The Posters We Put On Our Bedroom Walls In The '60s And '70s
By | June 19, 2018
Movie poster for Bruce Brown's 1966 surfing documentary 'The Endless Summer;' a classic R. Crumb 'Keep On Truckin' image from 1967. Source: Getty; Pinterest
Nearly every teen bedroom in the 1960s and 1970s had posters covering all the walls. Teens created shrines to their favorite hot celebrity, favorite band, and even favorite movie by hanging every poster they could get their hands on. People could buy posters almost anywhere. Do you remember how every record store had a huge poster section? You could find any type of poster imaginable there, including ones of your top bands, like Kiss and the Eagles, your hot celebrity crushes, like Shaun Cassidy and Farrah Fawcett, and even contemporary pin-up girls.
Remember when they had crazy cool posters for concerts?
Gig posters advertising a Doors/Yardbirds ahow at the Fillmore in San Francisco; Jimi Hendrix with Procol Harum and the Chiffons in London; and Steppenwolf playing the Sports Arena in Toledo. Source: Pinterest
Before every big concert, a band created a poster with all the important information on it…date, place, time, etc. Prior to social media, this was the best way to let people know about the event. These posters were awesome! So cool and retro. They have become part of our culture. Think of the iconic poster for Woodstock…it is still popular today and the poster has been made into t-shirts, coffee mugs, screensavers and … more posters. Concert posters of the 1960s and 1970s had a groovy, trippy vibe to them. That’s why everyone wanted to collect them.
Pinups Of The Grooviest Babes...
Lynda Carter, Farrah Fawcett, and Raquel Welch. Source: postermania.wordpress.com
Everyone had their set of favorite sexy celebrities, especially during the seventies. There were several fan magazines, like Tiger Beat, that not only gave us gossip on our celebrity crushes but supplied us with more posters for our walls. In addition to Farrah Fawcett and Shaun Cassidy, everyone wanted posters of Jaclyn Smith, Parker Stevenson, John Travolta, Catherine Bach, and more. All you had to do was get the latest issue of Tiger Beat and pull out the posters!
...And The Hunkiest Hunks
Dirk Benedict, Joe Namath, and Shaun Cassidy. Source: postermania.wordpress.com
And while it seems like it was all about the ladies, it wasn't -- pinup posters of TV stars, rock stars or other male celebrities were very popular in the '70s. And chest hair was a plus!
If you Loved the Movie, You HAD to have the Poster
Source: originalfilmart.com; Pinterest x2
The sixties and seventies movie posters were almost as legendary as the movies themselves. Although the posters were originally intended for the front windows of the movie theater, to let patrons know a bit about the movies that were showing. But they were so impressive that people kept trying to steal them. Finally, the movie studios just started selling the posters.
(Un)Roll Your Own... Drug Posters!
Sources: Pinterest; museumca.org; Wikimedia Commons
It's your dorm room -- you should be able to hang whatever you want, even if it endorses not-exactly-legal activities! "Who Rolled Mary Jane?" was an inexplicably popular poster among pot smokers, featuring a version of the "Zig Zag Man." Posters featuring other drug-culture imagery, including an Acid Test flyer, were big as well in college dorms -- and let's not forget that just about every concert poster from the late '60s onward might qualify as "drug culture imagery."
Take A Stand! Political Posters
In tumultuous times, people wore their political colors on their sleeve and hung their causes on their walls. With the chaos of Vietnam a daily news story, posters advocating peace and featuring the peace symbol were popular.
Who Inspired You? Hang Your Heroes On The Wall
Milton Glaser's Bob Dylan portrait poster was distributed with copies of his Greatest Hits album; Steve McQueen's LeMans poster was a gas station giveaway, and the iconic Che Guevara image was created by Jim Fitzpatrick in 1967. Source: Pinterest, posterm
Who's your personal hero? Who do you look to for inspiration? Whether it's a talented songwriter, a dashing movie star, or a revolutionary in a far-off land, posters of our idols were there on our walls to inspire us.
Groovy Seventies Slang Terms? Put it on a Poster!
“Far out, man,” “Keep on Truckin’”, “Groovy”…if there was a catchy seventies phrase, you can bet it was put on a poster! These types of posters were more inspirational or motivational, not informative, so there was plenty of space to show off the groovy art and graphic design skills of the era, with colorful curves and bubble letters. From pop art to psychedelic swirls, there was something for every taste.
What Car Do You Drive -- Or Wish You Could Drive?
Every red-blooded American boy wanted a poster that combined their two favorite things…fast cars and sexy girls. The vintage pin-up posters of the fifties got a contemporary make-over during the late 1960s and 1970s. Bikini-clad girls and muscle cars…that’s what every teenage boy wanted on his bedroom walls.
