A beautiful unfolded, never used one-sheet poster for the original 1967 release of D.A. Pennebaker’s celebrated Bob Dylan documentary, Don’t Look Back.  Every other example we’ve seen of this scarce poster has been machine folded, as it was sent to theaters.

Filmed during Dylan’s 1965 UK tour, Don’t Look Back captures Dylan at his acoustic peak; it is  considered one of the best–if not the best–music films ever made (currently 100% on Rotten Tomatoes).  This superb poster dates from the initial 1967 release of the film, which was first screened on May 17, 1967 at the Presido Theatre in San Francisco–a former ‘adult’ theatre.

An accompanying email from the original owner explains:

In 1967, being big Dylan fans, a friend and I drove into Manhattan from Queens to catch the movie during its first release. It was the last day it was playing at this tiny theatre on 34^th Street off Second Avenue. After the movie, I went to the men’s room as my friend was waiting in the lobby. When I came out, he handed me the rolled-up poster and said “you’re going love this”. Then he explained. It was the last day of the engagement and a maintenance guy came through the lobby with a cart taking down the current posters to put up those for the next movie coming in. The employee said to him “do you want one?” He said “sure” and the guy reached into his cart and said “for a dollar I’ll give you a fresh one that was leftover”. Again, my friend said “sure”. He presented it to me as a gift.  I never hung the poster but it has been in my possession for the last 55 years. It was kept rolled-up in a drawer containing only a few other posters.

We assume that this poster was never folded because the film’s distributor, Leacock-Pennebaker (co-owned by director, D.A. Pennebaker,) was New York based, and the company probably hand delivered the posters and print directly to the theater.

Printed on thin uncoated stock, and measuring 26 7/8″ x 41,” the poster has a “Printed in U.S.A.” notice in the bottom left corner, with no other credits along the bottom.  It is in excellent to near mint- condition, with some very minor edge fraying and one 1/5″ edge tear.  Upon very close inspection some incidental age related crinkling to the ink can be seen in the large black area below Dylan’s name.

Large and extremely impressive in person, this will frame beautifully.