Model T’s

Kirk Baird

Friday, Dec. 14, 2001 | 8:55 a.m.

It's been said rock 'n' roll is the soundtrack of our lives.

In the case of Jerry Adler, it's also the wardrobe.

A Las Vegas free-lance photographer, Adler, 40, has been to hundreds of concerts since his first show, Elton John in the spring of 1980.

And at most every concert he attends, Adler buys a T-shirt.

But unlike many of us, whose shirts seem to disappear along with the ink of the tour dates on the back, Adler has held on to his souvenirs: Steve Miller, Huey Lewis and the News, Kiss, Rod Stewart, Loverboy, the Police, Prince, Van Halen both the Roth and Hagar versions. His collection is a who's who of popular acts of the last 20 years.

Some of the concert shirts are of the jersey variety, popular throughout the '80s. The T-shirts featured two tones, usually white or grey, with blue, red or black mid-length sleeves. Other shirts are a basic solid color with elbow-length sleeves.

Adler said he only wears a shirt when it's new "usually the next day" following a concert the rest of the time keeping it and the others meticulously folded and stored away.

"When someone comes over and says, 'Why do you have three dressers?' (it's because) they're pretty much all (filled with) T-shirts," he said.

Adler's collection was once even larger, but he sold about a hundred shirts or more to a retro-thrift store in Los Angeles.

"A guy was telling me a lot of the local (L.A.) bands like to wear '80s concert T-shirts," Adler said. "So I sold him ones that didn't fit me anymore."

With retro fashion still in style, it's little wonder vintage concert T-shirts are popular, too.

Julie Shellman, store manager of Buffalo Exchange on 4110 S. Maryland Parkway, which sells past and present concert shirts, said T's from older bands are the best sellers.

"People like the Cure, bands like that, as well as the metal bands. And the Misfits are still pretty popular," she said.

There are also stores such as Hot Topic, which sell shirts with the band's name and logo on it, as well as replica concert shirts from vintage acts such as the Sex Pistols.

For the hardcore fan or collector who wants the real and/or hard-to-find concert shirts, there's monstervintage.com.

An Internet vintage clothing company based in Portland, Ore., monstervintage.com stores about 200 T-shirts in its warehouse, owner Cathy West said.

Her company's collection consists of shirts from about 150 bands from the '60s through the mid-'80s: "From the Beatles and the Grateful Dead to Iron Maiden and Cinderella -- basically all vintage ones," she said.

Prices range from $10-$500, depending on quality and rarity of the shirt.

The fad for vintage concert shirts began about 10 years ago in Japan, West said, with its ever-growing passion for Western culture, and -- in a twist of fashion irony -- came to the United States about five years later. U.S. collectors include those who were too young to go to the concerts of the past and older fans who want a piece of their past.

"It's nostalgic and reminds them of their youth," West said.

And for some collectors, she said, buying and selling vintage T-shirts grows from a casual hobby into a serious pastime -- even livelihood -- similar to the baseball trading-card industry.

"Some of the people collect the T-shirts like they would collect an album," West said. "They know every concert like they would know the history of a baseball player ... they know the years, the logos and different pictures."

Fit to T

Merchandising in rock 'n' roll began in the '50s when Elvis Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, believing his client would have a shelf life of one year, decided to "maximize" Elvis' popularity with images of the singer on notebooks, buttons, bumper stickers -- but, curiously, not T-shirts.

The notion of cashing in on a good thing continued in the '60s, with bands such as the Beatles and The Monkees.

But the band T-shirt didn't become part of the concert tradition until 1971 and -- appropriately -- involves the Grateful Dead, said Paul Grushkin, author of "The Art of Rock: Posters from Presley to Punk" (Abbeville Press Inc., 1987). For many years Grushkin made his living in the rock merchandising industry -- mainly from T-shirts.

The Dead were playing the Winterland, a rock 'n' roll dance hall in San Francisco owned by legendary concert promoter Bill Graham.

