 I would love to welcome all of you here this afternoon. We have a real special treat. We have three of the staff that worked at the straight theater here with us. I want to welcome, hello, Resner. I want to welcome Ginny Resner. And I want to welcome our Luther, welcome Luther. I'm going to have a private nickname for me. My name is Rebecca Nicholas. I'll be moderating this. And I got to let you know what a treat this is. Just having the three of you on film together is historical. A lot, too. Well, you're more than alive. Looks like you've got a lot, a lot of running and a lot of stuff to keep doing and inspired by it, I'll tell you totally. So here we are today in 2005, talking about the 60s and the Haydash Berry. And of course, you can't talk about the 60s and the Haydash Berry without talking about the straight theater. That was a loved part of the 60s and part of the Haydash Berry. And just about anyone and everyone that was there in that time passed through those doors, has additional stories to tell. But now that we have you all together, we'd like to know the truth. And as you see it, so I'm going to turn it over to you. And I would love to, in the very beginning, just through the memorabilia that you have with you, be able to tell some stories, share some experiences, talk to each other, remind each other, oh, you forgot this. You forgot that. You know, it's the way it is. And I mean, right here on this stage, I think there's more memorabilia than exists totally on the straight theater. We've already learned a lot of things. We learned about the hard work in opening it. We learned about many, many volunteers through the times. I'm way interested in any photos you have, any information, any names that you can give us, any events, things that happened, memories, funny stories, private information, whatever you want to tell us. We really appreciate it. So I'll start with you, Noel. Well, I get a good starting point. I already showed this picture before. Sure. I'd like to see it again for sure. On the outside of the theater. That's the street scene back in the 60s. While we were still putting the place together. That's great. We have painted the marquee here. No, that's exactly where I was going. One side of the marquee was painted. There was a design that was penciled out by Dennis, your friend, Dennis Stearns. Tell us about Dennis Stearns. Well, Dennis was, he was a young painter. He wanted to, he had a design. He wanted to paint these flowers, and this really beautiful vines. Scrolling vines on the marquee of the street theater. And he was up there one day in painting, and he came down and someone had borrowed the ladder. So we spent the rest of the afternoon up there trying to figure out how to get down. He finally figured it out. Did he have a Bosun's chair? He used the Bosun's chair to get up to the third top. And he ended up painting. But you know, like a lot of things there, it was an unfinished, you know, production. Because it was always a question of getting, not just getting money, but people finding the time, you know, because it's not like today when, okay, we're all going to work now and we're going to get this thing done. It's like, you know, you might be on your way to the theater to paint the marquee and meet some beautiful young woman with, you know, some LSD and you were gone, you know, any for a week, right? So, but the point is that only the one side of it ever got painted. And so that this side, you know, was blank. Which was the side one? The, the. West side. Side that would be the west side did not get painted. The side as you were coming down Hate Street did get painted. I don't know that it actually got completely finished. You know. Wonderful. I love it. You know. But Dennis now designs, you know, professional recording studios. He's a master contractor, you know, genius kind of guy actually. Amazing. I think it's important to be able to also kind of give people an idea of what the structure of the theater is at that point in time. Luther created a drawing that kind of outlined the layout of the theater, who was owned and operated by what the productions were and what the audio is. And it's, it's quite a, I think an interesting little piece and an historical piece because it really does give us some context. Platinum. Platinum. Her tilted towards us. Towards you. Perfect. It's, you know, this is pretty small and it's hard to see. So what, what was that used for? Was that used as a handout or? What did you create? Yeah. I have no idea. I don't remember. See, that's what he used to do, you know, in the middle of the night, you know, he'd just start drawing something. Because Luther's a very accomplished artist. Yes. He would have been a hugely successful cartoonist if that was all he wanted to do. Right. Because he really had a genius for that, you know. Well, like I found in his interview very humble. So I would love to point out some of it. So just to, to give you an idea of some of the physical reality of what we were dealing with, it was a 4,200 square foot dance stage and auditorium area. And, What was its capacity, did you know? What was the capacity? I think you could get like 12,000. 