Word on the Street: The History of “Globe Poster”

Artwork: Globe Poster – 2Pac, Snoop Dogg (detail). © Globe Poster. Courtesy of Roger Gastman.

For more than eighty years, you could see Globe Poster standing tall, hanging out on street corners, posted up on telephone palls, or chilling ‘round the way inside the union halls. They were bright, bold, fabulous affairs that understood that one must demand attention if you want to be seen and heard in this noisy world.

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Using DayGlo colors and big black letters etched out of wood type and letter press, if Globe Poster a theme song it would be Nas, talking about “Made You Look.” Because they had to—they needed t let you know the 2Pac, Luke, Snoop Doggy Dogg and That Dog Pound were performing at the Miami Arena on Saturday, August 24. Better get your tickets now, before they sell out, because trust and believe and event like this only comes once in a lifetime.

Globe Poster knew what the people wanted and they delivered the goods. Established in Philadelphia in 1929, Globe Poster promoted everything from carnivals to concerts up and down the East Coast. Like so many in old Hollywood, they started out in vaudeville, moving their way up to burlesque and film, then finally hitting their stride and finding their groove with R&B acts during the 1960s.

Picture it: James Brown was coming to town; that’s better than Santa Claus. Legends like Otis Redding, Etta James, B.B. King, Ike and Tina Turner, and Millie Jackson, were just a few of the countless acts Globe Posters advertised. The genius of their design was their busy simplicity. With swatches of fluorescent orange, pink, yellow, and green, Globe Poster promised you a raucous good time. They were live, they were loud, they were hectic but you know who, what, where, when, and most of all: what number to call.

In an age before the Internet did the walking for you, Globe Poster was literally the word on the street, giving you the 4-1-1 on what hot and what’s cool. But, as with so many great arts of the analogue age, the advent of digital printing pushed Globe Posters out of the business and shuttered its doors in 2010.

But the people of Baltimore would not let go. With the Maryland Institute College of Art heading up the effort, Bob Cicero, the last owner of Globe Poster took a position at the school and began teaching a new generation of students the art of postermaking be hand. In an era where everything is machine made, you can literally feel the difference.

And what of all those great posters of yesterday? Here’s the kicker: Roger Gastman is selling a selection of vintage posters exclusively through his website. Now you can take a trip back to the days when Rare Essence headline the Safari Club in Washington, D.C. or gaze fondly upon the illustration of Stacy Lattisaw back when she played the “Clippers and Combs Awards” at Constitution Hall.

Her lyrics could be a metaphor for Globe Posters journey over the past century: I found love on a two way street—and lost it on a lone-lyyyyy highway. Fortunately, Gastman has brought Globe back to the people so that we to can remember the time that, truth be told, was not that long ago…

Miss Rosen is a journalist covering art, photography, culture, and books. Her byline has appeared in L’Uomo Vogue, Whitewall, The Undefeated, Dazed Digital, Jocks and Nerds, and L’Oeil de la Photographie. Follow her on Twitter @Miss_Rosen.