The poster that changed Orange County

MORNING READ: John Van Hamersveld wasn't searching for an endless summer, but maybe he found it

By TOM BERG

The Orange County Register

FIRST OF TWO PARTS


Back then, no one knew.

No one even suspected how huge this would be.

So in November, 1963, they made a little deal. In a Dana Point cafe. And it changed the face of Orange County.

One of the young men was a local filmmaker's assistant; the other an art student.

Can you make us a poster?

Sure.

The price was $150. Good money for a struggling student.

So John Van Hamersveld agreed to make a little poster for a little movie called "The Endless Summer."

"It was a, 'Hey-could-you-do-this?' thing," says Van Hamersveld, 67, of Santa Monica. "I had designed his business card and he liked it,"

Van Hamersveld had seen other posters around Dana Point for other movies made by Bruce Brown. They were low-budget surf movies; made with friends; and shown in high school gyms. No big deal.

That winter Van Hamersveld made his poster. And forgot about it. Until two years later when his classmates at Chouinard Art Institute in L.A. huddled around him:

Did you see it?


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The poster that changed Orange County