Remembering the Anderson Theater, NYC’s Forgotten Rock Hall
‘Fillmore East: The Venue That Changed Rock Music Forever’ Book Excerpt
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The Anderson Theater at 66 Second Avenue was named after theatrical agent Phyllis Anderson. The hall opened in 1957 and presented Yiddish plays through the 1960s. In 1968 Crawdaddy magazine sponsored a series of rock shows that featured the Yardbirds, Traffic, Procol Harum, Moby Grape, and Big Brother & the Holding Company with Janis Joplin.
Two university students, Neil Louison and Sandy Pearlman, came up with the idea to present rock concerts at the Anderson. The pair had produced rock shows at their school and Crawdaddy asked them to do the same in the East Village.
“I had heard that Crawdaddy magazine was going to put on concerts every weekend at the Anderson Theater and we went there,” said Joshua White, founder of the Joshua Light Show, in Fillmore East: The Venue That Changed Rock Music Forever.
“We talked them into including us. The Anderson was just a smaller-than-the-Fillmore, kind of rotten, old theater. I just wanted to do light shows and I was looking around for anything I could get my hands on.
“It was funny because all of the dressing room signs and all of the doors were in English and Yiddish. We talked them into including us.”
Big Brother’s February 17 show with B. B. King introduced Joplin to many New York fans.
“There was a passageway that went from the backstage dressing rooms to the orchestra pit,” recalled Big Brother’s Dave Getz. “The Anderson Theater had an orchestra pit that was set right in front and below the stage. Janis and I went through that tunnel during B. B. King’s set.
“We were in the orchestra pit and we were looking up at B. B. King and his band. Janis and I listened to B. B. King and just were going, ‘How can we go on after this?’
“But when we came on, the first song we opened with, and we usually opened with it in those days, was a song called ‘Goin’ Down to Brownsville.’ It’s a very fast, rock-blues kind of thing. And the audience just rushed the stage. This sweeping energy just came over the whole place. It was very astounding.”
Backed with financing by a shady bar owner, Tony Lech, the Anderson hosted a few months of concerts until Bill Graham opened Fillmore East in March 1968. Most of the Anderson staff, including White and the Joshua Light Show, were hired by Graham and the Anderson closed soon after.
Hilly Kristal renamed the hall the CBGB Second Avenue Theatre in 1977 and featured punk and new wave acts like Patti Smith and Talking Heads but the venture only lasted until 1979.
Most of the building housing the Anderson was demolished in 1997, replaced by apartments. The Anderson’s façade remains. Its curtain cartouche hints at its theatrical past.
Frank Mastropolo is the author of Fillmore East: The Venue That Changed Rock Music Forever and New York Groove: An Inside Look at the Stars, Shows, and Songs That Make NYC Rock.
