"[4] - SFGateIn 1954, Charles Sullivan, one of the most successful African-American businessmen in San Francisco at the time, started booking bands and renamed the venue The Fillmore Auditorium.

[5] In December 1965, Sullivan let Bill Graham use his dance hall permit to book a benefit for the San Francisco Mime Troupe.

Sullivan was found shot to death in the early morning hours of 2 August 1966, at the age of 57,[6] the case was never solved even after Senator Diane Feinstein’s attempt to reopen the investigation.

[7] On May 27, 28, and 29, 1966, The Velvet Underground and Nico played the Fillmore Auditorium as part of Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable avant-garde multimedia show.

Although The Velvet Underground's proto-punk aesthetics failed to resonate with the incipient San Francisco counterculture, Graham retained Williams to build additional light systems.

In the mid-1960s, the Fillmore Auditorium became the focal point for psychedelic music and the counterculture in general, with such acts as the Grateful Dead, the Steve Miller Band, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Moby Grape, the Doors, Jimi Hendrix Experience, the Byrds, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Santana, Frank Zappa's the Mothers of Invention, and British acts the Who, Cream, and Pink Floyd all performing at the venue.

[8] Besides rock, Graham also featured non-rock acts such as Lenny Bruce, Miles Davis, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Charles Lloyd, Aretha Franklin, and Otis Redding as well as poetry readings.

King's well-received performances at the venue served to introduce many fans to the authentic sounds that inspired the blues rock subgenre.

It is referenced by Hunter S. Thompson in his 1971 novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in a description of the counterculture of the 1960s in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Punk bands that performed at The Elite Club include Crucifix, Discharge, 45 Grave, FEAR, D.O.A, Verbal Abuse, Social Distortion, Bad Religion,[10] Black Flag, Bad Brains, Dead Kennedys, Red Rockers, T.S.O.L., Flipper, Gang of Four, and Public Image Ltd.[11] The Fillmore reopened under Graham's management in the mid-1980s, but it was damaged and closed by the Loma Prieta earthquake of October 1989.

After Graham died in a helicopter crash in 1991, those close to him decided to carry out his final wish to retrofit and reopen the original Fillmore, which required much structural work.