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🎸 A Band Made Entirely of Raisins
Six raisin characters, one stage, one seriously \'80s sunset. This is an original 1988 California Raisins promotional poster, printed for the California Raisin Advisory Board — CALRAB, the growers\' own marketing board — out of Fresno, California. The artwork is a full band lineup on striped risers: a bassist on upright bass, a drummer in a top hat behind a kit stamped \"The California Raisins,\" a guitarist in a headband and round glasses, and three singers in pink, green and yellow heels, one with a tambourine, all set against a yellow sun and silhouetted palm trees, with \"The California Raisins\" script logo arched overhead.
Turn it over and it\'s a working promo sheet: \"COOK WITH RAISINS! GREAT RAISIN RECIPES!\" runs four period recipes (Raisin Poppy Seed Cake, Raisin Oatmeal Cookies, Raisin Waldorf Salad with Ginger Honey Dressing, New England Raisin Stuffing), followed by the pitch for THE OFFICIAL CALIFORNIA RAISIN FAN CLUB — a fan club watch, a membership card with an official seal, a dancing-raisins bumper sticker and a newsletter every three months, all for $5.95 and three proofs of purchase, mailed to Fan Club Headquarters in Fresno, California. \"(c) 1988 California Raisin Advisory Board\" is printed right on the sheet.
🎤 The Short Version of a Wild Story
Copywriter Seth Werner at Foote, Cone & Belding pitched the idea; Will Vinton Studios brought it to life in claymation, with characters designed by Michael Brunsfeld; Buddy Miles - Jimi Hendrix\'s drummer in the Band of Gypsys - sang lead, and the group\'s cover of \"I Heard It Through the Grapevine\" hit No. 84 on the Billboard Hot 100. By 1988 there were four albums out, an Emmy already won for \"A Claymation Christmas Celebration\" (1987), and an Emmy nomination for \"Meet the Raisins!,\" which aired on CBS on November 4, 1988. A Saturday-morning cartoon followed in 1989, \"The Raisins: Sold Out!\" in 1990, and the fan club this poster promotes had launched in 1987. It didn\'t last — CALRAB was dissolved July 31, 1994, once the growers who funded it balked at the cost of keeping the show running.
📋 Specifications
- Size: 21 x 15 inches ~ New old stock, never hung. They vary a little one to the next.
- Year: 1988 (copyright printed on the piece)
- Issued by: California Raisin Advisory Board, Fresno, California
- Format: two-sided promotional poster — band artwork on the front, recipes and fan club offer on the back
