Wall Posters

If you had any space on your bedroom walls in the 70s, you weren’t doing it right. This was the era of the wall poster, when teen idols, rock bands, and psychedelic artists all competed for the opportunity to personalize the bedrooms of millions of kids and teenagers. Let’s take a look back at this popular artwork from back in the day.

To be clear, wall posters didn’t start in the 70s. Kids were hanging up pictures of Elvis, The Mouseketeers and The Beatles long before the decade arrived. But when it did, the choices for wall adornments expanded considerably, as did the popularity of the black light, which made fluorescent posters seemingly glow in the dark.

Wall posters could be procured from a number of sources. Teen magazines like Tiger Beat and 16 usually included at least one large fold-out image that could be (carefully) detached from the staples. If you wanted something a little larger, Spencer Gifts at the local malls carried a wide assortment of posters featuring the more popular music, TV and movie personalities of the day. And, of course, they had an assortment of counterculture black light posters that your parents probably didn’t want hanging in your room.

By the way, the most popular poster from the era was, hands down, the iconic image of Farrah Fawcett Majors in her red swimsuit (shown above). Released months before the debut of Charlie’s Angels in 1976, over 12 million of these posters would eventually adorn bedroom walls across the nation.

What posters did you have on your wall? Were they teen idols or the black light variety? I hope you’ll share all of your poster memories with us in our comments section below.