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| Peter Max poster |
In the late 60's, The Different Drummer was a popular hippie clothing store/boutique located at 792 Lexington Ave between 61st and 62nd St in NYC (across from the doll hospital), frequented by hippies, rock stars and hep Mets broadcasters. My mother would occasionally deposit my 2 brothers and I there (or their East Village sister store) to outfit us in the latest in nehru shirts, hippie beads and bell bottoms. More importantly, they also sold underground comix, so we would get our R. Crumb fix.
This "far out", "psychedelic", "cosmic 60's" poster was designed for the store in 1968 by the unavoidable artist of the moment, "king of the dorm rooms", Peter Max (Finkelstein).
But I vastly preferred this poster, also offered by The Different Drummer...
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| Shit poster |
This large poster (I have no idea who the shirtless slob is) hung in my Great Neck boyhood bedroom for years, upsetting, disturbing and confusing frequent adult guests, including my grandmother, and our housekeeper Mrs. Sullivan's friends and relatives. To all of them, I'm truly sorry.
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| Just what NYC needed, another Sushi restaurant. 792 Lexington Ave today. Actually, it's pretty good. |
That poster went far beyond the eyes of anyone who would ever actually visit the Different Drummer -- making it the Wall Drugs of the era. Though, come to think of it, I guess Wall Drugs bumperstickers started popping up everywhere about then, too. So it was ALSO the Wall Drugs of the era. No, that doesn't sound right ... never mind ...
ReplyDeleteDar Drew, By any chance do you have images or something from this store? I found a photo on the Web that I could show you. It's a Live Mannequin with leather fringed clothing and in the back at least 4 or 5 posters of the Different Drummer. It's very old so I guess probably it's the store in NY that sold the posters.
ReplyDeleteEd, www.themaxcollector.com
Ed, I'd love to see the photo, thanks.
DeleteDrewings@ptd.net
man!! I had that "shit" poster on my wall, too! I bought it at a record store here in Pensacola, Florida around '70 or '71. I was about 18. I bought it because it looked like my room mate, Dwight.
ReplyDeleteThe person In the poster was/is one of the owners of The Different Drummer. I've forgotten his name, but he used to date the model "Verisha." I used to occasionally date one of the other owners Eddie Rabkin. If themaxcollector is interested I have some Peter Max silk scarves from that time (70's). Thanks for the memories! Drew, love you work and the blog.
ReplyDeleteSusan.
His name is/was Paul. I used to work there and he was a very cool stoner and a wonderful employer (he dated "Verushka" - look her up, she was stunning). There was a third owner, Todd, who was married to then model/actress Susie Blakely. Todd was a former ass't DA who became a criminal lawyer. When asked why he crossed over to the "dark side", he'd reply that he had more in common with criminals (oops, i meant to say defendants) than "the law". The three of them were very cool, refused to sell out to the chains (they had plenty of offers) and flew their freak flag high. It was a remarkable place to be in the late '60's and early '70's, and then, like the ethereal time in which it was set, it was gone.
ReplyDeleteBilly:
ReplyDeleteYeah: I worked there from 1968 to about 1970... I've actually being trying to reach out to some of the people that I ran with at the time .....
I just got to say though that this wasn't really a hippy haven as most of the previous posters have stated ..... This was a sort of portal to the NY Rock and Roll Sean which was underground at the time...
Actually 2 members of the NY Dolls started out there.....
one of my favorite things was to be able to sing the latest English releases to the customers.....
There were a lot of good times and of course some bad as well...
if there's anyone that remembers these days and would like to reminisce a little. Contact me wrowe@nj.rr.com
Cheers Billy