All That Jazz: Jazz and Redevelopment in the Fillmore

Introduction

On an only-in-San Francisco kind of beautiful afternoon in early April, I found myself in the heart of The Fillmore, amazed at the dramatic changes that had quietly been taking place. I recalled the eerie redevelopment blight of the Western Addition[1], so upfront and present during my youth, and realized that it had been replaced by a thriving, exciting community,anchored by the imposing Jazz Heritage Center (JHC). My destination, that beautiful afternoon, was the JHC, and the showcase exhibit, Jazz Giants: The Photography of Herman Leonard—a collection of some of the greatest jazz photographs ever taken by one of America’s greatest living photographers. The show is Herman Leonard’s first in San Francisco since he briefly lived in the city twenty years ago and I did not want to miss it. What better way to step back into San Francisco’s Jazz hey-dey than through the reflections captured by a master photographer’s Black and white portraits? And what fabulous portraits they were-filled with powerful andexpressive images of jazz royalty: Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughn, Miles Davis, and of course, the incomparable Billie Holiday. To have been there when that picture of Miss Holiday was taken, well, that would have been something...

January 1949 - It was a cold and drizzly night in San Francisco. I knew that Billie Holiday was in the city, playing uptown at the high class Club Society. But I also knew that she liked to visit Wesley Johnson after hours at his TexasPlayhouse/Club Flamingo to unwind and have a drink or two. What the heck, I’d been rained on before and this was a chance to see Lady Day up close and personal. The Texas Playhouse/Club Flamingo, at 1836 Fillmore Street, was housed in a two-storefront building with a 15-room hotel, the Exclusive Hotel Texas, above and the bar below. Wesley commissioned artist John O’Shanna, of the Fisherman’s Wharf logo fame, to design a mural of famous musicians from Texas behind the bar; Wesley then had $3,500 in silver dollars embedded in the bar. According to Wesley, there was no live music at the Club. The musicians liked that there was only recorded music because they never felt the pressure to perform and could relax with their fans.[2] Well, I was definitely a fan. I knew that ladies were allowed in for free (guys had to pay and had to wear a suit and tie) so all I needed was cab fare. Even though it was late, Fillmore Street was still busy and the clubs all appeared to be open. When the cab pulled up to the Texas Playhouse, I could not believe my eyes – there was Louis Armstrong standing outside, smoking a cigarette and talking to anyone who happened by.[3]

Once inside the club, I grabbed a spot at the bar. I would have preferred a stool or one of the plush banquet seats, but they were all taken. Guess everyone was waiting for Miss Holiday. Zeke Thomas, the bartender that night, told me that the place was always crowded mainly because it was such a beautiful elegant place but also because it was small-couldn’t hold that many people.[4] It was apparently true – the “Black newcomer, for the first time in his life, was able to think of himself as a Spender” and go out drinking and dancing.[5] While I was standing there, enjoying my scotch and soda, someone came in yelling that Billie Holiday had just been arrested at the Mark Twain Hotel for possession of opium.[6] Well, at least I got to visit with Louis Armstrong…

Billie Holiday’s 1949 visit was during the glory days of San Francisco’s Fillmore Jazz Era. Often compared to New Orlean’s Storeyville, or New York City’s Harlem, San Francisco embodied West Coast Jazz, drew musicians from all over the world and provided an environment that allowed creativity and collaboration to flourish. However, starting in the late 1950s, the musiciansbegan to leave The Fillmoreto tour or to take part in the more lucrative New York City jazz scene. By 1965, the interest in the San Francisco jazz scene had died out. The Fillmore became a ‘dark and empty’ neighborhood and according to resident Steve Nakajo, “the only spots of people on the street were at the bus zones.”[7] In spite of the richness of the music and its reflection of the African American community that lived in The Fillmore, the neighborhood was unable to support the clubs and the musicians that had given birth to ‘west coast jazz’ and fostered its growth.

Using a wealth of primary sources including interviews, newspaper articles and photographs of The Fillmore during its reign as ‘Harlem of the West,’ and secondary sources that address both the social and political changes experienced in the Western Addition district, I will discuss San Francisco’s racial history andthe diversification of the Western Addition, the growth of the war-time African American population in The Fillmore that led to its importance as a Jazz center, the redevelopment policies of the 1940s and 1950s, and the growing importance of The Fillmore as a showcase for first, Rhythm and Blues, and ultimately, Rock and Roll music. As I attempt to uncover the reasons for The Fillmore’s demise as the ‘Harlem of the West’, I will also look at the revitalization campaign that has endeavored to breathe life back into The Fillmore. Finally, I will look at the promises made by the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and compare them against what now exists in the Western Addition neighborhood called The Fillmore.