"At the time there were no merchandise stands. They sold things to eat and drink, but no posters or T-shirts," Grushkin said from his home in Pinole, Calif. "This was still a moment in time -- post-Woodstock -- that things were in absolute infancy and naivete."

A wife of one of the band's drummers approached Winterland's house manager, Dell Furano, about selling homemade Dead T-shirts at the group's concert.

Furano suggested placing a card table in the lobby and selling the shirts from there. His idea proved quite successful: The shirts quickly sold out and more were printed to sell during the band's three additional shows at the Winterland, which also were bought up by fans.

Dell decided to make more shirts and sell them in other cities on the band's tour using a crew he had hired.

"And that's where they developed the very first contract" among the band and the T-shirt manufacturer and seller, Grushkin said.

In rock 'n' roll, immitation is often the sincerest form of flattery.

Naturally it didn't take other bands -- the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd -- and their managers long to notice the potential mint of selling concert T-shirts and jump on the merchandising bandwagon.

"The next thing you know a T-shirt company called Winterland was born, which survived for 30 years," Grushkin said, adding that the company recently went through its second bankruptcy. "But for the first 20 years, it was the greatest concert T-shirt company in the world."

Other groups, such as the Allman Brothers and later Lynyrd Skynyrd, went with a rival concert T-shirt company, Great Southern out of Atlanta. Furano, meanwhile, declined to do business with others whose music he didn't enjoy, such Black Sabbath and Deep Purple.

"(Furano) was from the San Francisco music scene," Grushkin said, "and didn't care for heavy metal, (which) became the biggest" in terms of concert T-shirt sales.

This opened the door for other T-shirt companies -- Brockum and Giant, he said.

But in 1989 Winterland hit the mother lode when it signed an agreement to manufacture and sell New Kids on the Block shirts.

"In 1990, when New Kids hit their peak, it was impossible for Winterland -- even working 24/7 -- to fulfill or satisfy the demand," Grushkin said. "There were semitrailers backed up being filled with New Kids shirts trying to satisfy retail."

Once J.C. Penny became the exclusive supplier of NKOTB shirts, "Kids camped out in front of stores waiting for the latest shipment to arrive," he said. "It was incredible. For that 14 months, I think we sold in the range of $250-to-$275 million worth of T-shirts. It may still be the record."

Why buy?

Over the years the style of concert T-shirts changed -- from the aforementioned basic and jersey, to ringer, which featured colored bands at the neck and around the sleeves, and even mesh.

It's not just the styles that have differed through the years. As concertgoers will attest, the prices of shirts also have changed.

For example, a basic T-shirt in 1971 that would have cost around $10 could be as much as five times that amount today, depending on the artist.

"So many hands are in the till," Grushkin said. "People became wise to these things. The band wants its take -- usually a percentage -- and the merchandising company has to make up for that, as well as pay the crew that sells the merchandise, then pay the hall, then pay the unions, with the prices naturally inflating over the years."

Feeling spent

The extra cost didn't slow down Cindy Primasing's spending spree at the recent Elton John concert at MGM Grand Garden Arena. The 31-year-old Mesquite resident spent $345 on memorabilia of her favorite performer, including a sweatshirt and five T-shirts.

"It's the most I've ever spent," she said. "But it's because he makes me feel good."

Her mother, Lola Hartt-Sglav, from St. George, Utah, spent about $300 less on two T-shirts and a baseball cap.

"I buy the shirts because it brings back memories," Hartt-Sglav said. "And so people know I was at the concert."

"She likes the glory," Primasing commented about her mother a moment later. "I just like wearing it."

Whether for "glory" or just feeling good, wearing a band's T-shirt amounts to a fan's show of "loyalty" to a band or artist, Grushkin said.

It also helps identify them to other fans.

"A rock 'n' roll T-shirt has a lot of value in that respect ... there's safety in numbers ... to feel like I'm part of a scene," he said. "Just like the (San Franciso) 49ers or (L.A.) Lakers, you're wearing your colors when you're wearing a rock 'n' roll T-shirt."