San Francisco The Avalon Ballroom and the Puppet Show
The Avalon Ballroom was the other main venue besides the Fillmore or Fillmore West (carousel ballroom).
The Avalon was open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, a venue that established itself with many of the same cool bands and more than The Fillmore. There were other small clubs around halls, ballrooms and clubs and parks. It was in the area called the Polk (Street) gulch. Van Ness and Sutter Streets 1268 Sutter to be exact. Avalon usually had concerts on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with Sundays if there was something special, a rare occurrence. Ironically an in true form the Avalon had been an Academy of Dance.
After going to the Avalon for a bit, we became friends with tony (baloney-this is said lovingly) who had set up and ran the puppet show by himself. It was a unique and a different stage to get lost in….many times the puppets dancing with the music-tony –would put on shows between band sets with different voices and skits.
Well, one evening, after the concert-we were leaving and had the urge for some coffee (a past time) of both Barts and mine. We say tony on the way out and told him we had thought the puppet show was cool and we enjoyed it. He started to walk off and we didn’t see his limo around (usually parked out front-kind of his trademark and profession) and called to him and asked if he needed a ride. One of those chilly San Francisco evening with a layer of salty fog and mist that tended to chill your bones down deep.
He turned around, smiled and said, that would be perfect if it wasn’t out of the way for us. Said his limo was in the shop for the weekend and he had walked over, as he was somewhat nearby we found out.
Tony has his own unique way of talking a combination of spiritual and informative and spacey. He was a cross between, in looks Tom Selleck and Al Pacino-but mainly a kind soul.
We got to his building, which was a bit out of place for what was around, older and an art-deco style tall building, as he got out he offered us to come up and have some coffee. We went inside the building. A lot of marble and headed to the elevator. We opened the glass door and then the iron scissored gate and the closed it and the was a handle to get the elevator moving, tony said he lived at the top so he moved the handle and the quiet rumble of old elevator’s accompanied us on the flight to the top, to our surprise the class door opened directly into Tony’s pad. Those were the days of scarves and tapestries and incense. And tony had framed pictures around the house, which was cool and candles, which he lit as he showed us his pad, tony loved to talk, when he did talk-but never in an arrogant way and many times I think was unintentionally funny many times the irony of some of his adventures. Many times about his limo assignments he’d had and the funny adventures. Tony was different in the sense his hair was only slightly long and he dressed in black a lot, his limo drivers uniform. So he didn’t fit into the typical “hip” vision but neither Bart or I brought into any cookie cutter concept of what was hip, it was the person, looks were too superficial and some who looked “hip” were beyond the word “asshole”.
JEFFERSON AIRPLANE AT AVALON
His tales involved women too, later when we were over there always seemed to be a woman or several come over on occasion and all were usually nice, if not tony would actually ask them to leave, which was a cool trait with tony, he was always kind and didn’t like meanness-he though Bart and my interplay of sarcasm was funny, if he caught it. Many times if it were in the day, he would take us on a tour in his limo if he didn’t have any assignment going, sometimes he’d be casual other he would totally suit up the black shiny driving boots and like riding pants, all black with a matching coat vest and tie and of course a hat and he had several from a top hat to a cap, always black.
The Tony Tours were a unique trip every time as he would tell the tales (sometimes sordid) about landmarks, mansions and the streets and stories that went along with them from scandals or exquisite bits of San Francisco history.
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I know, if I remember a street name I see when I visit San Francisco the story may come to me and the mists of the limo ride that imbued the story upon us.
To give you an idea of the 60’s limos
I digress, Tony brought up that he could use some help with the puppet show as he had to close it when he wasn’t there and if nature called and he never really got a break. He said usually he’d get there a bit earlier than opening time and then be ready when it opened as the played music then and he would do shows from then until closing. He said there would be free admittance and he take us out to eat and get us some goodies from time to time. We both thought, how cool-Bart lived at home and I was on my own and shared a place with a guy who needed a roommate but just wanted his place watched so rent wasn’t an issue and there was always food and he was barely there, so it fit the bill, for the time being. So we didn’t care about getting paid, but tony made sure we had smokes and food to eat while at the Avalon and he was always a trip to work with and visit.
The first time we went up, the puppet stage was located next to the light show. There was velvet draped all around the puppet show stage and there was a locked door to the side that opened to a little ladder that went to the second level. There was a small light, think it was yellow so not bright but you could see .
Hanging on the walls all the way around were these marionette puppets most were with the wooden cross with a string one each end to move the arms and legs which were articulated at the joints. Later we found there were some that had two crosses for more movement and took a bit to get a handle on. Now these are the ones made in Mexico and I am sure you can still by these today. Now the stage was lite by black lights and the puppets had a florescent painting on them to add effect to movement, as time went on we got to paint the puppets. Tony let us try the puppets out and we got a good feel for the 4 stringed ones. The doors opened and people came in Tony did a show for about 10 minutes and the said, you guys do a show, we knew we did the voices and could do any skit so tony said go ahead and said he was going to get us some juices to drink and left. We had watched enough shows that we just started a show ad lib, and did some corny skit but got laughs and we made funny voices that we told each other was stupid later. Tony wasn’t back so we talked for a minute and did one loosely based on little red riding hood, add in some pot and a smart red riding hood who kicked the wolf's ass.
