About Us
Where the universe connects - Billie Holiday performs at the Manor Plaza Hotel, as doorman Flip Wilson request stage time at Leola King's Blue Mirror. Dexter Gordon hangs out at JimBo's Bop City having chicken and waffles. While Dizz, Lionel, Bird, John Coltrane, the Duke, Count and King Cole all swing through town for gigs on the hill and dine at Gilmores, Virginia or the Plantation Supper Club.
During the 1940s through 1950s along the Fillmore/ Divisadero corridor, from California Street to Haight Street, there was a healthy Black and economically thriving community dotted with businesses of all sorts. Restaurants, pool halls, theaters, apparel shops and a host of local services—most, operated by African Americans—Boasting two dozen active nightclubs, dance halls and music joints within its 40 square blocks. Although it has been commemorated in songs, poems, and lauded in Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", few people today know of the rich history of that particular Fillmore era and of its music and cultural legacy. Largely because all landscape except for the fabled entertainment venue 'Fillmore Auditorium', originally named and operated by African American businessman Charles Sullivan, (long before "rock" became popular) vanished abruptly and thoroughly due to the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1949 and efforts of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency in the 1960s.
Prepare for the revitalized return of African American cultural influence on the corridor. Planet Fillmore Communications brings a basis to continue the growth.