An extremely rare mid-1960s DayGlo cardboard boxing-style concert poster advertising shows by Chuck Berry at the legendary Hollywood club P.J.’s.  This is the first concert poster we’ve seen from P.J.’s, and can find no record of this or any other online.

P.J.’s opened in 1961 at Santa Monica Blvd. and Crescent Heights, with former police detective Elmer Valentine as one of the four owners–he would go on to co-found legendary Sunset Strip clubs The Trip and the Whisky-A-Go-Go.  The club closed in 1967, dating this poster sometime between those dates. (During the 1970s another legendary club, the Starwood club opened in the same location.)

This poster has everything you’d want from a Chuck Berry poster: the green DayGlo background, ‘The Legend of Rock & Roll’ headline, a vintage photo of Berry duck-walking, and mentions of his hits ‘Memphis’ and ‘Sweet Little Sixteen.’ It has all the hallmarks of having been pulled down from a telephone pole: staple holes in the corners (and one vintage staple!), missing corner tips at the top, moisture staining, and two small holes on either side of the central photograph.  An edge tear has been archivally closed. There is a Colby Poster Printing credit at the bottom.  14″ x 22 1/2″

From the Vintage Los Angeles page on P.J.’s: Club goers and hip celebs like Ann-Margret, Steve McQueen, Joey Bishop, Lenny Bruce, Mia Farrow, Don Rickles, Buddy Hacket and Paul Newman would dance the Watusi to live acts such as Johnny Rivers, Bobby Fuller, the Standells, Rufus Thomas or Eddie Cano who were all new to the scene at that time. Mia Farrow caused a sensation was she stepped into P.J.’s for the first time with her short Vidal Sassoon haircut with Frank Sinatra. Singer and guitarist Trini Lopez performed at P.J.’s several nights week for a year and a half and recorded two live albums in the main room. P.J.’s gained national exposure when Lopez’s 1963 live album titled, “Trini Lopez at P.J.’s” was released and generated a hit cover of Pete Seeger’s, “If I Had A Hammer”.