McArthur Court, University Of Oregon, 1801 University Street, Eugene, OR

Capacity 9000

McArthur Court was a basketball arena located on the campus of the University of Oregon in Eugene and the former home of the Oregon Ducks men's and women's basketball teams.(1)(2)

McArthur Court saw its first game on January 14, 1927, a 38–10 Oregon victory over Willamette University.

Also known as "The Pit" or "Mac Court," it was known as one of the most hostile arenas in the nation. 

The arena is named for Clifton N. (Pat) McArthur, U. S. Congressman and Oregon student-athlete and the school's first student body president.[3]

Photo courtesy of Ron Daggett

It's unique and antiquated structure has the fans on top of the court. The maple floor bounces under the weight of the student section that surrounds the court.[4] In 2001 Sporting News named it "best gym in America".[5]

The arena was funded by a $15 fee imposed by the Associated Students of the University of Oregon and the mortgage papers were burned as part of a public ceremony after the building was completely paid for.[7]

It was replaced in 2011 by Matthew Knight Arena.[1][2]

5/31/69 Grateful Dead

I:Hard To Handle;Cold Rain And Snow;Yellow Dog Story;Green Green Grass Of Home;Me And My Uncle;Cryptical Envelopment>Drums>The Other One>Cryptical Envelopment>Sittin On Top Of The World;It Hurts Me Too;Turn On Your Love Light

II:He Was A Friend Of Mine;Dark Star>Doin' That Rag>Cosmic Charlie

Encore:It's All Over Now, Baby Blue;And We Bid You Good Night

https://archive.org/details/gd69-05-31.sbd.oleynick.76.sbeok.shnf

Palace Meat Market opened.

Promoters Stan McGriff[20] and Oregon Radio Club.

Jerry plays a 1967 Gibson SG Standard guitar, 5/31/69.

This performance was originally scheduled for Hayward Field according to advertising in the Daily Emerald, May 28, 1969.

Jerry imitates a pedal steel guitar on Green Grass.[10]

"Billy is singing on Lovelight along with Ken Babbs."[8] Ken Babbs speaks in Green Grass, Baby Blue and other spots.

"Ken Babbs starts Baby Blue with a sad little rap; he's also heard rapping at length after Cold Rain & Snow."[16]

"Ken Babbs was indeed onstage "in some capacity," chattering away during the Dead's downtime; they sound quite at home with him. (Jerry even crows, "Free turf! Anyone can do anything they want to!" while Ken babbles.) One Archive reviewer mentions that "Kesey had recently returned to Oregon" and there were free ice cream cones! [I think Kesey had been in Oregon since the end of '67, but perhaps there was another occasion for the festivities.]

A distressed announcer at the end of the show tells the crowd, "Lots of people snuck in, and they only sold 1500 tickets, and they're 400 dollars short." So he asks the audience to give money at the door when they leave!"[9]

1/22/78 Grateful Dead

I:New Minglewood Blues;Dire Wolf;Cassidy;Peggy-O;El Paso;Tennessee Jed;Jack Straw;Row Jimmy;The Music Never Stopped

II:Bertha>Good Lovin';Ship Of Fools;Samson And Delilah;Lady With A Fan>Drums>The Other One>Saint Stephen>Not Fade Away>Around And Around

Encore:U.S. Blues

https://archive.org/details/gd78-01-22.sbd.popi.4974.sbeok.shnf

Photo by Bruce Polansky

Promoter Bill Graham Presents and Double Tee in Association with EMU Cultural Forum.

Jerry wears a baseball style jersey with two white stripes on each shoulder and plays the guitar Wolf.[21]

"I worked my way to the third row, third seat from center. Security came over to me and told me straight up that it wasn't my seat cuz it belonged to his girlfriend. AND SHE COULDN'T MAKE IT so he told me to enjoy the show!! 

His girlfriend, even tho she wasn't there, wanted to hear Jack Straw, so I yelled out to Bobby and he turned around to the band and they went into Jack Straw. Very Cool. 

As they took a breather after Samson and Micky pointed at me and say to those around him "This guy is going to go nuts" I Did!!

In case it hasn't been noticed, when Jerry is doodling (Close Encounters jam) no one is playing with him. In all my shows, it was the only time where I saw the rest of the band find a seat and let their jaws drop to the floor with the rest of us. It also helped that Ken Kesey was in the audience and there was a Jester roaming the front few rows dosing people."[11]

"Bobby and Jerry were jumping up and down during the Jerry-fan section at the end of Jack Straw - I never saw the big guy that animated again after that."[12]

"I was standing in the lobby during intermission in a circle passing around a joint; I keep trying to pass it to the guy on my left, not looking at him, just trying to get him to take this joint. Finally I look over and realize he's not taking it because he's a City of Eugene police officer. Then, later, during Jerry's solo, this big cowboy sitting behind us gets up and announces disgustedly, to no one in particular, "Who does this guy [Garcia] think he is, Jimi Hendrix or somehing?" and walks out. Well, this is (and was) rural Oregon and I guess the guy just wandered into the wrong concert."[13]

"What happens in TMNS is nothing short of divine rapture. Jerry's wiggling leads pick the locks of Heaven and throw the gates wide. Then the Dead roll right in- in proud style- jamming all the way and rocking the celestial halls of Ever After, leaving no pillar unshaken. No other band can ride such a pure wave on the muse's tide for as long or as unadulterated as the Dead. Jerry's fingers dance around with their own freedom and cascades of notes will bathe your soul in sense and color as the music plays the band. I found myself laughing and shaking my head in disbelief. Absolute mind blowing a cosmic dandelion into a sparkling sentiment of LOVE."[14]

