We've all seen (and most of us own) a t-shirt with our favorite band's name or logo. So which musical group was the first to set up a merch table and sell a band shirt?
In 'The Art of the Band T-shirt' (2007) an Elvis t-shirt from 1956 is noted as the first example of such clothing, which came five years after the movie 'A Streetcar Named Desire' was released in which Marlon Brando's plain white t-shirt (Photo) made this type of garment extremely popular with youth. A major surge in popularity of these band t-shirts would follow during the early 70's in the rising rock scene.
Not an academic or serious source, but according to an article in The Guardian, these first appeared "50 or 60 years ago". The Beatles were supposedly (one of the) pioneers in this trend as well.
