Published for Greyhound Lines in 1965, this Los Angeles travel poster captures the changing visual language of American advertising during the mid-1960s. Rather than presenting the city through a conventional landscape, the artist assembles a colorful collage of attractions associated with Southern California: Disneyland, Hollywood filmmaking, palm trees, sunshine, and figures dressed in theatrical costume. The result presents Los Angeles less as a physical place than as a center of fantasy, entertainment, and spectacle. Getty Images

Disneyland’s castle rises in the background, while the oversized motion-picture camera in the foreground immediately references Hollywood and the film industry. Between them, costumed figures and a glamorous red-haired woman blur the distinction between tourist, performer, and movie star. Their exaggerated scale and overlapping forms give the composition an almost dreamlike quality, bringing several recognizable aspects of Los Angeles into a single imagined scene.

The flattened areas of saturated blue, coral, pink, yellow, and green, together with the fluid outlines and unconventional proportions, reflect the broader shift taking place in commercial illustration during the 1960s. Elements associated with Pop Art and the emerging psychedelic aesthetic were increasingly entering mainstream advertising, allowing established companies such as Greyhound to present travel as youthful, fashionable, and distinctly modern.

Printed in the United States as an offset lithograph, the poster is a wonderful example of mid-century American travel advertising at a moment when Los Angeles was increasingly marketed through the imagery of Hollywood, Disneyland, and popular entertainment.

Size: 38.0" x 28.0"

Artist: G. Roth

Condition: Very Good, Age-appropriate wear, fading and toning. General border wear. Wear in upper right corner and lower left border.Please use the photo zoom feature to get a better understanding of overall condition. *Additional photos available upon request.