The Winter Dance Party of 1959, as it was called, was a concert tour boasting a line-up of young hit-makers still on the ascent. Among the roster was Buddy Holly, at the time 22 years old, and Ritchie Valens, singer of La Bamba and Donna. Dion and the Belmonts were then mere teenagers in love. And J.P. Richardson, a singing, songwriting DJ from Texas, was called The Big Bopper. The Winter Dance Party was supposed to rave on for 24 days through the Midwest, beginning Jan. 23 in Milwaukee, Wis. However, the tour would only have 11 shows. On Feb. 3, 1959, Holly, Valens and Richardson were killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, on their way to a show in Moorhead, Minn. The accident was coined The Day the Music Died. The few tangible keepsakes from that ill-fated tour, a scant handful of posters advertising the Winter Dance Party, have become among rocks most sought-after treasures. One sold at Heritage last year to become the worlds most valuable concert poster. For only the third time, Heritage will offer a Winter Dance Party placard during the Nov. 18, 19, and 20 Music Memorabilia and Concert Posters Signature Auction. Its the only known placard promoting the Feb. 1, 1959, concert at the Riverside Ballroom in Green Bay, Wis. Some 30 hours following that show, Holly, Valens and Richardson died in that plane crash. Its the last poster from a concert during which Holly, Valens and Richardson performed. The show in Clear Lake was a last-minute addition to the tour, so no mass posters, handbills, programs or even tickets were printed. There was only a solitary ad in the local newspaper. This stunning poster survives only because of John Daughtery, who attended the Green Bay show with some friends. The following day, he pulled into a gas station and noticed another customer had a small stack of the Riverside Ballroom posters in his back seat. Daughtery asked the man if he could have two of the posters as keepsakes. The man handed them over because there was no point in keeping advertisements for something that had already happened. One of the posters has been lost to time; the other, which Daughtery held on to, is in this auction. It serves as both a memorial to rocks lost legends and a marvelous time capsule. The Winter Dance Party posters remain arguably the best and most coveted, and rarest, concert posters of all time, according to Heritages Director of Concert Posters, Pete Howard. The few that exist are at the absolute top of the hobby: Theyre in only the most elite of collections, and they come to auction so seldom that it should be treated as a major event every time. In November 2022, a poster bearing the names and faces of its young immortals made its auction debut at Heritage. From the scheduled Feb. 3 Moorhead Armory concert, which, the UPI reported, took place before 2,000 subdued teen-agers despite the deaths of three of their stars in a place crash hours earlier. It sold for a record-setting $447,000. Unlike its predecessor, the Feb. 1 poster top boasts a printed venue box at the top, which promises cheap tickets, a whole 90 cents if purchased before the 8 p.m. start time, $1.25 afterward, and warns its teen attendees not to wear blue jeans or slacks. Here, too, is the heads-up that NO (Intoxicating Beverages) will be Sold. To switch gears, no such heads-up warning appeared on the iconic Skeleton & Roses poster advertising the Grateful Deads Sept. 16-17, 1966, stint at San Franciscos Avalon Ballroom; even now, a buzz can be induced just looking at psychedelias most famous image. A first-printing of Skeleton & Roses graded 9.8 Near Mint/Mint by Certified Guaranty Company is considered among the most stunning examples Heritage has offered after setting the record, time and again, for this Family Dog masterpiece by Stanley Mouse and Alton Kelley. The Dead delight hails from the renowned collection of celebrated poster collector David Swartz, who has spent years tracking down posters featuring psychedelic bands and venues. As he told The New York Times in 2017, Posters document and frame specific moments in history, which, when you look at them, bring you back to a time thats gone. What I collect is the soundtrack to the most exciting period of the 20th century. Heritage is thrilled to again present more than 100 centerpiece offerings from Swartzs collection, which is so extensive and admired they were the sole posters displayed in the Metropolitan Museum of Arts 2019 Play it Loud exhibit. Among his historic offerings are such profoundly iconic posters as the 1968 Flying Eyeball promoting the Jimi Hendrix Experience, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers and Albert Kings four February 1968 shows at the Fillmore Auditorium and Winterland ballroom. This example is signed by its designer, Rick Griffin, and graded CGC Near Mint Plus 9.6. In fact, most of the posters in this collection are near-mint, with many of them autographed by their famed designers, including this Who and Hendrix double bill at the Fillmore in 1967 signed by Bonnie MacLean, a 1966 Frankenstein for the Grateful Dead signed by Stanley Mouse, and a 1977 Pink Floyd Flying Pig Oakland concert poster signed by Randy Tuten. This auction, rich in visual feasts celebrating rock royalty, is a rare opportunity to acquire a treasure from Swartzs collection. For more information, visit www.HA.com.