Where Do All the Hippies Meet?

Larry Magid on the new old TLA, and why the Gap was good for South Street.

by A.D. Amorosi

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Published: Apr 24, 2007

What's in a name?

The venue at 334 South has had a few since the turn of the 20th century. It was Crystal Palace and New Palace Theatre in the 1940s. In the '50s, actors Anne and Logan Ramsey turned it into Theatre of the Living Arts, a repertory house whose reputation was furthered in the '60s by director Andre Gregory. It became a movie theater; Ray Murray started projecting films there in 1972 and managed the place until he and his partners took over in 1981 and re-christened it the TLA. In 1987, Electric Factory Concerts got the property and Murray's TLA Entertainment leased them the name for free as long as it stayed a theater.

There's history in names. You can celebrate history.

"But you can't let it weigh you down," says Larry Magid, Electric Factory's major domo.

Magid's turning the TLA into the Fillmore Philadelphia at the TLA.

In doing so, he's paying tribute to Bill Graham — he of Fillmore venues and Bill Graham Presents booking — while making a new brand. Like Graham's production companies, the Fillmores are part of the LiveNation behemoth. LiveNation acquired Graham's businesses when it spun off from Clear Channel Communications in 2005. Clear Channel inherited both Magid's Electric Factory and Bill Graham Presents from their owner — SFX Entertainment — when SFX bought EFC in 2000 and BGP in 1997.

"Bill and I were as close as you could be in the positions we were in; competitive but not competitors," says Magid, who was an agent in Manhattan in 1968 when Graham was in his heyday as booker extraordinaire. Magid credits Graham with inspiring him to become an impresario.

But that's where Graham's influence ends. Because Fillmore Philadelphia isn't a hippie parlor with psychedelic art reminiscent of Graham's flagship San Francisco location. It's not a lame tribute or a place that puts another city's culture over ours, says Magid. "It's a name like anything else."

LiveNation has turned other locations within the chain into Fillmores, too, like Irving Plaza in New York City. "Besides, Bill was a scamp. He sold everything. He would've loved this."

When Magid got the call from his bosses at LiveNation about reawakening the Fillmore name, he wasn't interested.

"Over my dead body," was his initial response, he recalls with a laugh. Magid is known for playing hardball. He was one of the last big-ticket independent bookers to sell out to a conglomerate. He still uses the Electric Fac-tory Concerts name despite being part of the LiveNation chain. "This is supposed to be about rebellion."

But he heard LiveNation out. Fillmore Philly would not only maintain the history of the venue with existing memorabilia, old photos and concert posters. They'd make things new, too, like commissioning posters to be distributed after each show, putting down hardwood floors and hanging chandeliers.

When I bring up the rumor that the Tower Theater was being considered for Fillmorization, Magid admits it's true. But he says the Tower's legend before Magid bought it in 1975 loomed too large. "I saw rock 'n' roll shows there when I was a kid."

"Then again, who'll remember that after much longer? You know it. And I know it. But kids who're 22 don't know history; that David Bowie made a live record at the Tower or that Janis and the Doors played the old Factory. That's ancient history."

In Magid's eyes, the TLA did OK. Most midlevel theaters in the U.S. are doing good business. He didn't see a need for change. Then he thought about the Gap and how its arrival on South Street shocked everyone.

"People griped at first. But it was great for the street. Before that, so many of the nationals never came to Philly, leaving us to the mom-and-pop companies," said Magid. "We're not going back to mom-and-pops."

Magid is not fond of living in the past. He's never wanted to be the old guy sitting at the table telling stories about meeting Hendrix, never plastered his name across his venues, never liked in his name in the papers. "I hate saying 'I,'" he says with a sigh.

But he's proud of his nearly 40 years in the business and didn't want to see TLA stagnate. To Magid, the Fillmore was like the Gap.

"Look," says Magid. "I would rather put a name like the Fillmore — a name that means something — on a venue than call it ... the Coca Cola Tower. Now that would hijack the culture, putting a sponsor's name on one of my venues. That I won't do."

(a_amorosi@citypaper.net)

Todd Rundgren and The A-Sides play the opening of the Fillmore Philadelphia at the TLA, Fri., April 27, 8 p.m., the Fillmore Philadelphia at the TLA, 334 South St.

 

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