Avalon Ballroom

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

In the mid-1960s, the Avalon operated as a public dance hall where two bands typically performed two sets starting around nine o'clock. Chet Helms and Family Dog Productions booked acts on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, creating a vibrant scene that included The Doors alongside other headliners like the 13th Floor Elevators, the Butterfield Blues Band, and Big Brother and the Holding Company. Local groups such as Quicksilver Messenger Service, the Steve Miller Band, and early Moby Grape often served as backup bands. The venue was an L-shaped space on the two top floors of a building constructed in 1911 by architect Alfred Henry Jacobs. It featured a second-floor balcony surrounding the first floor along the south and western walls, with the dance area situated before an elevated stage in the northeast corner. With a capacity of up to 500 people, it was smaller than the Winterland Arena or The Fillmore but offered an intimate setting for the psychedelic underground.

In Their Own Story

The Avalon Ballroom hosted significant events beyond standard concerts, such as the Mantra-Rock Dance on January 29, 1967. Organized by the local Hare Krishna temple, this event featured Bhaktivedanta Swami and Allen Ginsberg alongside The Doors, Moby Grape, and Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin. The venue's history extends back to 1930s dance halls hosting popular and old-fashioned dances five times a week. In the late 1960s, it became a sanctuary for counterculture expression before losing its lease in 1968. It briefly reopened as the Regency II Movie Theater from 1969 until 2000. Decades later, in 2002, neo-hippie Steve Shirley restored and reopened the venue 34 years after its closure, producing over 70 concerts between 2002 and 2005 with acts like George Clinton and Arlo Guthrie before the space was renovated for offices and later used as a filming location for Real World: Ex-Plosion in 2013.

Reader's Guide

Visitors to the Avalon during its peak years entered through downstairs doors opening onto Sutter Street. The ballroom measured between 80 to 100 feet by 160 to 180 feet, including a stage that was 40 to 50 feet wide. An omnipresent light show created by local lighting companies filled the space with visual artistry. While The Doors performed here as headliners, they shared the bill with a rotating cast of San Francisco's finest, including Big Brother and the Holding Company, which Helms organized around Janis Joplin in spring 1966. The Grateful Dead recorded two live albums, Vintage Dead and Historic Dead, at the Avalon in autumn 1966, and captured tracks for their Live/Dead album there in early 1969. For those seeking to understand the venue's cultural impact, Sam Andrew of Big Brother noted in a documentary that 'Combination Of The Two' was written specifically referencing the San Francisco late '60s scene, with 'The Two' being The Fillmore and The Avalon.

Did You Know?

• The Avalon was located at two different address numbers, 1244 and 1268 Sutter Street, depending on the entrance used.
• Before becoming a rock venue in the 1960s, the building housed Puckett's College of Dancing by 1915 and later hosted popular dances five times per week in the 1930s.
• The Grateful Dead played at the Avalon at least twenty-nine times between 1966 and 1969, recording multiple albums there.
• On January 29, 1967, the venue hosted the Mantra-Rock Dance featuring Hare Krishna founder Bhaktivedanta Swami alongside The Doors and Janis Joplin.
• The venue was restored 34 years after closing in 1968, reopening in 2002 under the management of Steve Shirley.