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Chet Helms (August 2, 1942 – June 25, 2005), often called the father of San Francisco's "1967...

Chet Helms (August 2, 1942 – June 25, 2005), often called the father of San Francisco's "1967 Summer of Love", was a music promoter and a cultural figure in San Francisco during its hippie period in the late Sixties. Helms was the founder and manager of Big Brother and the Holding Company and recruited Janis Joplin as its lead singer. He was a producer and organizer, helping to stage free concerts and other cultural events at Golden Gate Park, the backdrop of San Francisco's Summer of Love in 1967, as well as at other venues, including the Avalon Ballroom. He was the first producer of psychedelic light-show concerts at the Fillmore and the Avalon Ballroom and was instrumental in helping to develop bands that had the distinctive San Francisco sound. Helms died June 25, 2005 from complications of hepatitis C. He was 62. Chester Leo Helms was born in Santa Maria, California, the eldest of three sons. His parents were Chester and Novella Helms. Helms' father, a manager at a local sugarbeet mill, died when he was 9. His mother took the boys to Missouri and then to Texas. Helms spent the rest of his youth in Missouri and Texas, where he learned to organize events by helping to stage