EPISODE 03: FILLMORE WEST (SF)

Hello dear Freak and Geeks, and welcome to another episode of Nightclubbing with your host, Cherry Pie, broadcasting from Lower Grand Radio in Oakland CA.

Today’s episode is very near and dear to my heart, as we’re focusing on my/our beloved city, San Francisco. While the bay area has produced a lot of influential moments in music, my favorite and I think the most iconic scene is the late 1960s flower power summer of love. I have family roots in San Francisco, my grandma was born in the city and grew up in the Richmond district. My grandparents met at Cal, and my grandma’s younger brother was perfectly positioned age-wise for the 1960s in San Francisco and has a lot of really wild stories— a lot of which I cannot tell you on air, but trust it was an extremely explosive time culturally and musically, and one that I find very fascinating.

THEE venue of the day was the Fillmore West. If you were anyone in rock n roll, you played the Fillmore, you attended shows at the Fillmore, and even today, probably many of you have attended a show at the Fillmore. It’s an incredibly historic venue, but it’s been through many phases; the time period that I am really going to be focusing on today is the Bill Graham era of the Fillmore West which was 1966 through 1971.

Bill Graham is a really key figure in rock ‘n roll history, who had extremely humble beginnings. He was born born Wulf Wolodia Grajonca in Berlin in 1931 to Jewish parents, and when he was 8 years old in 1939 he was sent from Germany to France due to his parents increasing concerns about the rising popularity of the National Socialist German Workers' Party AKA Nazis. Eventually when he was 10 he was put into foster care in New York City where he would stay until 1951 when he drafted into the US Army and served in the Korean War, and then eventually moved the San Francisco in the early 1960s to be closer to his sister.

He met the San Francisco Mime Troupe at a free concert in Golden Gate Park in 1965, and when this radical theatre group was later arrested on obscenity charges during an outdoor performance, Bill Graham organizes a benefit concert to cover their legal fees. It goes so well, he decides to put on another. He approaches Charles Sullivan, who is the original owner of the Fillmore, located at 1805 Geary Boulevard, in a historically black neighborhood of the western addition. Graham says:

“The Fillmore Auditorium was located on Fillmore and Geary, which was like 125th Street and Lenox Avenue in Harlem.... In there, Charles Sullivan, a black businessman, had booked a lot of the best R&B acts.... Charles had put on James Brown, Duke Ellington, Bobby Bland and the Temptations. I met Charles Sullivan by appointment the second time I saw the ballroom.... We needed a dance permit but I didn't have one. Of course, he had one because he operated the place. So he allowed us to use his permit and didn't charge me for it. If he hadn't stood by me and allowed me to use his permit I wouldn't be sitting here.”

Sullivan agrees to let Graham host his show there, and that’s how he really gets his break into the music concert hall business. The 2nd show is success, and Sullivan agrees to let Graham book the off nights at The Fillmore on a regular basis— a generous act that effectively started a legendary Bay Area rock music rivalry. However, residents of the neighborhood took issue with the new music these new promoters brought to the neighborhood, and Sullivan encouraged Graham to apply for his own license under pressure from officials who, in turn, encouraged Sullivan to stop subleasing The Fillmore. In early 1966, Graham and Sullivan came to an agreement: Graham secured a contract for all open dates at The Fillmore that year, and a four-year lease option on the Auditorium if anything unforeseen happened to Sullivan.

Months later on August 1st, 1966, Charles Sullivan is found dead south of Market Street under somewhat nebulous circumstances; reportedly jumped and robbed and shot to death. Bill Graham assumes the lease of the Fillmore and in 1968, he renamed and relocated the Fillmore from it’s original location on Geary Blvd, now called The Fillmore West and on Market & Van Ness.

At the very end of the 1969, the Altamont Free Concert was held outside of San Francisco and heralded to be “Woodstock West”. The concert featured performances by Santana, Jefferson Airplane, and the Rolling Stones. The San Francisco Hells Angels were hired to run security and violence ensued leading to the stabbing to death of 18 year old Meredith Hunter. The 60s were over.

The Fillmore West closed its doors only a little over a year later in 1971; and it wouldn’t reopen until the mid 1980s in its original location on Geary Blvd. under Bill Graham’s direction. Graham passed away in 1991, but his legacy lives on as The Fillmore continues to operate to this day.

Track List:

1. Scott McKenzie – San Francisco

2. Jefferson Airplane – She Has Funny Cars

3. Dr. John the Night Tripper – Mama Roux

4. Fleetwood Mac – Jewel Eyed Judy

5. Flamin’ Groovies – Teenage Head

6. Canned Heat – Poor Moon

7. Quicksilver Messenger Service – Fresh Air

8. Taj Mahal – Statesboro Blues

9. Muddy Waters – Tom Cat

10. Creedence Clearwater Revival – Feelin’ Blue

11. Big Brother & The Holding Co – I Need a Man to Love