 Okay, well we would love to know some of your early beginnings. I'm real interested. Where were you born? I Was actually born in Hadesbury I was born at St. Joseph's Hospital, which is the big I guess it's a retirement home or Something up the hill top of the hill Fringe of the Hadesbury. Were we living at that time? My parents were living up on Twin Peaks, I think What were your parents names and where were they from? My father's name was Herbert Resner and my mother's name was Dorothy They're both Russian Jews both their families immigrated from the Ukraine Around the turn of the century Both their families went to Chicago. Both their families wound up migrating to Southern, California My dad went to Pasadena High and then he went on to the University of California As did my mother so it's kind of one of those synchronicity things that nobody knew was happening and What kind of work did you father do? He was an attorney. He went to Bolt Hall at Cal graduated in 1935. I think 34 or 35 and You know, this was a time of labor unrest in the United States and in San Francisco, you know, the general strike was not long after that and the first thing he did when he got out of school was go to work for the campaign to free Tom Looney who was a You know cause celeb of that period exactly, you know, and in fact, I was named after Tom Looney My my given name is Tom. I changed I changed it in 1966 amazing We were an only child. Do you have any brothers and sisters a brother Bill who died in 1981? And I have a sister Virginia who lives here in the hay It was four years When you were going to school you went to school in San Francisco. I I went to Presidio Hill School good commie school over here Presidio Heights Um I did a lot of the you know kids of the lefties back in those days and this is in the you know mid to late 40s um, I went to the u.s. Grand elementary school in pacific Heights And uh, then we moved to Los Angeles in 1950 And I went to a series of schools there came back to San Francisco My dad my mother died in 1955 my father relocated relocated back here around 57 and went to low-high school. Oh And then the old low high school high school on haystreet, right? Right And um went there for my freshman year and then My family life was a little weird my father had a crazy girlfriend And really didn't want kids around and My brother and I went to santa fell military academy, which was a military school across the bay in santa fell and Then I came back to uh Lowell for my senior here graduated from all amazing. Did you um I've talked for any higher education or college or any I I was into journalism at the time and I uh, I was actually the editor of the the red and white the Or one of the editors that you know the whole the little your book was the editor of the paper and got a journalism scholarship and to the university in Nevada and Reno of all places um And I went there for a year and then I met Allen Ginsburg Poetry and Miles Davis music and that was the end of that When when did you first uh start coming to the ateshwary? Well Just a quick little bit of background there, you know the In 65 Of course, we had this whole rock and roll scene Unleashed here in san francisco, you know the matrix and You know the trips festival, you know Long Sherman hall and the other thing down, you know the granddad south market the Carousel ballroom Which became the film our west and west and you know chat and bill and all that and sure We were very very excited like everybody was about You know the dance concert scene as it was called then And we decided we wanted to do shows ourselves. However, the available venues were taken when you say we who are you speaking of? We being uh, the gentleman in this photograph Let's see if we can Display it Where you want it You can get across it I have to look at it again to tell you to tell you left or right but in any of that it's uh Me my brother bill resner loser green gene williams who goes by the name of reggie and Jim wilson What was this photo taken about? When was this photo taken about? This photo was taken by jim marshall in probably 1967 Yeah, and uh Can I put it down? Yes, wonderful. Um Yeah, we were looking for a place. I can't remember what places we might have looked at or sure, you know explored But on one legendary day in 1966. I think around march or april Um reggie williams was tripping through the hay quite literally on some, you know unknown amount of Yes, and uh came walking down the hill and on the hay street and Um, lo and behold, there was a hay theater All boarded up like this photograph and uh You know that was a Might even have looked the way it looks now because this was a photo taken before you were involved with it Right. It was a theater that was closed for a long time. You know what happened in that theater when it was open What kind of a theater was yeah, well we know a little and a couple other people you'll be talking to can tell you more but um Of course, you know, it was a depression the depression era movie palace, you know with the The all the motifs of you know goddesses and gods and chariots and all of that painted on the ceiling and the sconces on the walls and and you know that environment And I guess it had been a successful theater in the 30s in the 40s and Up into the 50s when the hate itself started to fall on hard times. Sure and uh, you know, which is well documented and uh There were less patrons and then uh went to a succession of Occupants not owners that theater itself was owned by the Spreckles family. Gotcha, you know Very wealthy sugar family. Yes and hit in specific heights and uh They um They leased it out. I guess to the succession of people. Uh, it had been a storefront Baptist church, I believe You know a black church And then it had been a gay theater and uh Maybe maybe I guess it was probably the first gay theater. Wow In san francisco showing what kind of movie that I had no idea We found a lot of uh movie posters, you know when we took over the place, but uh, they were all you know Standard variety right john wane and uh, right, you