Bonanza TV series poster
This Bonanza poster (21″×24″) with artwork by James Bama (1926–2022) was one of a special set of four posters commissioned by NBC in 1966 to promote their current season and offered to the general public through mail order. The other three posters in the set were for Man from U.N.C.L.E., Get Smart, and I Spy.
The featured typeface, Benguiat Buffalo, was first shown in Photo-Lettering’s 1964 Alphabet Supplement. The rounded all-caps Barnum came in three widths and offered a couple of alternates, including R with and without upward-pointing terminal, and V/W with and without base serifs. There were three forms for the letter A: no top serifs, a single-sided top serif to the left, and double-sided top serifs, as seen here.
House Industries’ digitization of Buffalo covers the Expanded style only. See Hubbard (T-26, 2004) for a – loose and uncredited – interpretation of the medium width by Joe Baldwin.