Tony come in with some juice for us all and chips I think, said he watched us for a bit and said we did great. He said he’d take over and we told him to take a break and watch the bands or knowing tony talk with some women. He was gone for a bit and came back, now as time went on, once in a while tony would bring a lady or two to see the puppet stage we’d met them and sometimes let them try to do the puppets between or during shows. The puppet shows were all in good fun and tony never acted like a boss, and really appreciated that we gave him a break and helped with the shows. And we were left alone, it was Tony’s puppet show and he ran it-and it was always a gas to make up a skit, tony would do puppet skits with us.
We tried not to smoke cigarettes while doing the show but sometimes there would be other smoke, sometimes from someone who enjoyed the puppets show or a friend who just said enjoy. As it went along we did anti-war skits-getting high or copping dope. Sometimes naughty, but mainly funny even if we used dumb jokes. There was always an audience, it was a manor get-away from the dance floor and milling crowd. There was a cut out for us to see the bands as they played for the back inside the stage, but on the backside so there were no light but the black lights and when we looked out we made sure the long velvet drape was behind us when we opened the peephole so we were never visible but then again the light show was right next to us.
Now about the light shows back then, there was a lady who was like my older sister while I was on my own is San Francisco, very nice person Joann, a kind soul and, very metaphysical and quite knowledgeable about astrology-very keen, not a flake or fake. She would come over and watch the puppet shows. Joann was one of the premier light show artists and had me come over (later I took tony and Bart over, at her invite) to show me how the light show works, as I had been curious. There were about 6-8 light projectors set up, the old type ones( antiquated as opposed to today but did the job), like a light box on the bottom and an overhead projector arm that would have a section of the wall across the ballroom lit up. You always heard a fan because not LED’s then and the bulbs inside the light box got hot!
She showed me there were two concave glass bubbles, that she would put oils and different colored dyes which they would have the top glass bubble push down and start to create different images and swirls and designs, depending on the amount of pressure and where applied and once the band came on one could always create a beat or pulsing to go with the music on stage, because the light were dimmed to focus on the stage and band leaving the place ready for a light show.
There were usually large projection screens (some used sheets, just depended) behind the band on stage and then either the wall or a projection screen on the wall would be the canvas for the light show. Creative was open to the light shows artist and all had the special potions and dyes to create so truly “far-out” designs and “psychedelic” color to boot, some were almost like an art show with what they would create, so not all haphazard or mindless at all. Joann said to give a try ( I believe big brother and the holding company was on) and it was not only fun but almost addicting, going with the music and creating as you went along.
All the lightshow people were friendly, some in that very cool and empathic flower child way, which is a compliment although the establishment made fun of happy nice people who didn’t follow the mold-go figure. There was one and always is one person who just had to be a boss, when all was functioning fine with or without him, he was yammering something and then headed over to Joann and his tone wasn’t cool at all, I looked over and it wasn’t a friendly look and he went off to be a pain in the ass with someone else. But really a concert in the 60’s was nowhere without a light show…which seems to evolved today to large screen video-casts. One evening I went to take a quick bathroom break, and as I went in “the beast” came dancing by, later about the beast. As I was about to head back to the puppet show, I took a few minutes to watch the band (escapes me as to who in a long line of bands it was) when the song was done I turned and almost literally ran into this guy, who was an acquaintance, as opposed to a friend, not someone you’d hang out with, one of those guys who thinks he’s gods gift to women, but more so a buffoon, who thrived in his delusions, thinking himself hipster (or called a “head” in that era) number one. Trying to be slick in flood pants and some oddball cowboy boots. Now I have always enjoyed good colognes, but this clown reeked of an odious drug store cheapie ( a sour cat piss smell)-making hai karate seem like a French import. I was cordial to him, as I never got the mean streak of arrogance or killed my empathy, he started jabbering and was caught in his tracks as a few girls I knew stopped and said hello, before I had said hello back, he sneezed and to anyone’s dismay, he sadly had a string of snot hanging from each nostrils swinging like pendulums. He went into his self-centered diatribe as the string of snot swayed back and forth, his idea as a way to impress the ladies, the two girls were wide-eyed both in shock and embarrassment as I was. He then veered into this beyond lame attempt to pick up one of the girls and the quickly looked at the band playing, as I tried to subtly point to his nose, he kept on jabbering, the two girls said they’d see me later take a look at the puppet show and were going to the Fillmore this Tuesday, was I going? I told them of course and I could see that they were trying to keep from laffing but never alluding to the swinging snot from his nose. I told him I had to get back to the puppet show and exited stage left-after I told him to wipe his nose-he then started to say something about why didn’t I tell him, and I wasn’t in the mood for a bonehead conversation, told him he was too busy talking about Himself to notice me trying to tell him and then exited stage left.
