Fillmore Auditorium (December 10, 1965 – July 4, 1968) Graham moved from New York to San Francisco in the early 1960s to be closer to his sister Rita. He was invited to attend a free concert in
Golden Gate Park, produced by
Chet Helms and the
Diggers, where he made contact with the
San Francisco Mime Troupe, a radical theater group. After Mime Troupe leader R. G. Davis was arrested on obscenity charges during an outdoor performance, Graham organized a benefit concert to cover the troupe's legal fees. Graham was denied by the Board of Permit Appeals who refused to overrule the first denial. Graham then stated, "Then on April 21, 1966, a Thursday, the
Chronicle ran an editorial, 'The Fillmore Auditorium Case' ... [I]t was a big turning point for me. In more ways than one"; he secured his permit. Sullivan was laid to rest on August 8, 1966, according to the
Sun Reporter, which reported that "Last respects were paid Charles Sullivan Monday, Aug. 8, when hundreds crowded into Jones Memorial Methodist Church, 1975 Post St. from 11:30 a.m. to view Sullivan for the last time. An enormous crowd had gathered by 1 p.m. to hear the eulogy for a friend." The funeral announcement is accompanied by photographs of the actual funeral covering two pages in which police are stopping traffic to assist the motorcade to the cemetery in
Colma. Graham's struggle to get his dance hall permit in 1966 was described in an article in
Billboard Magazine, July 11, 1966. San Francisco music critic
Ralph Gleason, in defense of Graham's Fillmore Auditorium scene, wrote that Graham got a three-year lease for the Fillmore Auditorium from Charles Sullivan and was still struggling to procure his dance hall permit, a fact never publicly revealed by Graham. Charles Sullivan's last show at the Fillmore Auditorium came a week before his death, on July 26, 1966, The Temptations Dance and Show. Graham must have got his permit in mid-July 1966, confirming his possession of the Fillmore brand. It was unknown how Graham had taken over the Fillmore lease until the 2004 publication of
Hendrik Hertzberg's
Politics Observations & Arguments (1966-2004). It contains an article, "The San Francisco Sound, New music, new subculture", at the end of which it stated, "Unpublished file for
Newsweek, October 28, 1966". This article contains the only published account of how Graham acquired the Fillmore. In the beginning, Hertzberg recounts familiar territory with the Mime Troupe, reducing the Fillmore Auditorium to a run-down ballroom in "SF's biggest negro ghetto." After the success of the Fillmore Auditorium Mime Troupe shows, Graham parts ways with the Troupe: "He went back to the Fillmore and found that eleven other promoters had already put in bids for it. Graham got 41 prominent citizens to write letters to the auditorium's owner, a
haberdasher named Harry Shifs, and Shifs gave him a three-year lease at five hundred dollars a month.... [T]he hippie community ... has turned out to be something the man from Montgomery Street can point to with pride, in a left-handed way, and say 'these are our boys'", stated
Jerry Garcia. Early the next morning, Graham's secretary called the band's manager,
Albert Grossman, and obtained exclusive rights to promote them. Shortly thereafter,
Chet Helms arrived at Graham's office, asking how Graham could have cut him out of the deal. Graham pointed out that Helms would not have known about it unless he had tried to do the same thing to Graham. He advised Helms to "get up early" in the future. Graham produced shows attracting elements of America's now-legendary
1960s counterculture such as the
Jefferson Airplane,
Big Brother and the Holding Company,
Country Joe and the Fish,
Lawrence Ferlinghetti,
the Committee (improv_group),
The Fugs,
Allen Ginsberg, and a particular favorite of Graham's, the
Grateful Dead. although of these it seems only Bishop actually issued albums on the Fillmore label.
Tower of Power was signed to Bill Graham's
San Francisco Records and their first album,
East Bay Grease, was recorded in 1970. By 1971, Graham citing financial reasons and changes he saw as unwelcome in the music industry, closed the
Fillmore East and
West, claiming a need to "find [himself]". was organized to replace funds for after-school programs canceled by the
San Francisco Unified School District, with performances by
Bob Dylan,
Neil Young, members of
The Band and
Grateful Dead,
Jefferson Starship,
Mimi Fariña,
Joan Baez,
Santana,
Tower of Power,
Jerry Garcia & Friends,
The Doobie Brothers,
Eddie Palmieri & His Orchestra,
The Miracles,
Graham Central Station, and appearing :
Marlon Brando,
Francis Ford Coppola,
Frankie Albert,
John Brodie,
Rosie Casals,
Werner Erhard,
Cedric Hardman,
Willie Mays,
Jesse Owens,
Gene Washington,
Cecil Williams Graham as
Bill Graham Presents booked the 1982
US Festival, funded by
Steve Wozniak as
Unuson. In the mid-1980s, in conjunction with the city of
Mountain View, California, and
Apple Inc. cofounder
Steve Wozniak, he masterminded the creation of the
Shoreline Amphitheatre, which became the premier venue for outdoor concerts in
Silicon Valley, complementing his booking of the East Bay
Concord Pavilion. Throughout his career, Graham promoted benefit concerts. He went on to set the standard for well-produced large-scale rock concerts, such as the U.S. portion of
Live Aid at
JFK Stadium, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on July 13, 1985, then
Wolfgang's on Columbus Ave in San Francisco. ==Personal life==