James Brown & Chuck Berry 1984 Beverly Theatre Concert Poster—Original Colby

OLBY POSTER PRINTING CO. (Los Angeles, 1948–2012)

James Brown / Chuck Berry, Beverly Theatre, Saturday January 14 — Original Concert Window Card.

Los Angeles: Colby Poster Printing Co., 1332 W. 12th Pl., [1984].

Medium and Support: Letterpress on heavy fluorescent orange day-glo cardstock, printed in deep blue ink from hand-set wood type, all caps. Imprint at lower margin: “COLBY POSTER PRINTING CO., 1332 W. 12th Pl., L.A. 90015 Phone (213) 747-5108.” Text reads: JAMES BROWN / CHUCK BERRY / 2 SHOWS 7:30 and 10:30 / SAT. JAN. 14 / BEVERLY THEATRE / Tickets Available at Ticketron & Box Office.

Format: Single sheet, “boxing-style” window card, unframed. Approximately 14 × 22 inches (standard Colby format).

Condition: Good. Multiple small staple holes and punctures along edges and corners consistent with original street and venue posting; minor chipping and short tears at extremities; light surface creasing and handling crinkles; faint traces of old adhesive verso. The fluorescent orange ground remains bright and the deep blue ink unfaded. Text fully legible throughout with no losses.

A vibrant survival of vernacular Los Angeles graphic design — an original Colby Poster Co. window card advertising a James Brown and Chuck Berry double bill at the Beverly Theatre, the Wilshire Boulevard concert venue (formerly the Warner Beverly Hills, opened 1931) that briefly hosted some of the most celebrated R&B and rock concerts of the early 1980s before being demolished in 1988. The Beverly was the site of James Brown’s legendary August 1983 concert with B.B. King, immortalized when Brown called Michael Jackson and Prince to the stage. This poster, announcing a Saturday-night double bill the following winter, captures the venue at the height of its short-lived life as an LA concert house, pairing two foundational figures of American popular music.

The Colby Poster Printing Company, founded in 1948 and operated by three generations of the Hinman family from 1332 W. 12th Place in downtown Los Angeles, defined the visual identity of Southern California street advertising for over six decades. Working on Vandercook letterpress presses with hand-set wood type and split-fountain fluorescent inks, Colby’s “boxing-style” window cards were stapled to telephone poles, fences, and storefronts to promote everything from prizefights and mariachi shows to rock concerts, rodeos, and political campaigns. Most were thrown away after the event; survivors in good condition are increasingly collected as artifacts of analog American graphic design and have been the subject of museum exhibitions at the Hammer Museum and the International Printing Museum, the latter holding the company’s archive following its closure in 2012.

Note on attribution and dating: The poster bears no printed year. January 14 fell on a Saturday in 1984, the only such Saturday within the Beverly Theatre’s brief tenure as a concert venue (c. 1981–1987; demolished 1988); a 1984 date is therefore inferred from the venue’s operating window, the Colby imprint and address, and the calendar. No setlist or contemporary press notice for this specific night has been located online; the asking price reflects the surviving condition, the standing of both performers, the cultural significance of the now-demolished venue, and the recognized collector status of original Colby Poster Co. letterpress work.