A Sponsored Story from the Contemporary Jewish Museum
Even though I was born long after the hippie era, I was profoundly affected by it. My parents were Deadheads in their day, those special types of draft-dodging, pot-smoking baby boomers who tuned in, turned on and dropped out — and, later, dropped back in again and found full-time jobs and middle-class lives.
Listening to the music of the ’60s and ’70s now, you get a strong sense of a profound optimism — a utopianism, a positivity and an open-mindedness that hasn’t really been reproduced since, not in the apathy of ’90s grunge, in the ennui-ridden 2000s or in 2010s indie rock. San Francisco’s very own Bill Graham was a promoter and local legend who was instrumental in the rise to fame of the Fillmore, the San Francisco Mime Troupe and the Winterland Ballroom. Many legendary rock bands gained press because of his influence, including Big Brother and the Holding Company, Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead. The sounds of these bands and the community and counterculture spirit they engendered left an imprint on San Francisco that is still present today.
As a curator of this scene, Bill Graham was a fascinating character in his own right. Born in Germany to Jewish parents, Graham and his sister fled to France, and later to the United States, as the specter of the Third Reich bore down on them. Raised in New York, Graham served in the army during the Korean War, returned to New York City and eventually moved to San Francisco in the 1960s. He immediately got involved with the San Francisco Mime Troupe, which was (and still is) a radical theater troupe that was often under threat from offended authorities. Graham saw an opportunity in hosting the Mime Troupe at the Fillmore Auditorium; this initial contact led to a long-term relationship that saw Graham eventually take over the lease to the Fillmore and promote and host many legendary musical artists.
Graham died tragically in a helicopter accident in 1991, but his legacy lives on in an exhibition at the Jewish Museum. From now until July 5, the Contemporary Jewish Museum of San Francisco is hosting Bill Graham and the Rock and Roll Revolution, a collection of memorabilia and photographs that reflects Graham’s legacy in San Francisco while also speaking to the counterculture history of San Francisco. The show features vintage Fillmore posters, rock-and-roll photography and personal effects of rock icons from the ’60s and ’70s. More info as well as tickets can be found here.
