The Fillmore & the Avalon

The two main dancehalls in San Francisco that supported the development of the psychedelic poster were the Fillmore Auditorium, operated by Bill Graham, and the Avalon Ballroom, run by Chet Helms under the name Family Dog Productions. Between 1966 and 1971, Helms and Graham commissioned around 500 posters to advertise their shows.

The two promoters couldn’t have been more different. “Chet was a hippie,” Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart said. “He hated to charge for the music.” Musicians loved playing the Avalon, but they frequently didn’t get paid on time. Graham, meanwhile, was a consummate businessman. “He was different from the rest of us,” Jefferson Airplane vocalist Grace Slick said. “He was a New Yorker, very wary of the ‘too loose attitude,’ and he was a salesman.”

Graham and Helms even had opposite ways of working with the poster artists. Helms loved to be involved in the process and often offered themes, images, and titles for the posters. Graham, on the other hand, gave the artists free rein.