The High Mass

The High Mass was some sort of happening and theatre production intended to promote a new “Hippie-dashery” or boutique called “Hip Arts,” which was no doubt full of hippie fashion, crystals, incense, bells, beads, patchouli oil and probably lots and lots of rolling papers.  There are two versions of this poster. One advertises the High Mass as happening at The Purple Onion Two at 435 Broadway in North Beach and that poster’s identical twin identifing the location as the Encore Theatre at 422 Mason Street.  The Encore seated 140 and had served the San Francisco Actor's Workshop starting in 1959. The San Francisco Mime Troupe presented “‘That’ Minstrel Show” at the Encore from January 5- February 6th 1966.

Trained as a commercial artist, Bob Fried came to San Francisco from New York to study at the San Francisco Art Institute and work as a free-lance designer. In 1966, he began to look at the rock posters that were appearing throughout the Bay Area. Encouraged by Victor Moscoso, whom he met at the Art Institute, he began to create his own posters. He wanted to keep them simple to convey feelings of dimensional space, similar to an acid trip. Fried attempted to convey the feeling of the plasticity of time that was his experience on LSD." Fried did extensive work with The Family Dog starting in 1967. This poster was produced by Fried’s independent poster company called, “The Food.”