Showing posts with label Bill Graham. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bill Graham. Show all posts
July 28, 2021
July 9, 2021
July 5, 2021
Bill Graham, El Patio Ballroom, The Carousel Ballroom & The Fillmore West
~
On July 5, 1968, Bill Graham opened The Fillmore West at 10 South Van Ness Ave. in San Francisco, California, and created one of the major influences on modern popular music.
Carousel Ballroom location
The venue was originally known as the El Patio Ballroom which opened in the late 20's. In the swing-era it became The Carousel Ballroom. It was owned by Bill Fuller who had similar venues in Chicago, New York, Boston, London, Manchester, England and throughout Ireland.
and was a dance palace that billed itself as "America's Finest
Ballroom." It was in the building with the Lachman Brothers Furniture
store.
Lachman Brothers Furniture Store - 1940's
photographer unknown
When I was a little kid I
remember seeing the Lachman Brothers sign that had the soldier with a
clock in his belly and thought that was totally cool. I recall taking my mom's alarm clock, putting it in my shirt, opening the buttons in the front so that the face of the clock showed and marching around the house. Unfortunately, the last time I did that it fell out of my shirt and the glass face broke; I got in deep doo for that.
Lachman Brothers Furniture Store - January 12, 1956
San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection
San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection
Carousel Ballroom ~ Allman Brothers
photographer unknown
Carousel Ballroom
Mike Bloomfield, Chicago
photographer unknown
Independent from Bill Graham, beginning in 1968, it was briefly operated by a collective formed by the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Big Brother and the Holding Company as a social/musical "laboratory experiment". According to critic Joel Selvin, the "six-month run may well have corresponded with the height of the whole '60s Haight-Ashbury/San Francisco thing."
On the opening weekend, March 13 & 14, 1968, the Grateful Dead and the Jefferson Airplane performed. The following weekend, Chuck Berry and Buffalo Springfield performed. Tim Buckley played there on June 15 and 16, 1968.
Harry James, the great trumpeter from the forties, performed at the location when it was called the El Patio Ballroom.
Due to various factors (including the socioeconomic deterioration
of the Fillmore District, the modest capacity of The Fillmore, and
financial difficulties faced by the collective), Bill Graham moved his
prime concert location in July 1968 to the Carousel Ballroom venue, less than one
mile from the original Fillmore at 1805 Geary Boulevard. He called this venue the Fillmore West (in contrast with Graham's Fillmore East auditorium in New York City)
Viewfinder links:
Net links:
Chicken on a Unicycle ~ Carousel Ballroom
Dead Sources ~ 1968: The Carousel Ballroom, San Francisco
Jerry's Brokendown Palaces ~ Carousel Ballroom (Fillmore West)
YouTube links:
Styrous® ~ Monday, June 5, 2021
Big Brother and the Holding Company articles/mentions
Jefferson Airplane articles/mentions
Buffalo Springfield articles/mentions
Bill Graham, El Patio Ballroom, The Carousel Ballroom & The Fillmore West
The Hour Glass ~ The Power of Love
Stephen Stills ~ Two May 19, 2021
Godspell ~ Part 1
~
A couple of days ago marked fifty years since the musical, Godspell opened Off Broadway on May 17, 1971. Fifty years ago! I can't believe it's been that long!
Godspell is a musical composed by Stephen Schwartz with the book by John-Michael Tebelak. The musical is structured as a series of parables, primarily based on the Gospel of Matthew. The parables are interspersed with music set primarily to lyrics from traditional hymns, with the passion of Christ appearing briefly near the end of the show.
There has been controversy over the years about the lack of an
apparent Resurrection in the show. Some choose to view the curtain call,
in which Jesus appears, as symbolic of the resurrection; others point
to the moment when the cast raise him above their heads. While either
view is valid, both miss the point. Godspell is about the formation of a
community which carries on the teachings of Jesus after he has gone. In other
words, it is the effect he has on the OTHERS which is the story of
the show, not whether or not he himself is resurrected. Therefore, it is
very important at the end of the show that it be clear that the OTHERS
have come through the violence and pain of the crucifixion sequence and
leave with a joyful determination to carry on the ideas and feelings
they have learned during the course of the show.
The graphic design for the poster for the show was by David Edward Byrd who also worked for Bill Graham for venues in the new Fillmore East Ballroom in Manhattan's East Village.
Godspell began as a project by drama students at Carnegie Mellon University and then moved to the off-off-Broadway theater La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in the East Village of Manhattan. The show was then rescored for an off-Broadway production, which became a long-running success.