"The other thing that sticks in my mind was that the stage set was a scaled down version of the Autzen Stadium set from the summer before. There was the huge rainbow stretching across the top of the stage with the sun in the middle. The difference was that at Autzen, there were hangings in front of the speaker columns at each end of the rainbow that completed the diorama."[15]

"Bill Graham, producer of the tour, showed up at Eugene January 22 with 50 red t-shirts emblazoned with Healy's picture behind bars, and "Free The Bakersfield 2" on the back.(19) Healy was busted in Bakersfield on January 14 for resisting arrest and public drunkenness. Graham persuaded the band and everyone else on stage to put them on at the end of the show.[19]

8/16/81 Grateful Dead

I:Jack Straw;Friend Of The Devil>El Paso;Loser;New Minglewood Blues;Peggy-O>Little Red Rooster;Deal

II:Feel Like A Stranger;Scarlet Begonias>Fire On The Mountain; Estimated Prophet>Eyes Of The World>Jam>Drums>Space>The Other One>Stella Blue>Around And Around>Good Lovin'

Encore:It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

https://archive.org/details/gd1981-08-16.sbd.unknown.32019.flac16

Promoter Double Tee/John Scher Presents.

"During Drums they rolled Ken Kesey out in a psychedelic circus cage known as the Thunder Machine, while Ken Babbs rapped at the mic."[6]

"Kesey or Babbs were on stage. They were, for sure, at the '81 Mac Court show...Thunder Machine was wheeled out right on stage and they beat the heck out of it. Babbs also had a mic and was doing some insane-o rap."[18]

"Over 100 degrees outside that day. . .very foggy in the gym. I remember people hanging out in the old cemetery across from Mac Court and thinking, "How fitting."[17]

"I had my one and only backstage pass for this show! At the break I followed everyone down to the locker room. I remember Kesey and Babbs were there and I spotted Jerry standing off to one side talking to two little girls, so I strolled over and lit a joint and smoked it with him !!! Later my friends and I partied with the rest of the band at the Valley River Inn ! What a mighty time!"[18]

McArthur Court (University Of Oregon), Eugene, OR 

1.)^"Transforming Campus: Basketball Arena". University of Oregon Development: Campaign Oregon.

2.)^Hall, Calvin (October 4, 2006). "University seeks use for old bakery site". Oregon Daily Emerald.

3.)^"McArthur Court - Architecture of the University of Oregon". University of Oregon Libraries.

4.)^"Where we play". Oregon Daily Emerald. September 20, 2004.

5.)^Agase, Jeff (December 9, 2002). "Oregon pits visiting teams against McArthur Court". Daily Bruin.

6.)^Mr felina, comments, 2013-02-08, Other Stuff, www.philzone.org

7.)^"McArthur Court". University of Oregon, Official Athletic Site.

8.)^hockey_john, comments, 2012-10-31, http://www.dead.net/show/may-31-1969

9.)^Light Into Ashes, comments, 2011-12-01, http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2011/12/grateful-deadjerry-garcia-tour.html

10.)^1969-05-31, http://www.deadlists.com/default.asp

11.)^Lindy8018, comments, 2010-07-02, https://archive.org/details/gd78-01-22.sbd.popi.4974.sbeok.shnf

12.)^Ray Sachs, comments, 2007-03-18, https://archive.org/details/gd78-01-22.sbd.popi.4974.sbeok.shnf

13.)^Drake, Jeff, comments, 2005-04-19, https://archive.org/details/gd78-01-22.sbd.popi.4974.sbeok.shnf

14.)^zuben, comments, 2004-12-14, https://archive.org/details/gd78-01-22.sbd.popi.4974.sbeok.shnf

15.)^nassau73, cooments, 2009-01-15, http://www.dead.net/show/january-22-1978

16.)^http://www.archive.org/details/gd69-05-31.sbd.oleynick.76.sbeok.shnf

17.)^danf, comments, http://www.setlists.net/?show_id=1344

18.)^Mojohand, comments, 2014-01-18, Garcia, http://www.deadnetcentral.com/webx?14@763.1Hbyab9vl3r.12@.ee7b152/50565

19.)^Gans, David, Dead Ahead, BAM #27, 1978-02, pg. 72.

20.)^MS 332 Ser. 3, Box 1:13, GDR: Show Files: 1968-1969, Venues and Promoter List, 1968, Northwest Tours Notes, Grateful Dead Archive, Special Collections, McHenry Library, UC Santa Cruz, CA.

21.)^Polansky, Bruce, photographer, 1978-01-22.

Magoo's Pizza, 639 Santa Cruz Avenue, Menlo Park, CA

This is a fake poster but the Warlocks debuted at Magoo's Pizza on May 5, 1965.

The Stanford Daily October 30, 1964

In 2012 the address of 639 Santa Cruz Avenue is a furniture store.

5/5/65 Warlocks (first Warlocks performance)
"It was really high that night - but it wasn't folk music, nobody knew what it was - it was intense and alien. We boogied and got off on the Warlocks. Phil stood up on the redwood table and danced - the one and only time I ever saw him dance. Phil's head was reeling..."(3) 

5/12/65 Warlocks
The atmosphere inside Magoo’s was strictly pizza parlor—bright overhead lights, long tables, ovens in the back. The band was set up by the front plate glass window, confined to a rather narrow area without a stage. Jerry Garcia was on the audience’s left, Pigpen on the far right. Those two, especially, looked somewhat menacing (at least to a suburban 15 year-old). They reminded me of outlaw bikers. Bob Weir, Dana Morgan, and Bill Kreutzmann were clean-shaven and looked more like guys you might see in a high school band.