know bogey and what have you So do you know when by any chance would you know when that theater opened or when it was built or anything? You know, I don't really I probably did it one time, but no longer. Do you know the history? uh Actually reggie williams is sort of the street theater Archivist if you will and he's he's the guy who'll know if anybody does exactly So here here reggie spots this theater and uh one day he's skipping on h street and yes, so reggie I'm not quite I guess what happened is he went into the hardware store Which was mcfarland's hardware, which was in them at the bottom of the masonic temple Which was old building next door and then a masonic hall right and uh later became the ibeam Exactly, right okay, and reggie discovered uh That mcfarland had the keys mcfarland I you know the theater was for rent and some mcfarland was able to show it to people so reggie went in And uh, the place was you know pretty wrecked. I mean it had been Vandalized, you know all the copper wire had been ripped out of the theater Uh, the whole place was in disrepair. There was water as he tells it, you know like Several inches of water, you know standing in front of the stage And uh, it had to be a little love. Oh my goodness. Oh, yes And you know I'm sure it was moldy as can be and dank and dark and all of that right, but of course reggie, you know Instantly digitalized something much grander than that And came back and informed probably my brother bill. Um, you know, they were they were very tight and About what he found and within weeks we had leased it for the princely sum of $500 a month. Wow. Yeah Which won't get you too far in the entertainment business these days So was that the amount of you had to pay for the rent every month? I think it was 500 It might have been selling but the number that I remember is 500 Amazing. Yeah, but in those days you could rent the whole house for $100. Yeah Well, and we all you know, we when we moved into the neighborhood, which we did we lived up on downy street Had a flat up on downy, you know the alley like street up the hill and and that was probably 50 or 75 God knows, you know, it wasn't much So, um What if you personally and there was many people involved you personally Um, were you bitten by any of what was going on on the street? Were you part of the wave? Did you feel Some reasons to be there. There were there were there were a couple of ways on hate of immigration if you will to hate street, you know and A couple of generations are more than a couple Of uh, bohemians less statement as let's use that as the generic term, you know Because you had your beads with whom, you know, I had hung hung out when I bailed out of the university in Nevada You know, I had made friends in north beach and and now these are the people that were, you know Ten years older than us And and in our group, you know, we were all born around, you know, 1942 43 During the war And you know, we're the age of Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney and you know all of those people And we're kind of like the it interregnum if you will between the beats and the hippies And you know, I mean there was no such thing as a hippie And we were just people that thought it would be really cool to not to have a place to Put on shows and had no clue of what hate street was going to turn into Right, you know, thank god And uh What was um real quickly uh in a few lines some of the problems before opening Well, the biggest problem was we didn't have any money, you know, literally and uh, we went out foraging and we each of us had a specific role um Loser was not there for the entire time because the loser took a sabbatical He might want to tell you about or not. Yeah, but uh Bill and Reggie were kind of like the quote business guys unquote, right and Uh, I was the person who booked the bands and so I was getting to know the bands and figuring out of course I thought we were going to open in a couple months People up and they're going oh, yeah Was it between finding it and actually opening it? I'm sorry. How how long was it between actually finding the location between april of 1966 and um July of 1967 so I mean literally took us uh, you know 15 months To you know fix up the place. I mean I have um Then finding the money for rent and supplies. It was it was literally a weekly thing just like everybody else was going through Just trying to live right But what we did was uh started going out and finding kindred spurious who thought it would be a cool thing Uh, you know to uh participate in and we got a lot of investors. We had I don't know how many you know More than 10 maybe 20, but they included rock bands the quick silver messenger service non-poltean and You know those guys sure were investors big brother in the holding company. Julius carp and those people sure um Jay ward, believe it or not the the guy that created bullwinkle, you know um Eventually albert grossman, you know, it was a kind of a word of mouth thing There was a guy connected with us named steven white who had been a screenwriter in hollywood for the bob hope show Uh, in fact, I have another picture sure Here's a photograph that was taken in the back lot behind the masonic temple and hold it to the your fingers to the edges Yeah, sorry Where was this taken now in the back lot This was taken behind the theater next door to the theater behind the masonic hall But this this is you know A group shot. I've got a whole bunch of these and different poses Of people who were involved helping us put the theater together and you know build it and rebond it and all that support. Yes And um You know, it was a pretty crazy crew but in any case we uh recruited a bunch of people To give us money, you know, I think I guess I imagine that steve white is who turned its on to uh um Jay ward because the hollywood connection right but you know through the rock and roll bands, of course we got in and there were, you know uh Various pot dealers and other people, you know, certainly came forward in the spirit of Korean, you know giving and Help