On This Day in Art Rock History

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SAN FRANCISCO · THE PSYCHEDELIC ERA · 1960s

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JOB rolling paper logo

FD-29 · October 7, 1966
FD-29

FD-29 · Alton Kelley, Stanley Mouse

Catalog Number
FD-29
Series
Family Dog
Venue
Avalon Ballroom
San Francisco
Date
October 7, 1966
Poster Artists
Nickname
JOB rolling paper logo
Performers
Jim Kweskin Jug Band
Big Brother and the Holding Company
Electric Train

On this night in 1966 — the day after California became the first state to criminalize LSD, the ban having taken effect on October 6 — the Avalon Ballroom pulsed with the energy of a thousand young people determined to dance anyway.

Stanley Mouse and Alton Kelley created what would become one of the most iconic posters of the entire psychedelic era. They borrowed Alphonse Mucha's JOB cigarette rolling paper advertisement — that sinuous Art Nouveau beauty with her flowing hair and dreaming expression — and reimagined her in vibrant, liquid psychedelic color. The juxtaposition was deliberate: European fin-de-siècle refinement meeting California counterculture rebellion. Kelley came up with the concept; Mouse executed the artwork. Together they produced a poster that today hangs in museums across the country.

The poster bills the Jim Kweskin Jug Band — the Cambridge jug-and-string outfit, here with Maria Muldaur — on top, over Big Brother and the Holding Company, whose young singer Janis Joplin was just beginning to find the raw, devastating vocal power that would make her a legend, with Electric Train rounding out the bill. (History remembers Joplin as the name on this night, but the printed order put Kweskin first.)

The original was printed on vellum stock, measuring approximately 14" × 20" — the vellum giving the poster a distinctive translucent quality that let the layers of color interact in ways paper never could. The familiar collector lore around it — a first run of about 2,000, a scarcer second printing of roughly 1,000, a prized variant where missing green ink leaves the woman's hair platinum rather than green, and a forgery betrayed by a "San Francisco Poster Co." credit — comes from the specialist printing guides (Eric King; classicposters), gated references this pass could not reach, so those figures are offered as the catalogers' account rather than independently confirmed here.

The poster became known as "The Girl with the Green Hair," though Mouse and Kelley simply called it the JOB rolling paper logo design. Whatever you call it, FD-29 is the poster that proved concert art could be Art with a capital A.

Verification Notes

ANTAGONIST 2026-10-01: HARD ERROR CORRECTED -- 'just hours after LSD criminalized' was off by a day. California's LSD ban took effect Oct 6 1966 (the Dead played the Love Pageant Rally that day); the Avalon show was Oct 7 = the DAY AFTER -- check-claims ok (deadnet). BILLING ORDER corrected to the poster order: Jim Kweskin Jug Band / Big Brother & the Holding Company / Electric Train (Kweskin top-billed; was Big-Brother-first) -- per Concert Poster Gallery OP-1 + COAU; check-claims ok (chickenonaunicycle). Mouse & Kelley / Mucha JOB VERIFIED; ~14x20 vellum VERIFIED. Print runs (2,000/1,000), green-hair variant, and 'San Francisco Poster Co.' forgery HEDGED -- classicposters/Eric-King gated (honest gap).

Were You There?

Do you have memories of this show, or an original FD-29 poster? On This Day in Art Rock History celebrates the people who lived through the psychedelic era. Your stories and collections matter to this archive.

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