12,000. But that was only after, see, it was a movie theater. Sure. And we tore all the seats out in order to create a dance. Absolutely. Half the seats. And so, did we end up with 4,200 square feet? I don't know. Well, it sort of says to. Yeah, that's what it says to. Yes. In any event. It must be true. Okay. Owned and operated by Jim Wilson, Bruce Darzel. Is that right? Darzel. Darzel. Gene Williams, who is Reggie, Bill Resner, Hillel Resner, Brent Dangerfield, Luther Green, and a cast of thousands. Sure. And it had a projection room and electronics lab. And the productions were, are of the highest quality, include movies, concerts, plays, dances, environmental circus, experimental trips. Director Luther Green, Associate Director Hillel. We've got the stage manager, master ceremonies. You were master ceremonies as too. Who are a lot of hats? You wore a lot of hats, right? And then we also had a school of performing arts. There was dance, modern dance, drama, mime, children's workshop. And it says it had the greatest system in the universe, audio system in the universe. It featured a six channel surrounding sound at 200 watts. Sure, you got surround sound, 1967. Exactly. How did you go about getting equipment, the audio equipment anyway? What did you get all that stuff from? We got some A7s, I'll take A7s that were loaned to us by Owsley. Stanley Owsley. Yes. And they augmented our, our little university speakers that we had there before. And I think eventually he took them back. So. Well, we always had the speakers. We had some speakers. We did, yeah. As a matter of fact. We had to have had some speakers. Two of the, yeah. Two of the A7s in the old studio. So I took them with me. The really odd thing is that there was a sound booth that was down to the right of the stage as you faced the stage. Typically at a concert, the mixer would be in the center, mixing, but somehow for whatever reason, I guess we wanted the seats. Didn't want to give up space plus people would have probably been all over them. We have this booth that's over down on the side. Of course, it also gave them a private place where they could, you could do things in the booth. You could do things. Exactly. I remember you had Blue Cheer playing there and they had Marshall lamps. Oh, yes. That's one of my favorite recollections of the street. What Blue Cheer would do is they had these great Marshall stacks. The computers in. And what they would have us do is they would put, turn down all the lights to black. And all you would see coming in, all the audience would see would be the pinpoint lights on the amps. Okay. And they would walk on stage. They would lean their guitars up against the Marshall stacks and then they would turn them up to 10. And walk away for like five minutes. This is why I now support hearing through my foundation, you know? And these, these Marshalls would be like warring. Just like a, you know, like a 707. Right. You know, you can probably hear it out in the street. And then they'd come out and start playing summertime blues, right? Right. Did the lights go up at that point? Was there a lighting? Did you have lighting? Did you have trust with lighting? Yeah. Were there spots or anything to put lights on? Yeah, we had some spots. And Brett, Brett found a big discount deal on some, some military par spotlights that we fashioned into floodlights. And put them every so often. So we were basically operating with found materials. Found materials, yeah. And we had access to like, you know, the SRI laboratory in a few places where we could get a few goodies from time to time. The studio instrument, right? No, the Stanford Research Institute. Oh, wow. So. I saw a whole other depository. And did you give equipment for the Mitchell brothers as well? Didn't you get something from there? Who were they? The Mitchell brothers who were running the O'Farrell Theater and were showing the films behind the green door. Oh, I think we got a projector. A projector for them? Yeah, we got a projector from the Mitchell brothers, yeah. Yeah. Eventually, what did we do with that then? We made it into a time capsule. Yeah, we actually created a straight theater time capsule back in the 70s. No, in the 80s. Early 80s. We created a straight theater time capsule, which was painted gaily, you know, out of the housing of a 35 millimeter movie projection unit, right? Yeah, for where the arc lamp goes in and it's got the little windows to share. It lifts up like a seagull wing, you know, Mercedes Benz, you know. And we invited all kinds of people who we knew from the old days over to my house out in Lafayette. And everybody had to bring something to put in this thing. And Victor Moscoso was there and just a lot of folks. And we created a time capsule, which the plan was that in the 20th anniversary in 87, I guess that's when it was, we would announce to the world that it would be on Earth. And unfortunately, you know, once we had done it, we want to make a wonderful videotape of everybody holding up the thing that they were putting in the time capsule. Oh, wow. Did someone have a copy of them? Right out of magic mushrooms to love bees. 20-year-old mushrooms he donated to the... Yeah, those are draft notices. Right, that's right. But so we had so much fun doing that that once it was done, we didn't have to, you know, discover the time capsule because, you know, we had our fun on that. So it was auctioned off at Butterfields. Yes. So yeah, we did. I would love to see some of these posters. If you wouldn't mind maybe holding them up one at a time. Now