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| Address | 678 Green Street San Francisco, California United States |
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| Coordinates | 37°47′57″N122°24′36″W / 37.79917°N 122.41000°W |
| Owner | Italian Community Services |
| Production | Dear San Francisco |
| Construction | |
| Opened | 1913 |
| Reopened | September 22, 2021 |
| Architect | Italo Zanolini |
| Website | |
| clubfugazisf.com | |
The Club Fugazi is a small theater and nightclub located in the North Beach district at 678 Green Street, San Francisco, California.
The theater is on the ground floor in a building known as Casa Fugazi (inaugurated as Casa Coloniale Italiana John F. Fugazi), a community center for the Italian Colony of San Francisco. The building was financed by a donation from Cavaliere Ufficiale John F. Fugazi, who founded the Columbus Savings and Loan Society in 1893 as well as the Banca Popolare Operaia Italiana in 1906. Both banks eventually merged with the Bank of Italy, which was later renamed the Bank of America.
Fugazi had promised to establish a community center for the Italian Colony of San Francisco following the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906, but it wasn't until 1913 that the project began.
Fugazi Hall was built in 1913 on a parcel of land donated by Fugazi's second wife, Johanna Fugazi. The building was designed by Italian architect Italo Zanolini, who also designed the Banca Popolare Operaia Italiana building at 2 Columbus Avenue (1906) most recently occupied by the Church of Scientology, as well as the building at 255 Columbus Avenue (1916), most recently occupied by Vesuvio Restaurant. Zanolini also designed John F. Fugazi's private mausoleum chapel at the Italian Cemetery in Colma.
Fugazi established a trust to ensure that future generations of Italian-Americans would be able to utilize the building. The Trust is administered by Italian Community Services (formally known as the Italian Board of Relief, the Italian Welfare Agency, and Italian-American Community Services Agency), established in 1916.
In the 1950s and early 1960s, Fugazi Hall was a common venue for poetry reading by members of the beat community. Although many might believe that Club Fugazi is referenced in Allen Ginsberg's "Howl": "Noon in desolate Fugazzi's, listening to the crack...", this actually refers to Fugazzi's in New York City, another Beat hangout (note the two z's in the name in the poem, as well as all the geographical references in that part of the poem being in NYC.) [1]
The famous Thelonious Alone in San Francisco album was recorded by Thelonious Monk in October 1959 at the Fugazi Hall.
Club Fugazi hosted Beach Blanket Babylon beginning in June, 1974, as a "very funny, very silly revue". [2] It reached over 6.5 million patrons, toured to Las Vegas and London; opened the Academy Awards; and counted Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles, David Bowie, Liza Minnelli and Robin Williams among its audience members. [3]
The portion of Green Street in front of the club was renamed Beach Blanket Babylon Boulevard in 1996, in honor of the musical revue.
In September 2021, The 7 Fingers artistic collective debuted Dear San Francisco. Powered by acrobatics, choreography, spoken word, video projections, shadow play, and original music, the new resident show brings audiences on a romp through both the essence and the myth of San Francisco. From the Gold Rush and 1906 earthquake, to beat poetry and the mysterious fog, San Francisco comes vividly to life, performed by an international cast of world-class acrobats across a variety of disciplines—including hoop diving, Chinese pole, Korean plank, hand-balancing, juggling, and “hand-to-trap”. San Francisco Chronicle gave the show its highest rating, calling it "a love letter not just to the city but also to the human body." [4]
Fugazi is a family name and a slang word which refers to something that is fake or damaged beyond repair.
North Beach is a neighborhood in the northeast of San Francisco adjacent to Chinatown, the Financial District, and Russian Hill. The neighborhood is San Francisco's "Little Italy" and has historically been home to a large Italian American population, largely from Northern Italy. It still has many Italian restaurants, though many other ethnic groups currently live in the neighborhood. It was also the historic center of the beatnik subculture and has become one of San Francisco's main nightlife districts as well as a residential neighborhood populated by a mix of young urban professionals, families, and Chinese immigrants.