A Brief History of the African American Experience in San Francisco

African Americans have been present in small numbers in San Francisco from the time of the Spanish Conquest; however, during the Gold Rush, African Americans began to migrate to California as free prospectors, servants, and slaves. With statehood, California took the side of the North in the slavery debate and did not ban African American immigration. Nevertheless, state lawmakers denied African Americans a host of basic rights including suffrage, political service, and land ownership until Congress passed the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.[8] With their new rights, Black San Franciscans registered to vote, attended desegregated schools, and began to form or join existing organizations (Afro-American League, NAACP, California Colored Citizens’ State League) to increase their political power.

The African American population, pre-WWII, represented a small percentage of San Francisco’s overall population; for example, in 1900, African Americans accounted for .5% of residents as opposed to Philadelphia with 4.8% or Washington, D.C. with 31.1%.[9] Further, San Francisco’s African American population was not relegated to one neighborhood or ‘ghetto’ as they were in other American cities. Their small numbers, their dispersal throughout San Francisco, and the prevailing racial attitudes of White San Franciscans caused the Black pioneers[10]to develop a variety of strategies and schemes in order to survive and improve the quality of their existence.[11] Among those strategies were organizations designed to help African Americans find work, relying on old friendships, cultivating new friendships, passing for white, and a rich social life. Membership in churches, benevolent societies, fraternal lodges and social clubs provided connections and created a social structure that prized education, talent, accomplishment and perseverance.[12]

With the outbreak of WWII and the ‘New Gold Rush,’ or the migration to work in the Bay Area’s war industries,San Francisco’s African American population increased from 4,846 residents in 1940 to 43,460 by 1950.[13] Most of the newcomers came from Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma, but a few were from Arkansas and Mississippi.[14] The old residents were resentful of the newcomers and viewed the migrants as poorly educated and uncouth. After generations of cultivating their social structure and learning how to accommodate their imposed limitations, the old residents felt that the newcomers posed a threat to their minor accomplishments. Further, the pioneers believed that the newcomers’ English was bad, their demeanor was conspicuous, they lacked confidence and they did not understand the culture of San Francisco.[15]

To further aggravate relations, the housing for non-whites in San Francisco at that time was severely limited because restrictive covenants prevented migrants from settling in certain neighborhoods. Unlike pre-WWII San Francisco which saw the relatively small African American population dispersed throughout the city, the large, war time migration of Blacks led to the creation of ghettos near the shipyards at Bayview-Hunter’s Point and in The Fillmore neighborhood of the Western Addition, where the federal government hastily erected emergency public housing. The San Francisco Housing Authority (SFHA) regulations denied African Americans occupancy in public housing so the only real option for housing was in the subdivided Victorians of The Fillmore neighborhood.[16]

A Brief History of the Western Addition

Walking through the Western Addition in 2010 is an adventure in multi-culturalism: people of many different ethnic and racial backgrounds call this part of San Francisco ‘home.’ However, in the post Gold-Rush days, the Western Addition district was designed as a haven for San Francisco’s nouveau riche, or middle class whites who settled into the many Victorian homes that populated the area. With the advent of cable car lines that provided easy access to the district, the area flourished.[17]

The 1906 earthquake, however, changed the dynamic of the area. As one of the few neighborhoods in the city to survive the quake, it was the destination for many of the city’s newly displaced immigrants, including Japanese (many of whom had fled theirdevastated homes near Chinatown), Filipinos, Mexicans, African Americans, and ‘not-so-White’ ethnic Whites (Russians, Jew, other Southern and Eastern Europeans, etc.).[18] Landlords capitalized on the influx of home seekers by subdividing existing houses into apartments, boardinghouses, studios, and in-law apartments to accommodate the new residents creating severe overcrowding. The area also experienced mixed land use as industrial and commercial businesses moved their establishments from the devastated business district of the city to former residential buildings.[19]

The area became a haven for working class families, causing middle class residents to relocate elsewhere. With the influx of immigrants came integrated schools and businesses, making the Western Addition incredibly diverse. Further, during the years immediately following the earthquake, the incoming businesses in the area meant that the Western Addition became the city’s primary entertainment, business, and commercial district. However, within three years of rebuilding the city, post-earthquake, most of the relocated businesses moved back to the city’s central business districts downtown and near City Hall. Consequently, the shops in the Western Addition went into decline, decreased in size and became more ethnically run.[20]

With the evacuation of business, the Western Addition was left to the

immigrant population including the Japanese, who remained in Japantown until

the attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent internment of Japanese residents

in the Western United States. After the United States entered WWII, the need for

workers in the wartime industries located in the Bay Area was responsible for a

dramatic increase of African Americans relocating to San Francisco. Between

1940 and 1950, the African American population of San Francisco grew by nearly

40,000, an 800 percent increase.[21] Restrictive housing covenants forced the

newcomers to Hunter’s Point or the subdivided Victorians in The Fillmore.