we can. Maybe some of the bands that are listed on there are bands that... What is this one? Now what does this one say? OK, you won't see this too many places because it is semi-erotic nature. This is one of the rarest Rick Griffin posters out there. Oh, it's wonderful. Does this work? How do you want this? That's fine. But these go for $400, $500 if you can find one. And I think you're underestimating it at the moment. I think so, too. Yeah, you know what? Because of eBay. Everything's gone up. So we'll take that poster and put it down on your table, flat, and then we'll hold up the next one. So it's hard to read. This is Randy Solis, OK? Randy Solis, you can be straightening out a little bit. Oh, I'm kidding. If you carry it lower, there we go. Much better. OK, but keep them together or keep the outside. What is this event? And Randy also, in addition to several posters for us. Did this one, Randy Solis? Yes, the LAS. And Randy created a giant canvas that was above the freshman stand as you came into the straight theater, which was basically OK, this is another poster that's not here, but was a giant zodiac? It was beautiful. It was absolutely gorgeous. It was commissioned by the Sandovars. And how big was it? It was always must have been five by five or six by six. I mean, it was above the refreshment counter in the straight theater. He's a great artist. Wonderful. This is what's on the back is even more interesting. Oh, my god. Yeah, that's my brother's contribution. I've saved this because it's the only one I've got. But there are some others. Two dollars in mission. This was a benefit to raise money for the straight theater. At the Avalon Ballroom. And John Helms, he was helping us. He wanted us to succeed. Who did this? This was done by, what to say, Jacob. I don't remember who Jacob was, but. Because it looks like a Wes Wilson kind of thing. And the Grateful Dead played for that. The Grateful Dead, they were always at the theater often because they lived right up the street. Well, and they rehearsed in the theater for a year. While we were renovating it, they rehearsed. And so every day there would be kids, street people hanging out with their ears pressed against the doors of the theater, the fire doors, and trying to get in whenever a door would open to come in and see the dead. Right. But it wasn't the dead as people know it today. It was the beginnings of the dead. This is with pickpand. Sure. Yeah. What is this now? What is this, sabotaging? It's a kaleidoscope. This was Ted Hunter. This is a Ted Hunter. This is by an artist named Ted Hunter. And it's kaleidoscope. Kaleidoscope came out from LA. Kaleidoscope was a great band that featured David Lindley. Oh, OK. The guitar player, David Lindley. And they played kind of fusion music, kind of world music. Because they used to, you know, tabloids and they used sitars and all that kind of thing. James Cotton was banned. They were awesome. Oh, he was there often, James Cotton was banned, right? As was Paul Butterfield. Paul Butterfield was not there a lot. In fact, this might have been the only time. Or maybe I'm thinking of Harvey. Oh, no, I mean, you're thinking of Charlie Musselwhite. Charlie Musselwhite. And this one here, we're looking at, it's in color, of the Strait Theater. It's a two-day show. Can you have the dance happening? Can you remember this event? The Congress of Wonders. What's the Congress of Wonders? Yes, Lutheran. Oh, the Congress of Wonders was a three-person comedy group that was actually very funny for their time. And they did one of an aging Jerry Garcia on a park bench reminiscing about the old days. They had Lone Stranger and they had some great skits. And there's some tape of them that you probably want to insert here. They predated, well, they were probably contemporary with the committee. A little bit after, it was an ensemble thing, you know? And Reggie actually managed them for a while. I'd love to see something else. And we have a look at it. Well, there's the Luther Green, black and white, famous poster. Well, let's see it. It's the one I'll sell on eBay. Now that's wonderful. Another thing I didn't mention, and the flyers, rather than the posters, probably demonstrated better. Work it out. We kind of didn't have money after a while to pay for real poster artists to do real posters. And so you got to where we would all take turns doing flyers. And he did a lot of them, because at least he had some artistic talent. This is what I call collage. I mean, you realize you don't have computers in these days. And you're doing your own four-color separations, if you will, color. And now they have leprosythes. That was leprosythes. It's like press time. OK. How much will? We have 10 minutes. Yeah, this is a good one. There you go. This is a cost. $2.50 to come to a dab. This is a classic. Grateful Dead, The Sons of Champlain. This is a classic flyer. Wonderful. Now, Janice Joplin played at the theater. A lot. With the Quicksilver as well. Now, as I recall, and I'm not certain with Big Brother, if I recall, did she ride in there one New Year's Eve on a motorcycle? No, that wasn't her. But on New Year's, the two New Year's that we celebrated, I guess, we tried to do something outrageous. And one year, I think it was the first year, we had the Hell's Angel rode in through the theater doors and down the aisle on his Harley with a