The original cast, vinyl LP album, which I bought, was released two months after the show opened in July of 1971; more on that in July.
Viewfinder links:
December 12, 2017
December 9, 2017
The San Francisco Civic Auditorium, Motorama & Arthur Fiedler
date & photographer unknown
104 years ago this month, in 1913, ground was broken for construction of the San Francisco Civic Center Auditorium.
San Francisco Civic Center Auditorium - 1914
San Francisco Civic Center Auditorium & City Hall - 1930
The auditorium had a huge pipe organ. The Opus 500 was built for the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exhibition in San Francisco.
Panama Pacific International Exhibition poster - 1915
The organ stood majestically at the World’s Fair
and then the Civic Center Auditorium, until the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake,
when it was damaged and dismantled.
Motorama
The General Motors Motorama was an auto show staged by GM from 1949 to 1961. These automobile extravaganzas were designed to whet public appetite and boost automobile sales with displays of fancy prototypes, concept vehicles and other special or halo models. Motorama grew out of the Alfred P. Sloan yearly industrial luncheon at the New York City Waldorf Astoria, beginning in 1931. They were almost invariably held in conjunction with the New York Auto Show, that for many years was held traditionally in the first week of January.
There was a live musical number staged at various times during the day. I remember one year the performance was set in the future with all the gadgets it was imagined we would have. They had no idea how far off but at the same time right on target they were.
This performance had a man and a woman, each on a small raised stage on opposite sides of the main floor of the auditorium. They sang back and forth to each other with what were supposed to be wrist watch radios. As there was no such thing at the time except for in the Dick Tracy comic book . . .
Dick Tracy USA stamp - 1995
🎵"My heart calling your heart, over"🎵
Arthur Fiedler @ the Civic
The other event I remember because I attended many of them and have fond memories of going to the Auditorium in the late fifties, early 60's to hear Arthur Fiedler as he led the San Francisco Pops Orchestra on wild and thrilling orchestral rides.
date & photographer unknown
Most of the music was in the "Pop" vein of classical music: Ravel's Bolero, or the Tchaikovsky "Pop" works: the 1812 Overture (with no cannons) or the Capriccio Italien (links below) . . .
. . . and other chestnuts like the William Tell Overture, Orpheus In The Underworld (which evolves into the notorious but energetic Can-Can at the end), the Sorcerer's Apprentice, the Maple Leaf Rag, orchestral covers of Beatles songs, etc. You get the idea!
He would occasionally break into more serious work; he did perform a pretty spectacular version of the 1924 work for piano and orchestra, Rhapsody in Blue, by George Gershwin: it never failed to bring down the house. One of his concert favorites was Jalousie by Jacob Gade. However, Gade once presented Fiedler with a score for a symphony which Fiedler recalled as "one of the worst pieces of music I ever looked at." More on this Fiedler attitude by his daughter in the "Pop" King entry (link below)
The San Francisco Civic Auditorium
The physical layout of the audience was unique for a concert venue. In the balcony overlooking the main floor of the San Francisco Civic Auditorium (now named the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium) there were typical, permanent theater seats.
During the Fiedler concerts, however, the
main floor was a different story; there were large
tables covered in linen table cloths and napkins, candles and maybe even
flowers (but I'm not certain about that). I tried to find a shot of the main floor during one of his concerts but couldn't. Drinks and dinner
to enjoy during the concert was available. It was tons of fun!
The auditorium was designed by Bay Area architects John Galen Howard, Frederick Meyer and John W. Reid, Jr. and built in 1915 as part of the Panama–Pacific International Exposition.
photographer unknown
In 1992, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to rename the
auditorium after the rock concert impresario Bill Graham, who had died
the previous year in a helicopter crash.
Bill Graham - 1966
Viewfinder link:
Net links:
YouTube links:
Arthur Fiedler & the Boston Pops ~
Tchaikovsky ~ Capriccio Italien
Rosini ~ William Tell Overture
My Fair Lady!
Sound Of Music Medley
Sousa ~ Stars and Stripes Forever
The Beatles ~ Eleanor Rigby
~ Let It Be
Gade ~ Jalousie
Gershwin / Earl Wild piano ~ Rhapsody in Blue - 1959
Sound Of Music Medley
Sousa ~ Stars and Stripes Forever
The Beatles ~ Eleanor Rigby
~ Let It Be
Gade ~ Jalousie
Gershwin / Earl Wild piano ~ Rhapsody in Blue - 1959
All in all, it was a fun time!
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