Brother and the Holding Company, with Janis Joplin. Description The Avalon Ballroom occupied the two top floors of the multi-story building at 1268 Sutter. An L-shaped, second-floor balcony surrounded the first-floor along the south and western walls, and the dance area was in front of the elevated stage in the northeast corner where musicians performed. The entrance doors were downstairs, and opened onto Sutter Street. The Family Dog on the Great Highway, at 2125 Pine Street was a hippie commune, which hosted dances and events, eight blocks from the Avalon, frequented by Helms and his friends. The Avalon was not as large as the Winterland Ballroom or The Fillmore, which had been used by Helms before Bill Graham allegedly violated their partnership agreements. However, the Avalon had the capacity of up to 500. The ballroom was by . This area included the stage, which was wide. The dance floor could accommodate several hundred dancers. An omnipresent light show was created by several local lighting companies. Closure and restoration The Avalon Ballroom lost its lease in 1968. In 1969, it reopened as the Regency II Movie Theater, operated by Blumenfeld Enterprises until 2000. The neighboring building, known as the Regency I Movie Theater was formerly the Regency Ballroom. In 2002, after learning from psychedelic poster artist Stanley Mouse that the building was available, neo-hippie Steve Shirley (aka Morning Spring Rain) of the Hog Farm commune restored and re-opened the Avalon Ballroom 34 years after it had been closed. Acts including George Clinton and P-Funk, Robert Hunter, Arlo Guthrie, and Spearhead performed at the reopened venue. All in all, the venue produced 70 plus concerts between 2002 and 2005. The former Avalon Ballroom was later used as the offices for fabric design company American Pacific Linens. In 2012 it became the headquarters of the internet company Wantful.com. The entire former ballroom space was renovated. Starting in August 2013, the building was used as the residence and principal filming location for The Real World: San Francisco (2014). Pop culture "Combination Of The Two", the opening song of Cheap Thrills, the second album by the Big Brother and The Holding Company, was a homage to the rock ballrooms of San Francisco, and there is a direct reference to the Avalon in the lyrics: "Everybody over at the Avalon Ballroom in the San Francisco Bay". According to Sam Andrew in the documentary Nine Hundred Nights,