naked woman on the back. That was very cool. This would not happen at the film scene. This is the thing about The Straight, because where it was, and because of the chaos of 8 after 8, you know, anything went. Anything went. And then I think the next year, unless I have these tears turned around, it doesn't matter, we lowered a naked woman from the ceiling from way, way up above the proscenium stage right down to the stage. She danced that. Everybody's dream come true. You were arrested at one point. We talked about that, the new dance concert. Exactly. Oh, OK. Blutes are good. Oh, this was really good. This was a big deal. OK, magical mystery tour, Beatles movie. Let's get it on camera. Yeah, we did have a point over. This was kind of toward the end of our stay there, wasn't it? It was like 1968. And we were trying to figure out how to remain open and trying to raise money. And didn't this show at the Pagoda in North Beach? Yeah, I did. At the same time, K-PX, the original free form, November 1969 station, K-PX was a radio station headed up by a fellow by the name of Tom Donahue. And they got thrown out of their premise at 50 Green Street. And they were on strike or something like that. And so they were looking for a way to get some money. And so Tom, through connections, got them and us as a co-benefit of the first American screening of Magical Mystery Tour. And this is great. So we said this is coming in on a plane in the afternoon of a certain day. And so we set up the first show at what time, midnight or something. And so Milo Melvin from K-PX and I were driving down to SFO to go to the customs shed to pick up Magical Mystery Tour, which they didn't want to give to us. So after going back and forth for about two or three hours and Milo back at the theater. The place is packed. It's got Magical Mystery Tour needles on the marquee. And you haven't had a good film yet. People are standing everywhere. And people are starting to stamp on the floor because the bands aren't playing anymore. And there's a line going all the way down to the panel of people waiting to get in. And you're in customs trying to get to the movie. So we finally, somehow, we got the print from the customs officer. And we got it in my car. My one was driving. I was in the back seat and I wanted to examine it. And it's a timing print. And in England, they had tied little thread nuts and all the perforations where they wanted a timing change for some reason. So the print is insurable. So I'm sitting, my one's driving 100 miles an hour. I'm sitting there with a Swiss arm and I'm cutting all the string off the print of Magical Mystery Tour. Oh my goodness. So we made it to the theater, came in, showed it. Cheers go up. We showed it for like 24 hours solid. And we set the house record for the hate theater for all time. We got $25,000 or something in a 24 hour period. Wow. And so half of that went to Camp Yx. And then we got the other half and it kept us in business for probably another four months or something. That's a great story. The telegram from the Beatles, which is addressed to Chet Helms, right? It went to the Avalon for some reason. Here you were having difficulty. You know you have our support and our love for what you and yours represent. John Paul, George, and Ringo. You can imagine how like I made you feel like in 1968, okay, to get a kind of, you know, telegram. Totally can relate, totally can relate. We are gonna be calling you back soon before we close this interview. And we are gonna take the time to film everything you brought. Just, I mean, it's hard to, in a moment, it's easier when you're just talking with each other. If you, each of you, I wanna ask, if you could say one more thing that people should not forget about, the straight theater, what happened there, how you felt about it, what it means to you, what would that be? And I'll start with you, Luther. Well, if it was there to do all over again, I would just wish that there would be possible in this day and age for it to be there to all over again. Absolutely, I would do it again. Right. I'm really grateful for you giving us the opportunity to be interviewed and tell our story because it's my impression that the history of the straight theater in the Hade-Ashbury during that period of time has never been accurately recorded. And there's been many stories told and lots of material written, but it's never been accurately recorded. So I just want for people to know what really happened in the theater and how it evolved and the struggle of what those of us in the community were going through because we really were on the front line on Hade Street. Sure. Yeah, and from the standpoint of the person that was booking the bands and dealing with the music, Bill Graham and Chet Helms had the city locked up. We could not get a lot of the big acts. We got a few sometimes for whatever reason that we were able to, not just because of money, but because Bill particularly didn't want other people booking the bands. He wanted to have them at the film warm. And there was that tug of war going on between Bill and Chet. And we're kind of over there, basically serving as the proving ground for bands that are hoping to play at the film warm or they have a lot. And then they've linked some of those people to stay alive. There was some pretty good talent in musicians that never... It seemed like