Scarce original 1977 program for CBGB’s 2nd Avenue Theater, four pages, 5.5 x 8.5, which contains a schedule for that week’s shows: Talking Heads on December 27; The Dictators, The Dead Boys, and the Luna Band on December 28; and Patti Smith Group, and Richard Hell and the Voidoids on December 29th through the 31st. The handbill features period advertisements and brief band articles for the Talking Heads, the Dead Boys, and Richard Hell and the Voidoids. Includes a handbill, 8.5 x 5.5, for a show by The Dictators at the Beacon Theatre on September 10, 1976, which highlights “The 1976 Ms. All-Bare America Contest and Show, The Worlds Biggest Nude-A-Rama, with Host Don Imus.” In very good to fine condition, with light handling wear and a central horizontal fold.
The CBGB’s 2nd Avenue Theater originally opened in 1926 as the Public Theatre and was designed for stage plays, the brainchild of two candy vendors from the former People’s Theatre on the Bowery. Over the years it focused on Jewish acts including Yiddish Vaudeville as well as the showing of Yiddish films. By 1953, it had become a full-time Spanish language cinema called the Antillas Theatre, and in late 1957 it reopened as the Anderson Theatre, named after the recently deceased play agent Phyllis Anderson, who was also the wife of author Robert Anderson. In 1977 it was taken over by CBGB and renamed as CBGB's Second Avenue Theatre, where it booked punk rock acts such as the Talking Heads and Patti Smith. By 1979, the theater no longer being used and, in 1990, it was partially demolished. The remaining portions were turned into apartments in 1997.
From the Ramones and Punk Collection of Daniel Rey, and accompanied by a letter of provenance.