The music was stunning. I have never forgotten it, although I cannot recall the specific set list. I think they did some Stones covers and I know that Pigpen sang “Little Red Rooster.” (2)

5/19/65 Warlocks
I'm not sure if Magoo's was the kind of place where a new band needed a "booking," or if just a chat with the manager would suffice. Garcia remembered, "We said, 'Hey can we play in here on Wednesday night? We won't bother anybody. Just let us set up in the corner.'"
Given the high-school crowd, perhaps it was Weir's circle of friends who suggested Magoo's...(Light Into Ashes)

5/26/65 Warlocks
They played every Wednesday in May. The club was packed with students from Menlo Atherton High School, thanks to shrewd campaigning by the group's first fans. However, despite the promising start to the young band, bassist Dana Morgan was not cutting it. Garcia's friend Phil Lesh saw the last Wednesday night gig (on May 26), and Garcia invited him to replace Morgan (Garcia had to teach Lesh to play bass, as Phil only played trumpet, piano and violin).(1)

In Phil Lesh's book, Searching For The Sound, he says, "Magoo's, unfortunately, had discontinued live music because people just wouldn't stop dancing!"

1.)^Arnold, Corry, Lost Live Dead, 2010-02-06, Summer of 65
2.)^Brown, Philip, Cosmic Trends, Chapter 14, Uranus-Pluto Profile: The Warlocks
3.)^Harrison, Hank, The Dead

Dining Hall, Menlo College, 1000 El Camino Real, Atherton, CA

The Menlo School for Boys, at 50 Valparaiso Street in Atherton, had been formed in 1924, taking over a Military Academy on the same site.
In 1927, the Menlo School for Boys also formed Menlo College, which was a sort of junior college that prepared students to go straight into the upper division. Menlo College was and still is located at 1000 El Camino Real in Atherton.(1)

9/65 Warlocks
"My source had one other, peculiar, unique memory about the Warlocks playing Menlo College. She and a friend had the duty of writing down the lyrics to songs that the band wanted to learn, many of them Rolling Stones songs. One thing she recalled about the Menlo gig was that the band had learned the Rolling Stones song "Off The Hook"  (released in the US in February 1965 on the album The Rolling Stones Now). My source had carefully explained to Jerry Garcia that when Mick Jagger sang the lyrics "it's off the hook, " Jagger had mimed holding a telephone to his ear. Whether she knew that from having seen the Stones, or from some television appearance isn't quite clear.
Nonetheless, my source recalled Jerry not only singing "It's Off The Hook," but miming the telephone bit. He even smiled at her when he did it, to show he'd learned his part. How often the Warlocks played "Off The Hook" after that remains unknown, and I doubt Jerry mimed the phone much. But he did it once, at least."(1)
"It was in some sort of dining hall or "rec room," and that numerous tables had to be pushed against a wall to allow everybody to dance. Her memory was that the purpose of the show was probably to encourage Menlo College students to recommend The Warlocks for paying gigs at school dances."(2)

1.)^Arnold, Corry, Lost Live Dead, Menlo College, 2011-09-29, http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2011/09/september-1965-dining-hall-menlo.html
2.)^Arnold, Corry, Lost Live Dead, Summer 1965, 2011-09-16, http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2011/09/summer-1965-top-of-tangent-117.html

Marin Veteran's Memorial Auditorium, Marin Civic Center, 10 Avenue of the Flags, San Rafael, CA

The 140-acre (0.57 km2) Scettrini Ranch in Santa Venetia was purchased in 1956 for $551,416 for use as the site of the Civic Center and County Fairgrounds.

Frank Lloyd Wright presenting the Civic Center plans at San Rafael High School, March 25, 1958. Image from the cover of This Week In Marvelous Marin, December 26, 1958.

On July 31, 1957, Frank Lloyd Wright spoke at a public meeting at San Rafael High School to impart his philosophy of architecture and particularly, organic architecture. Following that meeting, he signed the contract that made him the official architect for the Marin County Civic Center and fairgrounds complex. The next day, he was driven to the Scettrini Ranch, site of the new Civic Center, and announced that he had come up with his design.

A year later, on March 25, 1958, Wright returned to San Rafael High School with a complete set of drawings for the entire site, including the Administration Building, Hall of Justice, Veterans' Memorial Auditorium, and numerous buildings and structures for the fairgrounds. It was an informal session with opportunities for community members to ask Frank Lloyd Wright questions.

How would you characterize your project for the Marin County Civic Center?
Here's his answer: http://www.marinlibrary.org/sites/default/files/FLW%20excerpt%203.mp3

Groundbreaking for the Civic Center Administration Building took place in 1960, after Wright's death, and under the watch of Wright's protégé, Aaron Green, and was completed in 1962.
The Hall of Justice was begun in 1966 and completed in 1969. This was the last commission by Frank Lloyd Wright.


Veterans Memorial Auditorium opened in 1971 by Taliesin Associates (senior architect: William Wesley Peters and Associate, Aaron Green) , and the Exhibit Hall opened in 1976.
The auditorium was completed about fifteen years after the first commission was accepted. The Auditorium, however, echoes details of the neighboring Civic Center, especially in its curvilinear forms and the roof design.

Photos courtesy of Mary Sullivan

The Marin County Civic Center is a state and National Historic Landmark.^[2] The Civic Center has been nominated for the UNESCO World Heritage List^[4] as a part of ten properties by Frank Lloyd Wright.

The Civic Center Tower is the tallest artificial structure in Marin County.
On August 21, 1975 the Symbionese Liberation Army planted bombs in the Civic Center parking lot, which detonated and destroyed two sheriff's cruisers. Black Panther activist Angela Davis was eventually tied to the case, prompting her to go on the run before being caught and ultimately acquitted on charges of supplying firearms to the S.L.A.

The original design called for the roof to be gold in color, but was changed to blue in 1961.

The Civic Center has been referred to as the "Martian Embassy" due to the futuristic appearance of the spire and "flying saucer" at the south end of the building.

