Fillmore (1972)

FILLMORE  (1972)  ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Richard T. Heffron
As far as I know, Bill Graham never played or sang a recorded note. But he might've had a more significant impact on rock & roll in the late 1960s than most of the people who did. As the tireless impresario behind the Fillmore ballrooms in New York and San Francisco, Graham gave the heads and hippies the music they wanted to hear and a place they could comfortably hang out and hear it in. He made it affordable and he made money, and in the process, he gave the psychedelic era its Mecca, its musical home. Graham was no hippie. As a kid, he got out of Europe ahead of the Holocaust. By the 1960s, he was the West Coast office manager for Allis Chalmers, a job he quit to manage the San Francisco Mime Troupe and then book musical events, eventually setting up shop at the Fillmore West. He was a canny and ruthless promoter, sometimes revered and sometimes reviled, and by 1971, he was burned out and ready to take a break. This documentary shows Graham at work, wheedling, needling, cursing, coaxing, massaging egos and throwing tantrums as he lines up the entertainment for a final series of concerts before the lights go out for good. It's not real deep or insightful, but it does put Graham front and center, the brass-balls showman who made those marathon Grateful Dead shows possible. Hot Tuna, Quicksilver Messenger Service, New Riders of the Purple Sage and Santana all show up to play. Highlight: a young, beaming Jerry Garcia gliding through the Dead's "Casey Jones".