1. I totally love these hand-illustrated posters of the 80’s, and this one has to be one of my favorites. Anyway, it’s only slightly interesting to note that they use Chevy Chase’s name instead of Clark Griswold (which would make more sense — it’s not Chevy’s family) in the tagline.
2. Eagles and smoke — AMERICAN PRIDE BABY! Also, this shores up the southern redneck demographic.
3. I don’t think Chevy Chase has ever been remotely near this ripped in his entire life, so he must’ve just loved this hulking He-Man version of himself. Check out those muscles! Taut!
4. Clark’s accessories include: a fishing pole with a skeleton of a fish on the end, tennis racket, two pieces of luggage, and golf clubs.
5. The almost-unnoticed confrontation between dog and snake is the delightful highlight of this poster. Who will win? Dog has mass, but snake has venom!
6. Clark is such a man’s man that he has not one, but TWO half-naked ladies clinging to his toned legs in a classic Weaker Sex pose. Nevermind that one of those females is his daughter, and that the other one is his wife-turned-Playboy-model. This is the penultimate moment in his life. It’s all downhill from here.
7. The broken-down car sits off to the side as an afterthought, as does two little stick figures. We can assume that one of them is Rusty, who isn’t curvy enough to cling to Clark’s leg, so who’s the other? Eddie?
8. This kinda cracks me up — I don’t know if they were super worried that Chevy Chase wasn’t enough to draw in the crowds or what, but here we have a “Special Appearance by JOHN CANDY” that’s a little desperate, especially since it receives its own box outline just to draw the eye. Kids! We’re going to the movie theater! John Candy commands!

I think the sexy bomb-shell clinging to his leg is Christy Brinkley, and the own cowering behind the other is his wife. The two stick figures are his son and daughter. Otherwise, spot on!
Per #6, maybe it’s just me, but I always assumed that the woman in back was Beverly D’Angelo, and the one in front was Christie Brinkley. (Which would also free up one of the stick figures near the car to be Audrey.)
Where’s my No-Prize?
Hah, I had not seen that poster before. But yes, it is Awesome.
Re: number 7. Assuming this is the scene where the family drives off the road, the other stick figure would be good old doomed Aunt Edna
If you made this into an essay instead of the bullets, you would have just completed one of my Freshman Comp writing assignments. I think you’d have passed. 😉
@ Beej – It’s always heartening to think I could pass Freshman English!
Could just be me and being really tired, but those look more like vultures than eagles…they kinda have a noticeable neck…
[…] Photo credit: National Lampoon’s Vacation. © 1983 Warner Bros. For a nice breakdown of the illustration, check out this post. […]