A unique poster advertising a 1955 Elvis Presley concert at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee is selling at Heritage Auctions.
Online bidding starts at $6,250 ahead of the April 18 Entertainment, Music & Posters sale in Dallas.
The show featured a who’s who of country music legends, including Hank Snow and Faron Young. Elvis is down at the bottom of the bill; one of the last times he’d find himself there.
In 1956 Elvis got his big break on the wildly popular TV programme Stage Show, where his snake-hipped gyrating and rockabilly yowling hypnotised a generation of impressionable teenagers.
No other example of this beautifully printed window card has ever been unearthed.
It’s in Very Good Plus condition, with only some minor creases and ink stains. The design is executed in a lovely vernacular style and has stunning eye appeal.
There’s also a “Sold Out” poster printed for Bob Dylan’s 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue tour.
The devastating message reads: “We are sorry no tickets were available / for you. There are no tickets at agencies / or on the street. Any tickets that / are being sold are probably counterfeit / and will be refused admittance to / the performance. …Thank you".
It was pinned up in the box office at Southeastern Massachusetts University ahead of the show on November 1, the third date on the first leg of the tour.
Dylan had asked the promoter to keep the show a secret until eight days beforehand. The rush for tickets was predictably enormous.
The window card features “Rolling Thunder Revue” in the official typeface. Again, it’s believed to be a one-off. Heritage expects it to make somewhere in excess of $1,200.