to finance the straight theater, you know, we rounded up Somewhere around a hundred thousand dollars during the course of this experience well And um, I mean the whole place needed renovating but the real story and the it's a hilarious story About the straight theater Is that number one the city of san francisco didn't want us to be there Some things never change Right, you know, they did not want that because at this time now it was starting to build the whole Crazy psychedelic rock and roll scene And they did not want a dance hall on hay street. It was going to attract all these characters too Sure to the city um Or it would help Help attract So they made the permit process, you know beyond hard. They made the permit process impossible and So on the one hand, we were busily trying to remodel the place as I told you the wiring had all been ripped out We wound up eventually we we had a guy named Brent danger field who was our sound man And and I think I'll let lucid green tell you the story of Brent danger field because I'll remind you about it. You can do you can do justice by that one But you know Brent besides being golden throated radio announcer fancied himself an electrician Just about anything else you could chemist whatever, you know, he might be and uh Uh, he tried and filled of course to remodel to rewire the theater We had to hire a company named ever ready electric It was ever ready to take our money And uh, you know, but the city kept imposing new requirements Sure, and ultimately they required that we had to have I think it was 64 um 8 by 8 or 10 by 10 compartments Underneath the dance floor that we were constructing in the front of the stage You know with a fire sprinkler in each compartment and they were double walls and you know She'd rock and you know, I mean it could have all been like little pens or animals or a fish or something So how did you get around the situation of the permit to open that's so that's that's the big story I mean first week we went to the to the To the police department to get a dance permit. They said no So we went to the board of permit appeals and um, actually Let me get a place something take your time Look Because as you guys know the board of permit appeals is the arbiter and in fact decision-making Uh group and now in 2005 we've just got a music uh Commission which has never been in San Francisco. So times are changing 2005 when issues like this come up You have now 40 years. Yes. Now start to have some support um It was a real battle, you know the city was was uh Against us the media was chronicling this, you know, the whole book of clippings, but in any event it came down to this dramatic you know Hearing had a final hearing because I think we had two. I think there was you know One when they said okay, well, we'll think about it and come back another one And it got to the point where we had such people as dame judith anderson Who was luther greens step mom? dame judith anderson was you know, one of the great ladies Of of the theater And dame judith literally came to The hearing and testified about how The straight theater would help to bring culture to these uh, these huddles and masses And uh, so what was the final one happened? The uh, the upshot was that permit was denied How were you able to open and uh, well We were we were pretty we were stymied for a while. We had we wanted to open for the place was basically ready to go We had a beautiful sound system. We had which was supplied by the way by ausley stanley, you know grateful dead fame We had a cyclorama screen You know went from almost the floor practically all the way up to the ceiling went from 180 degrees around You know, it was a fantastic place for its time It was cooler than the film or in that respect because it was designed For the people, you know, there was a balcony, you know for the light shows and all that stuff And reggie williams by the way did the light shows Which was called reginald and straight lightning And uh, did you remember brian epps being there doing some lights sometimes? Yeah I must know we're talking about how did you finally open? Oh, yeah, so We wound up actually having our opening weekend with folding chairs, you know On the dance floor and we had you know, there were still theater seats. We didn't pull them all out There was you know, number of rows of bmc's and then there was a dance floor We had folding chairs in the dance floor, which was a lot of fun But we you know had a great opening day weekend. I don't have that poster But you know the dead plate and big brother played and Not as they played and a while fall, you know a lot of you know Famous bands at the time. Yeah, and uh While we're you know, people are sitting in seats, you know, this is Really cool. That couldn't go on too long. So Somebody dancing in their seats And I don't know who who came up with this idea, but it sounds was it was it may have been luther gree That there was a way that we could get by this and and open the theater for dancing and that was to become a dance school Great idea dancing academy What were the musicians on the stage dance teachers? Well, when that finally happened And I don't know the date and maybe and maybe luther can tell you that When we had because that that was the really monumental, uh, you know To new mom this whole thing when we opened the straight theater school of the dance And when people lined up, you know to buy their not their tickets, but to register to become Students See Oh, here's live here's ruther green and and dam judith anderson's you can see see luther luther was a front man, okay Now You know one thing that in one book about the hey charlie perry's book The uh, just called hate ashberry. I believe he referred to luther as movie star handsome luther green Anyway That's wonderful. So the first show is all bands playing and people on seats and that evolved Keeping it straight a dancing lesson That's great He's a no one bill Graham Got his dancehall keepers permit He had a lot of trouble. I was bill grabs our house And uh, he couldn't let children people