'Rarefied air': 1959 Winter Dance Party poster from Green Bay becomes third-highest-selling concert poster in auction history

Kendra Meinert, Green Bay Press-Gazette
Updated ·3 min read
The only known surviving poster from the 1959 Winter Dance Party at the Riverside Ballroom in Green Bay has sold for $250,000 through Heritage Auctions.
The only known surviving poster from the 1959 Winter Dance Party at the Riverside Ballroom in Green Bay has sold for $250,000 through Heritage Auctions.

Green Bay’s connection to the 1959 Winter Dance Party has once again made history — to the tune of a quarter-million dollars.

The only known surviving poster promoting the tour’s Feb. 1, 1959, show with Buddy Holly & The Crickets, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson at the Riverside Ballroom in Green Bay sold for $250,000 at Heritage Auctions on Sunday, making it the the third-highest-selling concert poster in auction history.

Heritage had high hopes for bidding interest in the poster, because it’s the last one from a show Holly played. The rock 'n' roll pioneer, along with Valens and Richardson, died tragically 30 hours later after a stop at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, on Feb. 2, a late-addition to the tour that did not have any promotional posters.

Heritage anticipated the Riverside poster would bring at least $100,000 but was blown away by the winning bid, said Pete Howard, director of concert posters for Heritage.

“A quarter of a million dollars is such rarefied air, but this poster totally deserved it,” Howard said. “You talk about historic and tugging at your heartstrings and backed up by fantastic music and the rarity. Everything just came together to just blow the roof off, and we have Green Bay to thank for that.”

The poster’s new owner is David Halpen, a south Florida collector of concert posters and music trading cards who counts Holly, The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix among his favorite artists.

“This has been a poster that’s been a dream of mine to own. Buddy Holly was before my time, but I admire him so much and his music that one day I always wanted to have one of these posters, and today’s the day," Halpen said on Monday.

“They’re sort of the pinnacle for music posters. It's just an amazing opportunity to have such a piece of Americana.”

The poster has a fascinating backstory that begins with John Daugherty, a 19-year-old from De Pere who attended the Winter Dance Party at the Riverside Ballroom. He met Holly in the bathroom that night and acquired the poster the next day, while working at a nearby gas station. He kept it for decades, before selling it to a California collector in the 2000s for $20,000.

It was only the third Winter Dance Party poster to ever come through Heritage Auctions in the 47-year history of the the world’s largest collectibles auctioneer. Last November, a poster from the Feb. 3, 1959, show in Moorhead, Minnesota, which went on despite the deaths of its three biggest stars, sold for a world record-setting $447,000.

The second-highest-selling concert poster is from a Beatles show at Shea Stadium in New York City in August 1966. It sold for $275,000.

The Winter Dance Party puts the small towns of Moorhead and Green Bay alongside the biggest city in America when it comes to highly valued poster memorabilia, Howard said.

For Halpen, who also owns an iconic Grateful Dead Skelton and Roses psychedelic poster and another from Alan Freed’s Big Beat Tour in 1958 (Holly was among the acts), the Winter Dance Party poster now sits at the top of his collection.

“It’s going to a wonderful home that’s going to love it. I am going to cherish this poster,” he said.

Kendra Meinert is an entertainment and feature writer at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contact her at 920-431-8347 or kmeinert@greenbay.gannett.com. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at @KendraMeinert. 

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Rare 1959 Winter Dance Party poster from Green Bay sells for $250,000