thin paper and measures approximately 5″ x 8″. The color of the stripes in these handbills varies considerably from yellow to red, with red being quite rare.