under 16 in kind of changed the law through that whole thing and It was very difficult in those days. They don't call it dancehall keepers permit anymore But used to be to open a venue and have people in there The dancehall keepers permit It was very archaic as all the rules were in place from the 20s and the 30s So anyway, this it it was wild. I mean because here are the police. Here's the district attorney Crawling all over the place consulting, you know, the code and a lawyer at the time was a young man named Garrett howling there Still around The The DA of san francisco. So terry was there to talk to them and explain to them that, you know, dance schools did not require Uh permit. No, and actually the way they thought about legislating You know requirement for dance halls to be licensed. I mean, I'm sorry dance schools to be licensed And uh, that didn't fly and so, you know, they kind of just eventually looked the other way and You know, there was so much going on out here In the hey, it's so much crazier. It's going on at least, you know, I mean, we were trying to pretend like we were a legitimate business Right, you know, we weren't camping in doorways, you know, I mean and you know sleeping in the park So at least they knew where we were we weren't going Exactly Ask them about them do the dance Um, I have a question. I'm gonna ask you I'm gonna be we have we have we have about 10 minutes left on this And you know when we're gonna have you join A group interview in a little while okay more information But I'd like to know about the new dance. That's very curious And then I also would like to know maybe two or three of your favorite events that happen there Well, that's definitely one of them Okay, share a little bit of that with me and uh, then I'd really like to know Um, a little bit more about you besides the straight theater. I'll I'll try not to digress too much No problem The new dance occurred um, and I couldn't I tried to find the police report because it's it it's a massive piece You know, it says they on a police report. They have a line that says weapon Tool or method used and it says dancing in the new And um, I managed to ban at that time called lowman joy While I was still working for the theater and I was also the master ceremony chef and um All the joy fancy themselves the guitar player was a big tall African-american guy named Roger who uh, sort of fancy himself, you know, kind of cross between Jimmy Hendricks and Pete Townsend or something like that, you know, they like to destroy their instruments every night Of course, I had no money that made but um They had started talking about wouldn't it be cool if you know We took our clothes off and got the audience to take their clothes off as well And at a certain point That's what they did, you know um, they played that, uh I forget what band was it 13th floor elevator. You're gonna miss me, right? You know, I think that was that was their big their big number, you know that they played While we were bashing their instruments and They uh, you know one of them probably roger said come on people get loose come on take it off Take your clothes off and the police report as they describe it. They came by the theater It was after hours the doors were locked They banged on the door. They were a little diamond shape, you know, uh windows in the doors Trying to attract the our security guard in a call the special And um, and special would not respond, you know Finally the special came to the door. We pushed uh, we wouldn't say pushed, you know, we we entered this theater We walked down we walked down the aisle there were two cops and and we observed, you know, uh A dozen or more patrons dancing in various states of disrobement, etc. So um I'm not sure how they stopped the music. Maybe the music just stopped on the band saw, you know cops coming and Yeah, of course, they got their clothes on about the hell out of there. None of them got busted, right? But I got busted And uh, and one of the patrons who'd taken off his clothes some poor guy They're in his skitties, you know, and they're uh, he was a he was a school teacher from from Campbell or someplace And so they busted him and me and walk us over to park station Of course, I'm I'm clothed, you know This poor guy is wearing his shorts In the fog in the dark, you know at night and one in the morning or whatever in June or July they take you to jail And uh, yeah, they booked us both for you know, it's a nice crime I mean, I guess I have I guess I'm a sex offender, you know But somehow I know Right In public, yeah, anyway, basically the charges got dropped But it was a wonderful person To me, this is just a statement of the time People were taking their clothes off. They were they were Dancing in the streets and music the light shows the I trying to find a better way to love each other instead of fighting and finding things they agree on Um, I also know that you've done some work in the recording industry As well and uh been involved with mix magazine. Is it right? Well, I mean, I I remained involved with music when When you know straight we bailed out of here just just to put a cap around it We released the theater and rented it to matthew case You know, that's a whole anyway Founder and the guy that you know owned their name and all of that And matthew promoted some, you know concerts under the name of the banner of san francisco sound, which he also of course hit trademark And um, but we left And he wasn't here that long before you know, he closed and then we boarded up Um, so meant to catch the cage took it over after you guys I don't know that he Kept it Right, uh, maybe one of the other guys can address it because I don't remember Anyway, we migrated to pacific heights On film or street where we got a a storefront Which had been a frame shop And behind the frame shop, I mean behind the store from my sister opened a And a friend opened a used clothing boutique and it called paisley penguin vine trippery I'll be the first me the first counterculture You know On upper film, this is film on clay, right