6/2/73 Merl Saunders
2/18/78 Jerry Garcia Band
10/30/83 Grateful Dead
10/31/83 Grateful Dead
3/28/84 Grateful Dead
3/29/84 Grateful Dead
3/31/84 Grateful Dead
4/1/84 Grateful Dead
9/29/84 John Kahn (acoustic)
2/28/86 John Kahn (acoustic)
11/14/86 John Kahn (acoustic)
2/20/87 Jerry Garcia Band
4/26/88 Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band

Sources on Marin Civic Center
Bruce Pfeiffer. Frank Lloyd Wright Drawings. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Publishers, 1990. aerial perspective drawing, p169.

Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer and Gerald Nordland, ed. Frank Lloyd Wright: In the Realm of Ideas. Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1987. ISBN 0-8-93-1421-5. LC 87-20755. NA737.W7A4 1988. p7.

Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, text, Yukio Futagawa, ed. Frank Lloyd Wright: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City, N.Y. 1943-59 Marin County Civic Center, California. 1957-1970. Tokyo: A.D.A EDITA tokyo Co., Ltd., 1975. NA x737 .W7 F8735. p4-6.

William S. Saunders. Modern Architecture - Photographs by Ezra Stoller. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Publishers, 1990. ISBN 0-8109-3816-2. exterior photo, p40. — A wonderful & inspiring book of beautiful photographs by the master of architectural photography, reissued Fall 1999.

William Allin Storrer. The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright: a Complete Catalog. Second Edition. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1979. ISBN 0-262-19171-7. LC 78-1306. NA737.W7A4 1978. geographical index p14.

William Allin Storrer. The Frank Lloyd Wright Companion. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1993. ISBN 0-226-77624-7. LC 93-30127. NA737.W7A4 1993. plan drawing.

Kevin Matthews. The Great Buildings Collection on CD-ROM. Artifice, 2001. ISBN 0-9667098-4-5.

Veterans Memorial Auditorium, 3501 Civic Center Drive, San Rafael, CA

Capacity 1960
The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Marin County Civic Center is a national- and state-designated historic landmark. Wright's 770th commission, the Civic Center is the last and one of the most important works by this internationally acclaimed architect who has been described as "one of the most creative architectural geniuses of all time" and "the most original architect the United States has ever produced." Frank Lloyd Wright died on April 9, 1959, at the age of 92, and did not see his vision completed. Taliesin Senior Architect Wesley Peters and San Francisco Bay Area Taliesin Architect Aaron Green directed the completion.

Groundbreaking for the Civic Center Administration Building took place in 1960, after Wright's death and under the watch of Wright's protégé, Aaron Green, and was completed in 1962. The Hall of Justice was begun in 1966 and completed in 1969.

Veterans Memorial Auditorium opened in 1971, and the Exhibit Hall opened in 1976.

A battle between factions of the Marin County Board of Supervisors played out through the selection of the site and the architect, the financing of the project and its eventual completion. The Marin County Civic Center is a state and National Historic Landmark. The main Civic Center building has been nominated for the UNESCO World Heritage List[3] as a part of ten properties by Frank Lloyd Wright.
The selection of Frank Lloyd Wright in 1957 to design the Civic Center was controversial. The Civic Center project was Wright's largest public project, and encompassed an entire campus of civic structures. The post office was the only federal government project of Wright's career. Wright's design borrowed ideas and forms from Wright's Broadacre City concept, first published in 1932.[4]

The nearby Veterans Auditorium was designed by the Taliesin Associated Architects and was completed in 1971 in a manner compatible with the main complex.[4] The auditorium was designed for use by the county fair with a combination of flat-floor exhibition space and tiered seating spaces, using a compromise plan devised by Wesley Peters, George Izenour and Aaron Green.[7] The main hall seats 1960[8] in an amphitheater arrangement. A separate Showcase Theater seats 300, and the exhibition hall can accommodate up 2000 patrons.[9]

11/28/75

12/9/81

6/2/73 Merl Saunders (Marin Civic Auditorium)
2/18/78 Jerry Garcia Band
10/30/83 Grateful Dead
10/31/83 Grateful Dead
3/28/84 Grateful Dead
3/29/84 Grateful Dead
3/31/84 Grateful Dead
4/1/84 Grateful Dead
9/29/84 John Kahn
2/28/86 John Kahn
11/14/86 John Kahn
2/20/87 Jerry Garcia Band
4/26/88 Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band

3.)^"Frank Lloyd Wright Buildings". World Heritage Center: Tentative Lists. UNESCO.
4.)^Woodbridge, Sally B.. "National Historic Landmark Nomination Form: Marin County Civic Center". National Park Service.
7.)^Green, Aaron G. and de Nevi, Donald P. An Architecture for Democracy: The Marin County Civic Center, Grendon Publishing, 1990. , pp. 104-105
8.)^"Marin Veterans’ Memorial Auditorium". San Rafael Patch
9.)^Rapaport, Richard (February 1, 2011). "Frank Lloyd Wright’s Civic Center Flip Side". San Rafael Patch

Marshall Leicester's parents home,

Marshall Leicester's parents were a little more negative in their assessment of Jerry's character. After the ever-homeless Garcia spent a couple of weeks crashing at the Leicester family pad, Marshall's parents made it clear to their son that it was time for this charming "freeloader", as they branded him, to move on.(1)


1964?

1.)Jackson, Blair, Garcia: An American Life, pg 40.

Mars Hotel, 192 4th at Howard Street, San Francisco, CA

This photo is dated November 14, 1963, at the corner of 4th and Howard - S. F. News-Call Bulletin photo by Eddie Murphy.

The San Francisco public library historical photo collection has one single photo of the Mars Hotel at 192 4th Street at the corner of 4th and Howard, where the Moscone Center is today. 3rd and 4th streets near Mission and Howard was a low income area in the 60's and 70's similar to 6th street today and was demolished to make way for the Moscone Center in the 80's.

