It was 1978, the night they closed old Winterland down -- and the Grateful Dead's all-night show lives on in memories, flashbacks -- and now a DVD

10/23/03 | Color | 3star | full | 1 | Datebook | mp 7983 | WINTERLAND23 10/23/03 | Color | 3star | full | 1 | Datebook | mp 7983 | WINTERLAND23 Photo: Michael Zagaris Photo: Michael Zagaris Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close It was 1978, the night they closed old Winterland down -- and the Grateful Dead's all-night show lives on in memories, flashbacks -- and now a DVD 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

Bill Graham put a billboard on the side of Winterland for New Year's Eve 1978, the night the Grateful Dead closed the dilapidated old hall, which had an appointment with the wrecker's ball. "They're not the best at what they do, " it read, "they're the only ones that do what they do." On the sidewalk under the sign, a Deadhead waiting days in advance of the show held a sign of his own: "1535 Days Since Last S.F. 'Dark Star.' "

In a news conference two weeks before the event, producer Graham speculated he could have sold 500,000 tickets. Radio advertising executive Jeff Nemerovski, sensing an opportunity, was able to persuade KQED-TV to broadcast the proceedings live, while KSAN-FM would simulcast a stereo soundtrack.

Frank Zamacona was a young floor director on the broadcast that night. It was an evening he never forgot, and when he found himself working on another video project with the band eight years ago, he started digging out the videotapes from that New Year's Eve broadcast. "I'm not a Deadhead," Zamacona said. "I've been trying to put it out there so people will understand what it was like."

KQED-TV will air an 80-minute selection Zamacona edited from those tapes at 9 p.m. Saturday, the first time these performances have been seen since they were originally broadcast, a pledge-drive sneak preview of the nationwide PBS broadcast in November to coincide with the release of a two-DVD set that contains the complete, unedited version of the epic four-hour performance.

"We played all night, till dawn," said drummer Mickey Hart.

"We were pretty on our game," said guitarist Bob Weir. "As the night wore on, I'm not sure we got a whole lot tighter."

A huge banner of the Dead's skull and roses emblem always hung from the rafters of Winterland like the home team's pennant. The Dead played the old ice rink at Post and Steiner 59 times beginning in 1968, including four New Year's Eves. The night Janis Joplin died in a seedy Los Angeles motel room, the Dead worked Winterland with the Jefferson Airplane and Quicksilver Messenger Service (another evening, coincidentally, broadcast on KQED). That was also the last night that founding members Marty Balin of the Airplane and John Cipollina of Quicksilver played with their respective groups.

The Dead, who recorded some of their 1971 live album at the hall, took over the place for five nights in 1974 to film "The Grateful Dead Movie." Another five-night run in 1978 celebrated the band's return from Egypt.

Winterland itself was built in 1928 for what was then an astronomical cost of $1 million on the site where a temporary theater had once been erected after the 1906 earthquake and young unknown Al Jolson gave one of his first important performances. The 5,400-capacity room played host to opera and boxing, and was home to Shipstad and Johnson's Ice Follies.

When Graham began operating the nearby Fillmore Auditorium in 1966, he would occasionally rent the bigger hall for larger shows, starting with the September 1966 double bill of Jefferson Airplane and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Jimi Hendrix played one of his great shows at Winterland. Cream recorded portions of "Wheels of Fire" there, and the Dead's Jerry Garcia and Mickey Hart caught the show. Hart thought the three-man group featuring Eric Clapton on guitar must have been the greatest group in the world.

"No," corrected his bandmate Garcia. "Tonight they're the greatest group in the world."

After Graham closed the Fillmore West in 1971, he ran shows at Winterland almost every weekend. The Rolling Stones gave four memorable shows at the rickety old hall in 1972. Peter Frampton recorded his blockbuster double album "Frampton Comes Alive" there. The Band filmed "The Last Waltz" and the Sex Pistols closed the band's U.S. tour at Winterland. But pieces of plaster were raining on the heads of concertgoers at almost every show, and Graham estimated the cost of repair at more than $350,000, which his landlords refused to deduct from his rent.

He made an emotional appeal to the Grateful Dead to play New Year's Eve and close the hall for him. He wrote a letter asking the band to rehearse for the concert and to play some old favorites that had been dropped from the repertoire. As a supporting act, he booked the great party band of the moment - - the Blues Brothers with Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi, at the height of "Saturday Night Live" mania. The evening promised a rich emotional subtext, even for the relatively unsentimental Dead.

"This was home base," said drummer Hart, "Dead Central, longtime center for the San Francisco Dead universe."

Instead of a touching farewell, however, the evening descended into a deranged bacchanalia. The place was a cocaine speakeasy -- even the janitor was holding. "There was a bit of blow going around," said Weir. "The Blues Brothers brought mounds of it. I think they had it for breakfast."

The "Saturday Night" crowd -- Bill Murray, Father Guido Sarducci, Al Franken, Paul Shaffer (playing in the Blues Brothers band) -- mingled backstage with psychedelic bull goose loony Ken Kesey, NBA all-star Bill Walton, Chet Helms of the Family Dog and members of the Jefferson Airplane. After their set, the Blues Brothers moved their scene to an after-hours party at the Airplane mansion on Fulton Street that lasted through the night.

Backstage, the Hells Angels motorcycle gang swarmed over the party en masse,

which sent Graham overboard with anger.

"They started pouring in the place," said Dead road manager Steve Parish. "They literally took the backstage over. There were hundreds of them. We gave everyone onstage a dose of acid. That was our way of dealing with it."

After Bill Graham made his annual appearance as Father Time, riding to the stage above the crowd from across the hall on a giant marijuana cigarette, the Dead kicked off the New Year at midnight with "Sugar Magnolia" under an avalanche of balloons. Weir started the second set with the never-more- appropriate "Samson and Delilah" ("If I had my way I would tear this old building down . . ."). Lee Oskar of War and Gregg Errico of Sly and the Family Stone joined the onstage throng during the drum solo. Ken Babbs of the Merry Pranksters rolled out the Thunder Machine, with Kesey banging away from inside,

and then set off a small bomb, while wild-eyed Hart attacked the percussion contraption from the outside. Cipollina joined the band for the last two songs of the set.

The band played until morning. Graham served champagne, ham and eggs to the entire crowd. With the house lights up full, the band members threw their arms around one another's shoulders and took their final Winterland bow after "We Bid You Goodnight."

The band would soon graduate to hockey rinks and baseball parks. But on this last New Year's Eve at Winterland, the Dead was still part of a small community in which band members could actually read the signs in the crowd.

At the start of the third set, deep into the post-midnight hours, Jerry Garcia tickled opening notes out of his electric guitar and a shudder of recognition swept through the crowd. As the band lurched into "Dark Star," the "1535 Days" sign came flying out of the balcony and fluttered to the floor below.