Where Was The Original Fillmore

The original Fillmore was built in 1912 and originally named the Majestic Hall; it became the Fillmore Auditorium in 1954. Located in San Francisco, California, the Fillmore Auditorium became the venue to play at: music shows and dance events.

The People Who Helped Shape The Fillmore

Charles Sullivan, one of the most successful African American businessman at the time, began booking music shows at the Fillmore in 1954. In 1965, Bill Graham, a rock concert promoter, booked a benefit show for the long-running San Francisco Mime Troupe show that propelled the music venue into the limelight.

In 1966, as part of Andy Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable avant-garde multimedia show, bands like The Velvet Underground and Nico performed. The show’s light engineer Danny Williams, pioneered many contemporary standard lighting practices in concerts; he built a lighting system at the Fillmore that included stroboscopes, slides and film projections onstage.

Enter the Psychedelic Movement

Mid 1960s, the Fillmore Auditorium was known to be the epicenter for psychedelic music. Bands like the Grateful Dead, The Steve Miller Band, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Moby Grape, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Byrds, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Santana, Frank Zappa’s The Mothers of Invention, and British acts The Who, Cream, and Pink Floyd performed at the venue. The Grateful Dead played a total of 51 concerts at the venue from 1965 through 1969.

The Blues Emergence

B.B. King’s was well-received at the Fillmore. The venue helped push the Blues movement to a new larger audience. B.B. King was seen as a countercultural icon, appearing at many rock festivals. Another Blues artist, Albert King, also received the same accolades as B.B. King.

Find a list of locations of original Fillmore venue and other Fillmore venue across the United States.

Learn more about the Original Fillmore here.