Add caption

Kerouac wrote about the ‘Mars Hotel on 4th and Howard’ while in Big Sur.
"Coming 3000 miles from my home in Long Island in a pleasant roomette on the California Zephyr train watching America roll by..." To San Francisco where Jack stays "at my"secret" skid row hotel (the Mars on 4th and Howard).(1)

This photo was found inside a Mars Hotel album cover in 1980

This is how the property looks today, 2012.

David Bowie also uses a clip of himself in front of the Mars Hotel in the "Jean Genie" video...check it on Youtube...its only for a few seconds.(2)

The Grateful Dead Movie includes film of the hotel being demolished.

New Year's Eve Parade Float!

Jerry and his guitar hung out here in 1974, one block away from Columbia Records, a division of CBS Studios, while making the album, Mars Hotel (released 6/27/74).

1.)^Kerouac, Jack,"Big Sur", First published 1962 by Farrar Straus and Giroux
2.)^Iorio, John, Rock  and Roll Roadmaps, http://www.rockandrollroadmap.com/san-francisco-area-hotels/mars-hotel/view-details.html

The Ballroom, Manhattan Center, 311 W. 34th and 8th, New York, NY

Capacity 1200

The Manhattan Center building was built in 1906, originally as the Manhattan Opera House by Oscar Hammerstein I. The architects were J.B. McElfatrick & Son. Opened on December 3, 1906.

1906

It's located at 311 West 34th Street in Midtown Manhattan, houses Manhattan Center Studios (home to two recording studios), its Grand Ballroom, and the Hammerstein Ballroom, one of New York City's most renowned performance venues.
The root cause for the construction centered around boldly rivaling the established Metropolitan Opera by featuring cheaper seat costs for the ordinary New Yorker. Rapidly, it became the alternative venue for many great operas and celebrated singers to make their debut.

In 1910, after the Metropolitan Opera could no longer withstand competition, offered Hammerstein $1.2 million to cease producing opera for a course of 10 years. He accepted the offer and experimented with various acts preceding the decision to sell the building.

In March 1911, it was opened as a "combination" house by the Shubert brothers featuring vaudeville shows during the week and concerts on Sunday nights at much more affordable prices.

In 1922, the Manhattan Opera House was purchased by the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Free Masonry, who built a new building fasçade and The Grand Ballroom on the seventh floor.

In 1926, Warner Brothers chose to set up the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system in The Grand Ballroom to capture the 107-piece New York Philharmonic orchestra for the film Don Juan which marked the release of the inaugural commercial film featuring a recorded musical soundtrack.

In 1940, the name of the building altered to the Manhattan Center helping to attract a variety of different types of events.

In 1976, the building was purchased by its current owner, the Unification Church for $3,000,000.^{[1] and becme a warehouse.}

In 1986, Manhattan Center Studios was formed to develop the center into a venue with the capability of holding multimedia festivities. MCS expanded the audio recording facilities when Studio 4 was opened in 1993. Studio 7 was rebuilt in 1996 to become a state-of-the-art control room capable of servicing all types of recordings and live events in the Ballrooms.

The Manhattan Center became a hot spot for "big band" dances as well as trade shows, union meetings and other social functions.
Among the diverse events held here throughout the decades that followed were radio broadcasts, recordings and performances by the likes of Paul Robeson, Judy Garland, Harry Belafonte, Perry Como, Leonard Bernstein, David Bowie, Grateful Dead, Bob Marley. In the early 1990s, wrestling show WWE Monday Night Raw broadcast from the Grand Ballroom a record 28 times.

Jerry performed here on
4/4/71 NRPS and Grateful Dead(2)
4/5/71 NRPS and Grateful Dead
4/6/71 NRPS and Grateful Dead

8/15/71 NRPS and Grateful Dead






































1.)^Biermans, J. 1986, The Odyssey of New Religious Movements, Persecution, Struggle, Legitimation: A Case Study of the Unification Church Lewiston, New York and Queenston, Ontario: The Edwin Melton Press
2.)^http://www.nrpsmusic.com/music/1971.html

War Memorial Gym, 2335 Golden Gate Avenue, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA

 Capacity 5300



The college moved to its present site on the south slope of Lone Mountain in 1927. The college was built on the site of the former Odd Fellows, Mount Olivet and Masonic Cemeteries. In 1913, the city enacted a law prohibiting more burials in the City and County of San Francisco. The remains were transferred to Colma, California.

To celebrate its diamond jubilee in 1930, St. Ignatius College changed its name to the University of San Francisco. According to USF history professor Father John B. Mc Gloin, S.J., the change from college to university was sought by long-time San Francisco Mayor James Rolph Jr.. at the time, running for Governor of California.

Prior to 1958, the USF basketball team had no permanent home. During the 1955 and 1956 NCAA championship seasons, Phil Woolpert's teams had to practice and play home games at either nearby Kezar Pavilion in Golden Gate Park or the gym at neighboring St. Ignatius High School. The aftermath of USF's back-to-back national championships spurred a fund-raising effort that ultimately made building an on-campus venue possible and in 1958, War Memorial Gym opened its doors.

A male-only school for most of its history, USF became fully coeducational in 1964.

Originally serving all of USF's athletic needs, War Memorial Gym also briefly hosted the San Francisco Warriors during the 1966-1967 season. Upon the arrival of women's sports on campus, War Memorial Gym also became the home of the women's basketball and volleyball teams.

Though the gym missed the Russell and Jones era by three years, it was the home of the great Dons teams of the late 1970's led by Bill Cartwright, Phil Smith and Quintin Dailey (though some high-profile matches were held at the Cow Palace or the Oakland Arena).

