Early Hand-Drawn Grateful Dead Poster from December 1965 Hits Auction
The Grateful Dead LP Art
A piece of Grateful Dead history is up for grabs. Available for bid on Heritage Auctions is a primitive hand-drawn poster that asks, “Can You Pass the Acid Test?” According to the listing, the ad was meant to attract folks to the first publicly attended Ken Kesey-hosted event in late 1965, which doubled as the Dead’s first performance after changing their name from the Warlocks.
Listed as “Grateful Dead 1965 San Jose, CA First-Ever-Performance Acid Test Advertising Poster,” the crayon-drawn event announcement calls attention to Kesey’s December 4, 1965 gathering in San Jose, Calif., listing the residential address, “38 S. 5th St,” below the retraced prompt in green, yellow and purple–creating a trippy effect.
Heritage Auctions obtained their listing from Bay Area residents and sisters Betsy and Kathy. The former took guitar lessons from a young Bobby Weir at a local shop they called “Guitars Unlimited in Menlo Park.”
“We were in high school,” Betsy told Heritage. “My girlfriend’s Mom was a real estate agent in downtown Menlo Park. And her place of work was around the corner from this music shop. So us being curious teenagers, we went around to this music shop and found out they were giving guitar lessons. And that was Bob Weir. They were the Warlocks at that point.”
The Warlocks, as they were known then, performed their famed Magoo Pizza Parlor gig in May 1965 before their official name change. “We were very disappointed when they changed their name,” Kathy told the auction house. “We knew them as the Warlocks and didn’t want them to change.”
Ultimately, following the group’s name change, Weir, Jerry Garcia, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, Phil Lesh, and Bill Kreutzmann continued with regional appearances, including the one conveyed via the poster–which the sisters initially planned to attend.
“We got there that night, but then the Merry Pranksters showed up. We were very innocent, and mainly wanted to go for the music. So we got a little spooked and left. But my sister took two of the hand-drawn signs that said ‘Can You Pass the Acid Test.’ I kind of remember [the poster] on a telephone pole… but again, this was a long time ago. But I think it was.”
The current bid is set at $10,500. To view the poster and learn more, visit www.ha.com. Bidding closes on April 18, 2025.
