Do you remember the first dance you went to?
Was it a school dance?
Maybe it was a town social?
Or possibly a night club?

How about your first concert?
Was it a rock concert?
School band concert?
Town musicians playing in the town square?
Maybe just a wedding reception with a three-piece band?

When it came to concerts, promoting them were simple: make up a poster with all the who, what, where, date, and time. These placards could be found in the windows of downtown shops, whose proprietors agreed to put them up with no charge. They were also stapled to telephone poles, fences, and downtown building walls.

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When it came to the dances, that was a whole different thing.
School dance events were spread thru word-of-mouth, usually at school.
Sometimes elitists would throw a party (or “social get-together”) and send out invitations to only the ones they want to attend.....they wanted to keep out the riff-raff, y'know. Social event notices where the whole town population were invited were also stuck to telephone poles and put in store windows.

Old vintage dance invitations, concert posters, and social gathering tickets have become collectable memorabilia, some with awesome artwork (mainly the 60s concert posters), and others with the old-tyme print of the 1800s-early 1900s.

The gallery below shows a good number of these, in a 133-year span - from 1855-1988. Have a look at some of these classic pieces of yesteryear and see if any of them peak your interest...or bring back a memory.

Concerts, Dances & Socials: 1855-1980s

MORE MICHIGAN SHOWBIZ:

Dancing In Michigan, 1900-1940s

Michigan's Love of Vaudeville, 1900s-1920s

Old Michigan Musicians: 1865-1952

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