War Memorial Gym was also the site of CBS's first national college basketball broadcast, a 1982 match-up between USF and the University of Georgia.

In 1989, with the construction of the Koret Health and Recreation Center, War Memorial became exclusively an athletic venue, though training facilities continue to be housed in the Moran Center beneath the gym.
Dedicated to the USF dead of World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, War Memorial Gym currently seats 5,300 spectators.  Plaques in the lobby display the names of more than 100 students, alumni, and faculty who died fighting those wars.(1) Above the court can be seen banners commemorating USF's national and conference championships in basketball, including titles won by the women's basketball team in their old conference, the Northern California Athletic Conference. Players' retired numbers can also be found, including banners for Pete Newell and Phil Woolpert. The gym's foyer houses a mini-hall of fame, displaying trophies and memorabilia from USF's athletic history.(2)

In 2008 and 2009, USF made upgrades to the gym. The old floor, which was the original installation, was replaced, along with the bleacher seating in the upper level. The old baskets were replaced with stand-alone versions, and new banners were installed.



Jerry performed here on
10/31/74 Merl Saunders






1.)^https://www.usfca.edu/virtualtour/war_memorial_gym/
2.)^Norris, Ryan, No Frills on the Hilltop, http://www.stadiumjourney.com/stadiums/war-memorial-gym-s829/

Music Mountain, Avon Lodge, South Fallsburg, NY

1944 Avon Lodge

Music Mountain was located at the Avon Lodge in Woodridge. The Village of Woodridge is in the Town of Fallsburg. Raphael Kasofsky and Meyer Arkin were owners of the popular Avon Lodge a mile outside of Woodridge. Arkin's 156 acre Avon Lodge was where Sid Caesar first performed in public. As a member of the hotel's kitchen staff in the 1940s, Sid and others put on socially aware plays and skits in the hotel theater, including works by Clifford Odets.

Music Mountain was founded by Jacques Gordon, founder and first violinist of the Gordon String Quartet, with the primary mission of education through the performance of the chamber music literature, specifically, the music for the string quartet.

Jaques Gordon

In 1930 Mr. Gordon established summer residence in Falls Village, New York. The Gordon Musical Association, established that same year, maintained a summer school of music called Music Mountain, where many students gathered to study repertory and chamber music and to hear performances by the Gordon String Quartet.(4) Mr. Gordon is buried behind Gordon Hall, on the property.

Don Appel moved his troupe to the Avon Lodge in the summer of 1942 from Kutsher's Country Club in Monticello.(3)

The concrete bandshell remains although quite decrepit...there is the Navasink River in front of property.(1)

Nicholas Gordon, was the son of the founder and president of Music Mountain in 1981. The publicisct was Donald Kobler.(5)

The Allman Brothers played here on August 22, 1981.
The Beach Boys performed here on September 4, 1981.

Music Mountain is the nation’s oldest and most distinguished continuing summer chamber music festival. It moved to Falls Village , CT sometime after 1982.

The property is for sale.



Jerry performed here on
6/16/82 Jerry Garcia Band




1.)^Miller, Scott, Scottshredder@gmail.com
2.)^Grine Felder, http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/culture/Grine_Felder.htm
3.)^Caesar, Sid, Caesar's Hours:My Life in Comedy, pg 34
4.)^Watanabe, Ruth, The Gordon Collection of String Music, vol.7, winter 1952, no. 2
5.)^Daytona Beach Morning Journal, 81-05-21, Old Group Dropped Abruptly, pg 17a

Music Hall, 270 Tremont Street, Boston, MA

1928 postcard

 Capacity-3600

Architect Clarence H. Blackall
French Rennaisance

In a 1918 Boston street directory, the site of the Wang Theater (Music Hall)., between the Wilbur Theater and Hollis St., was occupied by the New Richword Hotel.(Ron Salter-cinema treasures)

Built in 1925, the theater was originally intended to be named Capitol rather than Metropolitan. The building combines a 14-story Renaissance Revival office building of granite and cast stone, with an auditorium seating 4225 people. The interior is characterized by a series of vestibules and lobbies, highly decorated in marble, bronze, ornate gilding, and painted friezes.
According to Donald C. King's new book The Theatres of Boston: A Stage and Screen History, the Metropolitan opened on October 17, 1925, with 4407 seats. 

Photo courtesy of Noah Kern

Photo courtesy of Noah Kern

The interior, modeled after Garnier's Paris Opera and decorated in the Louis XIV style, was appropriately advertised as "the public castle" with "a thousand and one wonders" including the grand lobby with four tiers of prominades, spacious lounges, marble doorways, rose jasper pillers, tow 1800-lb. gold plated chandeliers, bronze details by the Gorham Company, and $10,000 in gems decorating the central mural painting by Edmund Philo Kellog.(1)

Photo courtesy of Noah Kern

The Metropolitan opened on October 17, 1925, with 4407 seats.(2)

The Metropolitan presented a first-run film, symphony orchestra overture and ballet, followed by vaudeville. It booked famous stars like Amos and Andy, Kate Smith, and Rudy Vallee, whose acts were not completely absorbed by the house's vastness and grandeur. Such huge auditoriums hastened the demise of vaudeville, whose very intimacy had been its greatest attraction.

'American Theatres of Today' Vol 1 (published in 1927) credits the following as architects of the Metropolitan Theatre;- Blackall, Clapp & Whittemore; C. Howard Crane, Kenneth Franzheim, George Nelson Meserve, Associated architects.(KenRoe-cinema treasures)

1929 photo courtesy of George Mann

The initial developer of the Metropolitan was Boston movie mogul Nathan Gordon. The cost was over $8,000,000. The theater employed a corps de ballet, a 100-voice chorus, and a 55-piece orchestra.

There was a 3100-pipe 4/26 Wurlitzer organ.

