Chester Leo "Chet" Helms (August 2, 1942 – June 25, 2005), often called the father of San Francisco's 1967 "Summer of Love," was a music promoter and a counterculture figure in San Francisco during its hippie period in the mid- to-late 1960s.
Helms was the founder and manager of Big Brother and the Holding Company and recruited Janis Joplin as its lead singer. He was a producer and organizer, helping to stage free concerts and other cultural events at Golden Gate Park, the backdrop of San Francisco's Summer of Love in 1967, as well as at other venues, including the Avalon Ballroom.
He was the first producer of psychedelic light-show concerts at the Fillmore and the Avalon Ballroom and was instrumental in helping to develop bands that had the distinctive San Francisco Sound.[1] Helms died June 25, 2005, of complications of a stroke. He was 62.[2]
^"Joplin Manager Chet Helms Dies". Billboard. June 27, 2005. Retrieved May 20, 2006.
^"Chet Helms Dies at 62; Father of San Francisco's Summer of Love". The New York Times. June 28, 2005. Retrieved December 31, 2021.
were Chester and Novella Helms. Helms' father, a manager at a local sugarbeet mill, died when his oldest child was nine. Chet's mother, Novella, took the...
wife to San Francisco to meet with ChetHelms, co-owner (with Bob Cohen) of Family Dog Productions. At that time Helms was a primary figure in the San Francisco...
group by ChetHelms, a promoter who was managing Big Brother and with whom she had hitchhiked from Texas to San Francisco a few years earlier. Helms sent...
social groups. Psychedelic poster artist Bob Schnepf was commissioned by ChetHelms to create the official Summer of Love poster, which became a lasting icon...
refer to: Adam Helms (born 1974), American artist Bobby Helms (1933-1997), American country music singer Robert Lee HelmsChetHelms (1942-2005), American...
resulting threesome playing open jam sessions hosted by entrepreneur ChetHelms in 1965. Helms found them a drummer, Chuck Jones, and Big Brother and the Holding...
February 2007, NBC announced that Helms had been promoted to series regular on The Office, and in February 2010 Helms was added to the show's opening credits...
1966, the "Family Dog" became "Family Dog Productions" under organizer ChetHelms, promoting happenings at the Avalon Ballroom and the Fillmore Auditorium...
Project guide to San Francisco). In the 1960s, Robert E. Cohen, impresario ChetHelms and his music production company, Family Dog Productions, which had offices...
Productions, also known as The Family Dog, a music promotion group run by ChetHelms in San Francisco The Family Dog, a concert hall in the Richmond District...
Red Dog Saloon back in 1965. It was also at the Red Dog Saloon where ChetHelms first met Bill and asked him to produce lightshows at the Avalon Ballroom...
the Summer of Love. It opened with a day-long outdoor festival MC'd by ChetHelms that drew thousands to the Museum's plaza, featuring Big Brother and the...
together once again in Blue Cheer with drummer Prairie Prince at the ChetHelms Memorial Tribal Stomp in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park on October 29...
drums, vocals Jason Hann - Drums, percussion Kenny Brooks - Saxophone ChetHelms - Spoken Word Carolyn Garcia - Spoken Word Gary The Cab Driver - Spoken...
musical director of the band. Janis Joplin was recruited by band manager ChetHelms to join Big Brother as lead singer on June 4, 1966. They soon landed a...
city's Haight-Ashbury neighborhood in 1965 at basement shows organised by ChetHelms of the Family Dog; and as Jefferson Airplane founder Marty Balin and investors...
singer Janis Joplin considered joining the Elevators, but Family Dog's ChetHelms persuaded her to go to San Francisco instead, where she found major fame...
his work and asked him to design a poster for their January 1967 event. ChetHelms was also impressed by Griffin's work and asked him to design posters for...
February 1966, the Family Dog became Family Dog Productions under organizer ChetHelms, promoting happenings at the Avalon Ballroom and the Fillmore Auditorium...
January 17, 2021. "Fanny Chart History", Billboard.com ChetHelms, "The Freudian Slips", The ChetHelms Chronicles. Life (June 3, 1966):106. "The End of the...
Fame in 1995. He reunited with the band in the Bay Area at a concert for ChetHelms. Gurley recorded and appeared with new age drummer and percussionist Muruga...
The Family Dog, and began producing rock music dances. In 1966, when ChetHelms assumed leadership of the group and began promoting the dances at the...
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