Hair: The American Tribal Love Rock Musical

Item Details

1968-1978

VG+-Fine

The iconic musical about the hippie counterculture in the “Age of Aquarius,’’ rife with societal upheavals & protests against the Vietnam War & all manners of restrictions on free expression, including sexuality, racial integration, fashion, music, & drug use. After premiering off-Broadway for a six-week limited engagement at Joseph Papp’s Public Theater on 17 October 1967, & then moving to the Cheetah disco/nightclub at the end of that year, Hair opened on Broadway at the Biltmore Theatre on 29 April 1968 as “the first fully realized concept musical,’’ setting the tone for musical productions throughout the decade of the 1970s. Maintaining its seminal themes of protest, open sexuality, & rebellion, the Broadway production was nonetheless thoroughly revamped, adding 13 more songs & breaking new ground with the cast’s full nudity & audience participation in its final “be-in’’; it ran for a stunning 1,750 performances. Though a cast album had been released in 1967 featuring the off-Broadway players, the better-known version (which we are featuring here) was released in 1968 & won a Grammy in 1969. Hair's first production on the West Coast was at the Aquarius Theater in Los Angeles, premiering about 6 months after the Broadway debut & running for an unprecedented two years. The film version was released by United Artists in 1979 with a completely new cast of actors & a new promotional poster designed by Bill Gold. This collection includes:

• Hair: The Original Broadway Cast Recording album, RCA, 33 1/3 vinyl LP. Stereo edition. 1968. Very Good. Album has a few light scratches, else shiny & new-looking. Album sleeve shows splitting at lower spine side & inner bottom edges, bending to corners, light soil, rubbing to opening edge.

• Aquarius Theater: 2 playbills with 2 different cast covers (6230 Sunset Bvld, Los Angeles, CA,). No date, c. 1969. Near Fine. Black/white/gray decorative wrappers, stapled binding, 39 pages with information about the cast, crew, producers & period advertisements throughout. Condition is Near Fine, marred only by a diagonal crease to upper fore edge side of front cover, else, pristine.
• Hair: The Film, promotional brochure. United Artists Corporation. 1979.  Bi-fold, thick card stock, 11” x 14.” List of cast members & credits inside, full of colorful photo stills. Condition is Good, with slight darkening, light soil, & two tears to front cover: 3” vertical tear ascending from bottom edge & .50” entering horizontally from fore edge side. 
• Hair: The American Tribal Love Rock Musical Souvenir Book with Tarot Card insert, edited by Jinx Kragen (a Natoma/KSFI production), nd. c. 1968. Near Fine-Fine. A look behind the scenes & keepsake memento of the first Broadway production of the rock musical Hair, which opened in April 1968 at the Biltmore Theatre. KFSI, Inc., was created in June 1968 by comedian/actor Tom Smothers & his personal managers, Ken Kragen & Ken Fritz. With its involvement in the production of “Hair,’’ it moved from television to the realm of “legitimate theater.” The production was backed by millionaire financier Michael Butler, based on the book & lyrics by Gerome Ragni & James Rado, with music by Galt McDermot. They are profiled here, along with the producer, director, new dance director, costume & scene designers, & many of the actors. Also included is the small poster (5.75” x 10.75”) showing the tarot card, “The Lovers” in a design from the famous Waite deck. This item is scarce in that it was loosely tucked into the booklet & frequently lost by the time patrons left the theater. It is in Near Fine condition, with just two very mild vertical creases & a hint of wear along bottom edge. The booklet is a quarto (9” x 12”) in decorative stiff paper wrappers, stapled binding, 24 unnumbered pages. It is in Fine condition, virtually flawless.