In October 1973, the instrument was not in playing condition. The Metropolitan Theater had been booking rock concerts, and at least at one of those concerts, some overly energetic fans broke into the Solo Chamber, walked through and crushed much of the Orchestral Oboe, Kinura, Krumet, and Solo Strings. Gerry Duffy and the late Dr. Gordon Potter to remove, crate, and have it shipped to Portland in December, 1974.  The four manual console from the Boston Metropolitan Theatre ended up as part of the Oriental Wurkitzer in the Portland Organ Grinder, a restaurant. It's since closed and the organ was sold and then parted out.(14) The console went to Garrett Shanklin of Groton, MA (30 miles west of Boston) for use in his 4/34 Conference Center installation. The 32 foot Diaphones went to Organ Stop Pizza in Mesa, AZ. (4) Bummer.

1973 damage

 They had forced open some shutter blades and promptly plopped their stoned-asses in the middle of the chest, grooving to some gawd-awful rock band.  The English Post Horn was also missing—but its 16’ octave was still there. The Brass Trumpet had been replaced with a Gottfried French Trumpet. Gerry Duffy and the late Dr. Gordon Potter removed, crated, and had it shipped to Portland in December, 1974.(14)

Along with the stage shows, the musicians and dancers presented tableaux, ballet, and operatic moments. Admission cost 35 to 75 cents. To amuse people waiting to be seated, there were musicians playing in the Grand Lobby, paintings by area artists hung on the walls, and ping pong and billiards downstairs. After the show, couples danced in the Grand Lounge, and in 1932 a small Art Deco restaurant called the Platinum Salon opened in the lounge area.

1930

Resident producer John Murray Anderson arranged his own stage shows.
A seating board and cadre of 40 well-mannered, costumed ushers made sure that no seat remained empty long.
There was a screening room in the Met with some 90 seats in it for showing new movies to "the trade". It was located upstairs somewhere at the front of the house. The space is still there, but the mini-cinema is long gone.(7)

In February 1938, the Metropolitan dropped its stage shows. 

By the 1940's costs were mounting and big name headliners became increasingly necessary to draw crowds. The Big Bands, including Duke Ellington, the Dorsey Brothers, Benny Goodman, and Gene Krupa, played here. Bob Hope, Al Jolson, and Dorothy Lamour performed at war bond drives. After world War II attendance declined due to the impact of TV. Stage shows were abandoned for a while, but after the Boston Opera House was destroyed in the late 1950's, the theatre became attractive to large touring productions.

The Film Daily Yearbook 1941 gives a seating capacity of 4,330, by 1950 it was listed as 4,100 seats in the F.D.Y.(Ken Roe-cinema treasures)

1947

1959

The attendance record at the Metropolitan was broken in the early fifties when Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis were booked live on stage for a week. The shows were continuous every day and featured Les Brown & his Orchestra, Helen O'Connell and Gene Sheldon. The crowds were almost uncontrollable. There is a secret door leading from the dressing rooms directly into the downstairs Mens' Lounge. This is how Martin & Lewis escaped the mobs at the Stage Door. They simply mingled with the patrons walking out of the Lounge and out into the street.(Chet Dowling-cinema treasures)

According to an unpublished draft manuscript by Douglas Shand-Tucci entitled The Puritan Muse (available in the Fine Arts room of the Boston Public Library), the last show as the Metropolitan was on May 31, 1962.

Over the years it moved from the M&P chain to ATC to New England Theaters, and finally to Sack.(Ron Newman-cinema treasures)

The Metropolitan was acquired by the Ben Sack chain and reopened on July 13, 1962 as the Music Hall with "Boys Night Out" with James Garner and Kim Novak. Brad Roberts-cinema treasures)

During Sack's operation, the Music Hall presented occasional road stage productions, opera, and ballet, as well as movies.(Ron Newman-cinematreasures)
The theatre hosted such groups as the Bolshoi Ballet, the Boston Ballet, and the Metropolitan Opera. However, stage depth and production facilities were inadequate, and many touring shows were forced to bypass the Boston audience.
At that time in 1962 Sack was bringing nostalgia back to the theater, had installed huge bright red velvet curtains, and the movies were preceded by 'Louie Wier at the Mighty Wurlitzer'-the huge pipe organ rose on an elevator from the pit, an ancient Louie played things like the 'Skaters Waltz' with a spotlight on him, then sank back into the pit. All that heaven camp in 1962. He used to have Italian tenors occasionally perform between films also.

Ben Sack guaranteed 20th Century Fox $200,000 to obtain "Cleopatra" for the Music Hall, a fortune of money in those days. In advertising the film, a big deal was made over the fact that all seats were in the orchestra; but Sack and his manager A. Alan Friedberg - who later ousted Sack from his own company - notoriously sold "strip tickets" in the balcony on weekends when demand was high. These tickets were very unlikely reported in the ticket manifest that went to Fox, helping Sack get a quicker return on his "guarantee."(Bill Liberman-cinema treasures)

The world premiere of "Torn Curtain" which Hitchcock scheduled for 9AM on a Wednesday morning, to cut a 50 layer cake for his 50th film (not surprisingly, Newman and Andrews did not attend). (Brad Roberts-cinema treasures)

By the late 60's rock concerts started up there and it was a perfect venue to see great rock acts before the era of stadium rock. Some of the great concerts  there were Jefferson Airplane (a few times), Neil Young (an all acoustic set in 1970), Joni Mitchell, The Moody Blues, Linda Ronstadt and more.(Brad Roberts-cinematreasures)

In 1974 the Boston Redevelopment Authority identified the Music Hall as a theatre with potential to serve the city and suggested to the owners, the New England Medical Center Hospital, that a non-profit group by established to lease and renovate the facility. Metroplitan Center, Inc. was incorporated in 1976.
The Boston Globe and Herald archives, I see that the theatre officially changed over from Sack Theatres' Music Hall to the Metropolitan Center on July 7, 1980.(Ron Newman-cinema treasures)