Steve Silver's Beach Blanket Babylon was the world's longest-running musical revue. The show began its run in 1974, at the Savoy Tivoli and later moved to the larger Club Fugazi in the North Beach district of San Francisco.
Washington Square is an American park in the North Beach district of San Francisco. It was established in 1847 and is one of the city's first parks. The park is bordered by sidewalk cafes and restaurants such as Mama's (restaurant) and Park Tavern restaurants and the Liguria Bakery, as well as Sts. Peter and Paul Church.
Jackson Square Historic District is an area in downtown San Francisco, California. It dates back to the city's earliest years and the 1849 gold rush, and is known for its historic commercial buildings in the classical revival and Italianate styles.
Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A. is an Italian international banking group. It is Italy's largest bank by total assets and the world's 27th largest. It was formed through the merger of Banca Intesa and Sanpaolo IMI in 2007, but has a corporate identity stretching back to its first foundation as Istituto Bancario San Paolo di Torino in 1583.
The history of Piedmont, California, covers the history of the area in California's San Francisco Bay Area that is now known as Piedmont, up to and beyond the legal establishment of a city.
EXIT Theatre was an alternative theater located at 156 Eddy Street, San Francisco, California, in the downtown Tenderloin neighborhood. The theater operates four storefront theaters and annually produces the San Francisco Fringe Festival, the second oldest fringe festival in the U.S. and the largest grass roots theater festival in the San Francisco Bay Area, and DIVAfest, dedicated to creating new plays by women writers.
Vesuvio Cafe is a historic bar in San Francisco, California, United States. Located at 255 Columbus Avenue, across an alley from City Lights Bookstore, the building was designed and built in 1913 by Italian architect Italo Zanolini, and remodeled in 1918.
The Boarding House was a music and comedy nightclub, located at 960 Bush Street in San Francisco, California, opened by David Allen in 1971 and closed in the early 1980s. Many comedians launched their career at The Boarding House including Robin Williams. Steve Martin's first three albums were recorded there, Let's Get Small, A Wild and Crazy Guy, and Comedy Is Not Pretty!, in whole or in part. Ellen DeGeneres and Jay Leno have said they first met at The Boarding House.
Thelonious Alone in San Francisco is jazz pianist Thelonious Monk's third solo album, recorded in 1959.
Val Diamond is a stage performer and San Francisco icon. She is best known for her role in the stage musical, Beach Blanket Babylon.
The Marsh Theater is an American theater company that specializes in developing new performance, founded in 1989. It has two venue locations, at 1062 Valencia Street in the Mission District of San Francisco, California; and 2120 Allston Way in Berkeley, California.
California Shakespeare Theater is a regional theater located in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. Its performance space, the Lt. G. H. Bruns III Memorial Amphitheater, is located in Orinda, while the administrative offices, rehearsal hall, costume and prop shop are located in Berkeley.
The San Francisco Italian Athletic Club is a men's social and athletic club located at 1630 Stockton Street on Washington Square, North Beach in San Francisco, California. It sponsors the Statuto Race, an annual footrace event that has been running since 1919.
Christopher Goodwin is an American actor, playwright, and director. He is an alumnus of Steve Silver's Beach Blanket Babylon formerly at Club Fugazi in San Francisco, California.
Joshua Kosman is an American music critic who specializes in classical music. The chief classical music critic of the San Francisco Chronicle since 1988, Kosman has a particular interest in contemporary classical music, championing composers such as John Adams and Aaron Jay Kernis. Described by the music critic Jayson Greene as having a "congenial, probing tone that blends a reporter’s instincts with a critic’s acumen," he has written for a variety of other publications.
The Fugazi Bank Building, also known as the Fugazi Banca Popolare Operaia Italiana Building, and Old Transamerica Building, is a historic commercial building built in 1909, and located at 4 Columbus Avenue in the Jackson Square Historic District of San Francisco, California.
The Colombo Building, also known as the Drexler Building or Drexler-Colombo Building, is a historic commercial building built in 1913, and is located at 1–21 Columbus Avenue in the Jackson Square Historic District in San Francisco, California.
External Links [1]
| Authority control databases: Geographic |
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