Family Dog Posters Research

In my essay I shall be referring to a family dog poster and have found a website which has the full range from 1 - 147.

TThe Family Dog Numbered Series includes 147 numbered posters that advertised Family Dog shows—primarily at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco—from 1966 to 1968. There are also numbered posters for shows produced by the Family Dog in Denver and Portland, as well as unnumbered posters and handbills associated with shows produced by the Family Dog in San Francisco in 1969 and 1970. The Family Dog Numbered Series includes Mouse & Kelley's “Zig-Zag” Man (FD-14), and their “Skull & Roses” Grateful Dead poster (FD-26). The Series also contains Rick Griffin’s FD-D18 poster for the Doors’ 1967 New Year’s show in Denver. The Family Dog Series includes both posters and handbills. Later in the Series, there were postcards and image tickets.

 Family Dog was the production company run by Chet Helms. In April 1966, Helms began presenting weekly events at the Avalon Ballroom, an old dancehall that was ideal for the spectacular light shows he was known for staging. Helm’s first Avalon concert featured The Blues Project and Great Society (FD-5 Wes Wilson). In June 1966, Stanley Mouse returned from Detroit and joined the FD poster design team, which was led by Family Dog Collective co-founder and poster artist Alton Kelley. Together they created a series of psychedelic posters that energized San Francisco’s developing counterculture. In October, Mouse and Kelley were in full swing at the Mouse Studio’s firehouse when Victor Moscoso returned to the fold to design FD-32.

 The Family Dog Series is numbered from FD-1 to FD-147, and includes a number of posters from 1601 West Evans, Denver, CO that carry the designation FD-D2 and so on. Like early BG posters, the first Family Dog posters were printed on vellum and were subject to damage and wear. Family Dog numbers from 1 to 41 were printed in two forms—posters and handbills. After number 41, the handbills were replaced with postcards. The early FD handbills are extremely rare and seldom seen. Like the BG Series, there are many different printings (first prints, second prints, etc.) of the early posters. At Classic Posters, we guarantee that every Family Dog poster we sell is correctly attributed according to the current edition of The Collectors Guide to Psychedelic Rock Concert Posters, Postcards and Handbills 1965-1973 by Eric King