Carousel Ballroom
The Fillmore West in 1970; note the billboard advertising Workingman's Dead
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| Former names | 'The Carousel Ballroom', 'El Patio' |
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| Address | 10 South Van Ness Avenue |
| Location | San Francisco, California |
| Coordinates | 37°46′30″N 122°25′07″W / 37.7749953°N 122.4187463°WCoordinates: 37°46′30″N 122°25′07″W / 37.7749953°N 122.4187463°W |
| Construction | |
| Opened | July 5, 1968 |
| Closed | July 4, 1971 |
| Demolished | No, building is now a Honda Dealership |
Fillmore West was a historic rock and roll music venue in San Francisco, California which became famous under the direction of concert promoter Bill Graham from 1968-1971. Named after Graham's original "Fillmore" location at the intersection of Fillmore Street and Geary Boulevard, it stood at the southwest corner of Market Street and South Van Ness Avenue. There is now a Honda automobile dealership at that location.
The Carousel Ballroom was originally a big band dance palace. Later, Fillmore West booked primarily African American performers as part of the Chitlin Circuit, prior to 1967. Blues legend B.B. King played before his first primarily white audience there in February 1967, with Bill Graham promoting.
The Carousel Ballroom was for a few months in 1968 operated by a collective formed by the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Big Brother and the Holding Company, as a social/musical "laboratory experiment". The "six-month run may well have corresponded with the height of the whole '60s Haight-Ashbury/San Francisco thing." Bill Graham then took it over.
After two years at the Fillmore Auditorium, because of a deteriorating neighborhood and the modest capacity of the hall, Bill Graham moved his prime concert location in July 1968 to this larger venue, which was less than one mile from the original Fillmore at 1805 Geary Boulevard. He called this venue as Fillmore West (in contrast with Graham's Fillmore East auditorium in New York City).
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