Yes, Brady Bunch House mania is about to set upon us. The HGTV makeover show starts airing next week. So, I thought I’d do some stories to help you get the look. First up: The classique blacklight posters in the Marcia, Jan and Cindy’s bedroom — including Butterfly of Love and oh my word — that [ subversive ] Electric Cat. And credit where credit is due: Impressive work by writer Kirk Demarais for his tenacious research to call out the art in the Brady Bunch house!
Above: Butterfly of Love, New Old Stock (!) on ebay right now. Thanks to vintageposterworld for giving me permission to archive their photo shown above. How soon ’til someone sees this story and snaps this glow-in-the-dark beauty up, stat?:
Note: The links to ebay in this story earn me a weebit commission if ya end up buying something.
Electric Cat — and Electric Pig — by famous poster illustrator Joe Roberts Jr.
Now to that Electric Cat. What were Mike (thanks, readers for correcting me; of course I saw every episode in real time, how could I forget?) and Carol thinking? The Butterfly of Love is as you would expect, but take a closer look at Electric Cat (tip: photos will open at 1000 pixels wide on a PC or laptop) . Those are “labyrinthine” bones showing. And those claws look ready to take Cindy’s eyes out. She would never to get to sleep with this thing in the room.
This is a trippy poster! In the girls’ bedroom on The Brady Bunch!
The photo above is from the collection of theguyshop on ebay
. It’s from a sold listing… but continue on for the gem they do have for sale…
Who was Joe Roberts Jr.? I need crowd-sourced help!
Meanwhile, theguyshop DOES have this awesome New Old Stock Electric Pig. Pig was not in the Brady Bunch bedroom, but now I’m going down a rabbit errr piggy hole… I think I also saw a blacklight hippo from the series in my online travels, but now I can’t find it.
The 1969 copyright says Pig was “of labyrinthine structure, among mushrooms”.
Now I am going to have nightmares.
I didn’t really notice the detail in the posters until I started looking at who made the posters and who designed them.
Indeed: These Electric Animals posters were part of an important body of work by Joe Roberts Jr., who I see described as a premier blacklight artists. He did tons of posters. Googling to see them all is where I was reminded of the word “trippy.”
Alas, I cannot find any biographical info about Joe Roberts Jr. online. Can anyone else reading this find anything?
That Electric Pig is a treasure:
The posters were produced by Cocorico Graphics, 6311 Yucca Street, Los Angeles.
When I was about 11 and living in Vista, Calif., my father did not want me to get a fringed leather vest because he feared I would become a hippy. (I ultimately got the vest, wore it like crazy, became a yuppie not a hippy, and still have the vest.) I do recall having a blacklite poster at some point. sans blacklite. And it was a butterfly or some such. But not a Butterfly of Love. Because, of course, I was never, ever that cool.
- Oh my, 7000+ items of Brady Bunch mania on ebay
- Vintage blacklight posters on ebay — trippy trippy trippy not sure which ones are Roberts’.
Have a sunshine day!
Joan says
I remember having a poster of hundreds of cats.
Caryl Colburn says
I have the third poster not described here in this article, but in another, as a the “cartoon sun”. It is hanging in my kitchen now as I loved it so much I had it framed under glass a few years after I got it. I don’t recall it being a blacklight poster, however. It has milder colors and I remember it being more like cardboard than a poster. I received it from my BFF in 1969. It was mentioned as the “less common” poster. Maybe they could not find it cause it is not actually a poster!
Pam Kueber says
Thank you, Caryl! What fun that you have this. Did you know it was in the Brady house when you got it from your BFF in ’69?