A Brief History of Jazz in San Francisco

Jazz, as a component of American urban culture, tells us much about the people who created it, danced to it and listened to it. Important creative contributions to Jazz in the early twentieth century were made not only by New Orleans, New York, Chicago and Kansas City, but San Francisco as well. And while early San Franciscan musicians may very well credit New Orleans’ influence on their music, they definitely shaped a unique sound during the era of the Barbary Coast. Ragtime, and later, Dixieland Jazz, was enjoyed in clubs and saloons up and down the BarbaryCoast. Dancers , and the famous Turkey Trot was first introduced at Lew Purcell’s So Different Saloon. In fact, the term ‘Jazz’ was first used in print in the San Francisco Bulletin, March, 1913.[22] Even though the majority of the musicians were African American, William Randolph Hearst, Isadora Duncan, Anna Pavlova and scores of other famous and wealthy folks patronized the more than 300 Barbary Coast establishments.[23]

When the Barbary Coast was finally closed down in the early 1920s, after years of efforts to destroy the “open market for commercialized vice,” African American musicians, the largest professional group in San Francisco’s Black community, were left without a venue.[24] The center of Bay Area of jazz had disappeared, leaving mostly weekend ‘gigs’ without fulltime employment. During the 1920s, the West Coast jazz scene shifted to Los Angeles. Many musicians left the city for Los Angeles and the growing recording and movie industries. It wasn’t until 1933, with the opening Jack’s Tavern on Sutter Street, that Jazz made its appearance in The Fillmore, and The Fillmore ‘Jazz Era’ was born.[25]

Harlem of the West

By 1951, The Western Addition had become San Francisco’s Harlem; Fillmore Street was its 125th Street. The neighborhood was a center of jazz and nightlife, but also the center of the community where churches, associations and doctors were located.[26]

African Americans had arrived by the thousands to help in the war effort, performing strenuous jobs and returning home to cramped living quarters. But they had jobs and money to spend. In I know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou reflects that the African American was, for the first time, “able to pay other people to work for him, i.e. the dry cleaners, taxi drivers, waitresses, etc.” In a two block radius of where her house was located, the streets were filled never ending activity and “two pool halls, four Chinese Restaurants, two gambling houses, plus diners, shoeshine shops, beauty salons, barber shops and at least four churches.”[27] People dressed up in those days, according to singer ‘Sugar Pie’ Desanto. "We came out full dressed. Suits and nice hats. Dressed to kill! You didn't go to the clubs during those days looking hoochie coochie. Hats, minks, whatever -- everybody dressed up."[28]

In addition to the restaurants and churches, there were jazz clubs, over 30 of them. Drummer Earl Watkins reminisced that “You might have four clubs in a block, two on each side of the street. And then you go around a couple more blocks and then you have another couple of clubs.”[29] Musician Wayne Wallace believed that jazz was a part of life, like breathing. "Music in The Fillmore was organic; in theair. It was from the community and belonged to the community...”[30]

The success of the jazz clubs in The Fillmore were dependent on the continued existence of the “regular hours’ jazz clubs downtown which brought jazz giants to San Francisco. After playing to the ‘white only’ crowd at the more respectable spots, musicians such as Duke Ellington, Gerry Mulligan, Billie Holliday or Dinah Washington would head to The Fillmore for jam sessions or to just hang out until the early hours of the morning. Local fans would stay out until 4:00 a.m. just to “be around the greatest giants of all time.”[31] Even the musicians were awed by a visit from a headlining jazz performer, according to musician Allen Smith:

"One night I saw Dexter Gordon leaving the New Orleans Swing Club, walking across the street toward a bank to get into a car. I thought he was the most handsome man in the world. And dressed! His clothes were so tailored and beautiful. He had an incredible top coat on. But at the same time, it wasn't a big deal. You'd see famous people all dressed up walking around The Fillmore all the time. I saw Duke Ellington in The Fillmore. Miles Davis in The Fillmore. Dizzy Gillespie was in The Fillmore. You name them, they were there. It was a big party, and you never slept. We were young and anxious! One of the best times of my life."

The Decline of Jazz and Redevelopment in the Western Addition

By the late 1950s, many of the barriers for Black musicians were beginning to break down. Downtown clubs that prohibited Black musicians from performing were changing their posture. One musician, Frederico Cervantes, agreed, saying “I think integration started it, being able to go into the clubs where you couldn't go before, or you could play there but you couldn't go in through the front door to sit down.”[32] Musicians were also being drawn to cities on the East Coast, where they could make a name for themselves. As much as The Fillmore was a ‘Jazz Destination’ it did not offer many opportunities to become a headliner. Pianist Frank Jackson put it this way, “Starting in the late 1950s, a lot of musicians left The Fillmore clubs to tour or go to other cities. In order to get anywhere as musicians, you had to. You couldn’t get any recognition in San Francisco.”[33] However, what was probably the biggest blow to the jazz scene in The Fillmore were theactions of the Redevelopment Agency – tearing down apartments, moving houses and condemning buildings targeted for demolition. Consequently, many residents began to move out of the area, diminishing support for the few clubs that were left. Without clubs, there was no place left in The Fillmore for the musicians to play. By the early 1960s, only Bop City and Jack's of Sutter were left.