The Last Waltz, the Band's farewell concert, took place on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 25, 1976, at Bill Graham's Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. Next month marks 50 years since the show that became Martin Scorsese's concert film.
The night
The Band chose Winterland because it was where the group had made its debut as the Band in 1969. Graham staged an elaborate evening with more than 300 workers. Starting at 5 p.m., the crowd of 5,000 was served turkey dinners, with ballroom dancing to the Berkeley Promenade Orchestra and readings by poets including Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Diane di Prima and Michael McClure.
The Band was joined by more than a dozen guests, including Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Van Morrison, Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, Dr. John, Neil Diamond, Paul Butterfield and Ronnie Hawkins.
The film
Scorsese's documentary was released in 1978. It's widely ranked among the greatest concert films, and the Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry in 2019. SFFILM marked the 50th anniversary with a 4K screening at the JCCSF's Kanbar Hall, moderated by former Rolling Stone music editor Ben Fong-Torres, who covered the original concert.
Winterland
Winterland opened June 29, 1928, as the New Dreamland Auditorium, an ice rink at Post and Steiner streets. It held ice shows, opera, boxing and tennis. Graham began renting it in 1966 for shows too big for the nearby Fillmore and made it a regular rock venue in 1971, with about 5,400 seats.
The Grateful Dead played there 73 times. The Sex Pistols played their final show there on Jan. 14, 1978. Winterland closed on New Year's Eve 1978 with a Grateful Dead show that ran nearly six hours. The building was razed in 1985 and replaced by apartments.
Another SF music room with a long history: Bottom of the Hill's sale.