Avalon's spirits rising
Restored music hall holds the city's past

Joel Selvin, Chronicle Staff Writer

The ghost of Janis Joplin hides in the corners of the Avalon Ballroom, where she played her first show with Big Brother and the Holding Company in June 1966. It was the first place she was ever a star. For more than 30 years, it has been hidden behind the walls of a movie theater called the Regency.

Steve Shirley, 31, grew up named Morning Spring Rain with the Hog Farm commune, unrepentant hippies who live outside Laytonville in Mendocino County. He rented the Avalon last October for a trial run and immediately booked the current edition of Big Brother and the Holding Company. "It was symbolic that I had them in there," he said.