Now about “the beast” who was a mainstay at the Avalon ballroom-well he was called that because he was “out-there” some say he was on a perpetual acid trip-or always on acid (lsd) so he danced by himself to a tune only know to him, sometimes seemed to be frustrated and would zoom by you, but never touch anyone hence the name the beast, well one evening the dead were playing and as it happened Owsley (a former chemist) always followed the dead to their concerts and passed out, what was supposed to be the purest LSD on the market for free to the crowd, usually giving them out from people who had small bags full, with colorful name like Owsley’s “white lightening or purple haze and usually the color to match and sometimes a logo stamp on the pill itself. Well as the story goes, “the beast” was supported by some dealers who paid his rent and let him run a tab at a local market and his story was always vague, he had horn rim glasses, wild hair and was always barefoot and zooming around. The men’s bathroom was older style with some wooden benches to sit in and all diamond shaped white tile, which had a sheen to it and the older wooden bathroom stalls, remembering this was an old ballroom hence the kind of elegance to the bathrooms.
That was the beast’s hang out, not in a perverted sense but he liked to sit and sometimes mumble to himself or talk to or look into the various mirrors about the bathroom. One evening, for whatever reason, I think we both took purple haze and man, intense was an understatement-it was fun watching the band and the light show, but when intermission between bands came on –one tended to be a bit lost after the song ended. Somehow we ended up sitting on one of the wooden benches in the men’s bathroom…when I say intense, even when people spoke it became echo chambers as colors would emerge once you look at one thing for a few moments…oddly feeling out of it, the beast sat in a bench across from us and I could understand him as he said, something along the lines of, tripping is a new world and went on as to how his evening went-now whether I hallucinated this or not, after this -the beast actually smiled when we saw him zooming around and in a funny way, I could relate just that that was him and he was harmless and once you talked to him or he to you, that fear of others tended to show itself to be rather empty and more so your fear you let inside you. After the concert, once in a while a party, but pretty seldom (as opposed to L.A.) usually coffee or something to eat, sometimes alone, sometimes with friends or girls or both. Sometimes we head over to Tony’s and go out to eat, there were times when girls would meet us at Tony’s and go out with us. This evening we finally met Tony’s roomie, who seemed never to be there. Now he was a limo driver but more a mechanic, he was a big fella, dressed like a biker and even had a Harley way back then and has longish hair and a beard, but with this gruff exterior he was friendly and soft-spoken and not an idiot, as you know my road dog Bart and I relished idiots, and at times would go into a sarcastic diatribe with quite insults just at the surface. Seems he was with a club but could not abide by the rules or way of thinking, so he was a lone biker. Well, all of us were starving, no ladies were coming over to go eat out with us so, the odd foursome all went into Tony’s limo, tony drove of course with his chauffeurs’ hat on. The seating in the rear of the limo was a bench seat with two bench seats facing each other, there was a bar behind the driver’s seat and on top a crystal decanter, the mini bar below and a tiny refrigerator that had ice cubes and some bottles of chilled wine. There was a dark smoked motorized window that tony could open and close. Even a phone to talk to the driver which lite up as opposed to ringing and of course dark window all the way abound except for the drivers but being close to the windows you could see out but several feet away and you could not see thru them. By they not only hungry but adding in the factor of the munchies. We ended up going to Chinatown, to a restaurant that garnered tourist and locals mainly because it was always open from afternoon thru the early mornings. Well we were a motley crew, but did see some girls we knew a tableful and waved hello-there was tony in all black with his chauffeur hat, his roommate towering in all black leather bikers outfit and boots, then me in velvet pants and I remember wearing a suede coat I had gotten on sale at north beach leather, it was fitted, like a waistcoat but had a Nehru collar, someone had ordered it and never picked it up and it fit me like a glove and I got a deal and they didn’t get stuck with a coat, I even as a kid always had a thing to find clothes that were unique and didn’t look like they came off a shelf or looking like a cookie cutter of everyone else, if possible and at that time San Francisco had some cool seamstress who sold their wares in local shops and that gave me an opportunity without having to sell my soul to buy them. Then there was Bart, us being polar opposites at least in clothes, bellbottom jeans, a tee shirt, Frye boots and a cool pea coat (the ones the navy used) and so an evening ends after a night doing the puppet show and socializing at the Avalon ballroom, we saw and heard so many bands that even today if I hear a song from those days I can envision the band playing…………..
AT THE AVALON
it changed with a snack bar in the rear-the light show top right and puppet show was tiop right towards the back-there were screens and sheets for the light show and the stage differed.
Santana
Morrison at the Avalon
13th Floor Elevators at the Avalon
