Avalon Ballroom on Sutter
Unfinished History
Poster for a show at the Avalon Ballroom.
Image: Tim Drescher
Avalon Ballroom, On Sutter at Van Ness.
Once the site of notorious stag parties arranged by "Little Caesar" Granelli, featuring future Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey on the organ. (In the late '50s, LaVey had just returned from L.A. and a torrid affair with Marilyn Monroe.) In the '60s, the Avalon was the site of psychedelic rock shows featuring the Grateful Dead, the Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe and the Fish shows whose psychedelic posters, free for the taking at the time, are now worth their weight in LSD-soaked blotter paper. You can see a collection of genuine '60s psychedelic posters at the Bottom of the Hill bar and nightclub, 1233 17th Street (at Texas.)
Chet Helms of the Family Dog at the Avalon Ballroom, 1968.
Photo: San Francisco History Center, SF Public Library
--Dr. Weirde