you were accessible that the people could get to you. They could experience much easier. They could be part of it. They could volunteer. They could try their new act. They could play in their band and hope to get to the film warm or the Avalon. You were way part of the community. It was, even though it's a private endeavor, but it was the community helping and keeping it going. And you were right there in the middle of it. And that's why I mean so many people we speak to, the straight theater means so much to so many people that you guys have no idea the stories we hear, you know? And the more and more that we set the record straight, add information, all this hard work and all this fun will not be forgotten. And it shouldn't be. By us it won't. It shouldn't be because of, because who would influence what it was for people? And beyond what you may even know yourself. You know, if you ever stood in the corner of your venue and you watched smiles on the faces of people, your hard work made that happen as it was a beverage for some people, place to go, place to be. Place for people to be creative, whether it's in plays or dancing or in playing music or reading whatever, it was a place where people were not intimidated by it being what it was. They thought it was theirs. It was theirs in the community. And such a historical time that happened and you were part of it, you know? We are going to continue doing interviews. We will continue to add information to the files and be documenting more stuff in total, including you in this so that the record is set straight. And as more and more players come our way, we'd love to interview Reggie and we'd love to interview a few more people as they're given to us to document. Your work in this period, yes, maybe it was fun. You rolled up your sleeve, it was hard work, but it created something that you, your three of you have no idea, the thousands of people that remember, the thousands and thousands of people that remember the straight theater, the same way they remember H Street. But did it really happen? Did it really happen? That's the next segment. Or was it alternate universe? This is what we asked ourselves. Super, well, you know, basically I'm going to ask all three of you the same. We have about two, three minutes left on this tape. And, you know, if you want, if there's anything else you'd like to share, tell us, tell the people of the, our great-great grandchildren in the future to view this and see what happened in this Bay Area in the Haydash Prairie during the six days. You guys had a calling, you were brought into it. If you want to share anything else for a moment about the future, I've asked you each individually. Well, I would share one thing from my experience with experimenting with drugs during that period of time. It was common to have gurus or people that kind of counseled you when you use substances, especially if they were mind-altering. And I have no idea if people will be using mind-altering substances, you know, 100 years from now. But I remember my first experience that my older brother was the first person that introduced me to cannabis, to marijuana. And the first LSD I ever had was given to me by Luther. And it was pure LSD or Sandos laboratory, the best that you could get. And then Reggie, who was part of the theater and my brother, I went with them to the Big Sur State Forest and had my first LSD experience. And so my counsel to people in the future is just only get your drugs on people that you really trust. And it's a spiritual journey. Yeah, and it's a spiritual journey. So be with people that you trust and have it still continue. Because drugs were used in a very spiritual way in the beginning. And it got very confusing toward the end in the Haydashburg because the nature of what people were using changed. I also feel that it's a specific time, the time of the 60s, this cannot be reproduced. We can each tell our story and at least we're getting the accurate information. But there's something to be said about, you had to be there, you had to be there. And it was a specific time, to take psychedelics and to drop out, turn on whatever it was. And that it's not always a good time to be taking these drugs in the environment and the changes of our world. This is a once in a lifetime decade that happened. And it's happened, you know. So I relate to what you say. And if anything more, the focus of that period of drugs and hallucinogens was about the music, was about being part of a family, feeling safe. And we're not in the 60s now, but we have felt the effect of these six days with so many things in the world. And each of you know that, each of you have your own, from recycling to the evolution of the industry and venues and theaters, you can go now to shows where 300,000 people can attend the show. And you were part of the beginning of this because before the straight, before the Avalon, before the Fillmore, you went to a club to see a band. And now you had a venue of 1,000, 1,200 people. And now you can go to a Coliseum and be part of 300,000 people watching the show as the sound systems, as the public assemblies were created and what happened within your world that you touched upon, not only touched the Bay Area and the hate, but the world. So we want to thank you so much. Thank you for letting us tell this story. My pleasure. Thanks for hearing.