In 1983 the roof was seriously damaged, and the theatre was about to be demolished. A plea went out to the community to save the theatre, and Dr. An Wang of computer fame answered the plea with a gift of $4,000,000. The theatre was renamed in his honor. The(Ron Newman-cinema treasures)

For the record, it's probably worth clarifying that the Music Hall was renamed The Metropolitan Center in the 1970's, then (as noted in a previous post) renamed The Wang Center following Dr. Wang's donation in the mid-1980s. (7)

And on February 22, 1991 (a Friday night) it squeezed in a special showing of Ben-Hur with Charlton Heston sitting in the audience. he stayed for the entire film, although the 70mm print was a blown up, cropped version of the original Cinemascope film.(Dan Petitpas.cinematreasures)
A shame that the Wang isn't viable as a film house, because it is far from ideal as a venue for live theater. While the large seating capacity---more than twice the size of a typical Broadway house---means a high gross potential, the acoustics and sightlines are mediocre and charging near-Broadway prices for the rear orchestra and mezzanine makes little sense due to the considerable distance from the stage (bring binoculars).(7)

The Wang Theatre (formerly the Metropolitan Theatre), along with the Shubert Theatre, the two theatres operated by the non-profit Wang Center for the Performing Arts has been converted into a grandiose performing arts center that, until spring of 2005, delighted movie audiences with ocasional showings of classic films.

Conrad Schmitt Studios restored the elegant decoration, gilded moldings, murals, scagliola and marbleized surfaces of the Renaissance Revival and Baroque style theatre, which is one of the largest historic theatres in New England. Prior to the restoration, layers of dirt and darkened varnish muted the splendor of the original finishes. Entire murals were missing. Other pieces clung to the ceiling.
An investigation of the original colors and finishes was conducted by CSS as a guide for the restoration work. To commence the project, years of accumulated dirt was lifted from the surface of the four-story lobby, followed by the application of paint, gold and aluminum leaf and tinted varnishes. The newly restored lobby then served as a large-scale visual sample to encourage donations for the restoration of the entire theatre. Two teams of artists and decorators worked around the clock to complete the restoration of the 3,600-seat main house in just 18 weeks.
A theater whose beauty is really the 'big' thing, the Wang Theatre has state-of-the-art sound technology along with beautiful decorations and gold plated figures. It also features a large stage, with the auditorium containing a 1,500 seat balcony, a mezzanine, and 20 box seats along its edge.

There were, and still are, two brass-doored elevators to take people up to the top of the balcony. They were the old kind that required an elevator operator.

It is still possible to go from the lobby to back stage by way of a passageway in the basement which leads from the lounges at the lower level to the basement under the stage.(4)

Irregularly-shaped Renaissance Revival "palazzo skyscraper" with symetrical, 11-bay Tremont facade. Two-story colonnade of engaged fluted Greek Ionic columns at level 2-3. Shaft of building organized by rising piers, recessed spandrals and paired metal window units, with ornament concentrated at level 4 and 5. Building terminated by two-story colonnade of engaged Corinthian pilasters at level 12 and 13, plus denti cornice and roof cresting of palmettes and theatre masks.

The Music Hall/Metropolitan is highly significant as the largest theatre in Boston history and one of the largest in the country, as the best example of the sumptuous "movie palace" of the roaring twenties and as the last of Clarence Blackall's 14 Boston theatres.

The theatre reputedly cost 8.5 million, seats 4200-4400, and is housed in a large office building, first to be constructed in Boston under a new height limit of 14 stories.

The Orpheum and the old Music Hall are four blocks apart.(15)

Jerry performed here on
4/7/71 New Riders Of The Purple Sage and Grateful Dead
4/8/71 New Riders Of The Purple Sage(3) and Grateful Dead
12/1/71 Grateful Dead
12/2/71 Grateful Dead
9/15/72 Grateful Dead
9/16/72 Grateful Dead
11/30/73 Grateful Dead
12/1/73 Grateful Dead
12/2/73 Grateful Dead
6/9/76 Grateful Dead
6/10/76 Grateful Dead
6/11/76 Grateful Dead
6/12/76 Grateful Dead
3/14/78 Jerry Garcia Band
11/13/78 Grateful Dead
11/14/78 Grateful Dead(2)





1.)^Boston Theatre District: A Walking Tour", Boston Preservation Alliance, 1993.
2.)^http://www.deadlists.com/default.asp
3.)^http://www.nrpsmusic.com/music/1971.html
4.)^Salter, Ron, 2011-11-08, http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/29
5.)^Andy, comments, http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/29
6.)^Newman, Ron, comments, 2008-09-26, http://cinematreasures.org/comments?page=2&theater_id=29
7.)^EricH, comments, 2005-01-04, http://cinematreasures.org/comments?page=5&theater_id=29
8.)^danpepitas, comments, 2008-08-28, http://cinematreasures.org/comments?page=2&theater_id=29
9.)^Borisbadenov, comments, 2004-12-25, http://cinematreasures.org/comments?page=6&theater_id=29
10.^KenRoe, comments, 2004-11-02, http://cinematreasures.org/comments?page=6&theater_id=29
11.)^BraqdRoberts, comments, 2002-05-13, http://cinematreasures.org/comments?page=6&theater_id=29
12.)^bliberman, comments, 2008-09-22, http://cinematreasures.org/comments?page=2&theater_id=29
13.)^King, Donald, The Theatres of Boston: A Stage and Screen History
14.)^Hedberg, David, Theater Organ, American Theatre Organ Society, Inc.
15.)^Keenan, Walter, Garcia historian.