Ep. 60 Don Erwin (Tower Posters, California Posters)

2500 DelMonte Street: The Oral History of Tower Records

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Don Erwin started with Tower in 1972 and was a Manager for Tower Posters from 1973-1978. He worked for Dick Harris whose MTS Inc’s employee number was 1. Dick, Don and MTS eventually got smart and spun off Tower Posters' success by becoming California Posters, later CP Rock, one of the country’s premier distributors of counterculture posters. At one point California Posters sold hundreds of thousands of dollars of poster merchandise to most of Tower’s competition.

And the paraphernalia business was like printing cash. Being flown to NYC and attending parties by High Times magazine sounds like a scene out of a Paul Thomas Anderson movie. But nothing can be that easy, can it? The rise of paraphernalia laws in California led to Sacramento law enforcement targeting Tower Poster stores. Don Erwin tells us about the comically tragic trial that Tower won, only to be told by law enforcement that they wouldn’t back off from coming after Tower Poster stores.

Don Erwin’s job titles at California Posters were Grand Pubah and Grand Wazoo which translated to National Sales Manager. When Don was told in 1985 that Tower was shutting down California Posters/CP Rock and he was being let go, Don took the generous severance package. He ventured into the poster business. Shortly thereafter Don was sued by MTS Inc.

But this story had a happy ending; many years later Don Erwin ran into Russ Solomon at a trade show and thanked Russ for launching his licensed merchandise career.

Join us for an informative look behind the operations of the company very few people know about; Tower Posters.