next door to the clay theater And uh behind it was the shop where they you know the framing people work, you know And it was just that just concrete floors and the skylights and all that kind of thing And um, we put in a rehearsal studio Um, rented it some some of our friends who were bands and nick and nick ravenitis Alice stewarton snake and uh People like that and then um At a certain point one of the bands that have played a lot of the street Who were good friends of ours with santana And uh my Father had actually when they had left grand my father became their attorney. My dad was a lawyer My dad negotiated their their second contract with columbia We were very tight with santana. So santana rented the place And spent on this is during the apraxis period and i looked upstairs You know while these guys were rehearsing apraxis. I know every note of that album By heart Anyway, they uh, I you have so many stories to tell I would love to keep hearing them I'll wrap this really quickly they They spent a lot of money to make a beautiful recording studio. Unfortunately. It wasn't a soundproof recording studio And next door there was a sculptor a society sculptor who was tip-tapping away on his marble and Or metal or whatever he was doing every day hearing he raised hell with the landlord They had to leave I wound up with a recording studio And a friend of mine got named billy roberts who wrote the song hey joe Who i managed and I started you know, we took over this place and started recording in there Uh, he eventually moved on I invested a lot of money and you know put a studio together And then uh at a certain point couldn't make it I'm living doing that and went to work for mix magazine which started in 1977 You already had this background management. Yeah, so I had a mix magazine. You know was a was a director at recording studios So is your a big part of you is it audio skills that you have uh as far as well You know, I mean I'm a writer and an editor. I had remember I had been in the first place And I worked into chronicles a copy boy with jills with Not solid but john stanley and you know some of those guys in the chronicle Um, so I had those skills, but I actually you know became their first dad salesman And eventually became the publisher and then the editor-in-chief of mix magazine Great magazine, you know through the industry for years It's the magazine for recording people around the world And then back in uh 96 I couldn't you know magazines had been sold like four times. I couldn't take the corporate idiots who were running it And I resigned as publisher and and took over a foundation that we had started Called the mix foundation for excellence in audio Which produces a big award show for you for the recording industry called the technical excellence and creativity awards or tech You have them in different areas in different places And that's what I do. I produce the show. What is the way does it have a website? It does. It's a mix foundation dot war Um last year we had it in san francisco the show and we honored george lucas That's great and jimmy jam and terry luis and uh, are you involved with any other websites that we should know about? Are you involved with any of the websites? Does the straight theater have a website? The straight theater has a website The straight theater doesn't have a website. Reggie williams has a website The straight dot com. Okay, and um, you know, but to the extent that there's anything out there It's it's that's what it is and then it's interesting sure It's you know, it's the thing is it's still there. You know, I mean it still has the flavor I will say that it has a really good 1967 because of anybody seeing this in the future Has information has or somebody that's worked there or been there. There's at least a place to connect you Yeah to uh, yeah, well and reggie sells posters. Okay. So part of it is that he's merchandising poster Of course He did manage to to wind up with a lot of posters from the street and by the way I have a number of straight theater posters I'm going to invite you back in a little while Okay group discussion and a lot of the things you brought and we will make sure that all of them are seen And uh, it's an honor to have you here and my name is rebecca nickles and um, I am privileged to have you here A documenting history firsthand Uh, this is a very very important project that we're in the middle of Documenting the 60s in the haydash berry If it weren't for people like yourself and other people you worked with a lot of the magic Um, would not have happened people would have danced to To this song to that music, but one of the things that you did and many others that we haven't even gotten to Help focus people in their day to what they were going to be doing and helped create the normality and the threat of sanity through The flexible days of knows what we're going to do today. You could conduct these interviews for 100 years Exactly And not get it all out But we're so pleased to have someone that has been there can tell it from his feeling his his appreciation and his commitment to to building something and That is where we are now. We are we're living in the the the From all the actions that have taken place where we all are and where we are right now And so we're so pleased to have you here and we're going to have you back in a little while to to make it uh to have the rest of uh more conversation between all of you And uh, I just want to thank you so much to be part of this and besides asking you back We will be asking you back again. Um, this is a long going project. Um, documenting all of This information and one is documented. It will be made available for research And uh one last question 50 years from now somebody watches this tape Oh god and sees where someone like you Seeing a venue like this a theater like this no money no anything but a lot of hopes and dreams What word or sentence of advice could you give young people listening to this video as they will be 50 100 years from now I'll just borrow from nike Just do it Thank you so much