Finding aid to the Alfie Kulzick Chatterbox Bar Collection
1979-2005
SFH 663
Finding aid composed by Freya Channing
San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library
2022
100 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
sfhistory@sfpl.org
Contributing Institution:
San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library
100 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 557-4567
info@sfpl.org
Title: Alfie Kulzick Chatterbox Bar Collection
Creator:
Kulzick, Alfie
Identifier/Call Number: SFH 663
Physical Description:
1 manuscript box, 2 oversized flat boxes
(3 Cubic Feet)
Date (inclusive): 1979-2005
Date (bulk): 1986-1990
Abstract: The Chatterbox was a neighborhood bar and hard rock/punk venue located in San Francisco's Mission District at 853 Valencia
Street from 1986 to 1990. The club hosted many local bands such as White Trash Debutantes, the Jackson Saints, Motorcycle
Boy, Osgood Slaughter, Spot 1019, Stone Fox, and the Dwarves.
Language of Materials: Collection materials are in
English.
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is available for use during San Francisco History Center hours. Collections that are stored offsite should
be requested 48 hours in advance.
Publication Rights
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the City Archivist. Permission
for publication is given on behalf of the San Francisco Public Library as the owner of the physical items.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Alfie Kulzick Chatterbox Bar Collection (SFH 663), San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public
Library.
Provenance
Donated by Alfie Kulzick in 2018.
Related Materials
Conservation Note
During processing, the entire collection was re-foldered and re-housed in acid-free folders and boxes.
Materials Transferred
Three issues of Calendar Magazine (Music Calendar), July, 1984, vol. 3, no. 8, February, 1986, vol. 5, no. 3, and November
1, 1988,vol.7, no. 23 transferred to the Art, Music & Recreation Center at SFPL:
Calendar magazine
; Flip Side, Summer, 1989,no. 60 to the San Francisco Punk Archive at the San Francisco History Center at SFPL.
Two Mabuhay Gardens calendars: August 11-18, 1979 and June 30-July 7, 1979 to the San Francisco Punk Archive at the San Francisco
History Center at SFPL.
Administrative History
The Chatterbox, named for a song by the New York Dolls' Johnny Thunders, was a neighborhood bar and hard rock/punk venue located
in San Francisco's Mission District at 853 Valencia Street. The location has been a drinking establishment for many years,
including the first lesbian bar in the Mission District, the Ebb Tide (circa 1966). Other bars at this location were Luke
& Larry's (1940's), Graffiti (1980's), the Chameleon (1990's), and Amnesia (2000-2020).
It was opened by Alfie Kulzick, a Wisconsin transplant, in 1986. The club hosted bands such as White Trash Debutantes, the
Jackson Saints, Motorcycle Boy, Stevie Stiletto, Osgood Slaughter, Haunted Garage, Spot 1019, Stone Fox, and the Dwarves.
The Chatterbox closed in 1990.
References: Citywide historic context statement for LGBTQ history In San Francisco, Donna J. Graves and Shayne E. Watson,
2015.
Scope and Contents
This small collection contains material documenting the Chatterbox from 1986-1990. Included are a small amount of administrative
records including show calendars, lease, and permits; book proofs for
Chatterbox: biography of a bar,
band fliers for the Chatterbox and other Bay Area venues, band stickers, and magazines. Of note are band fliers for nearly
all the shows held at the Chatterbox and a few fliers from the late 70's and early 80's documenting the early San Francisco
punk scene.
Arrangement
Arranged into 4 series: Series 1: Administrative, Series 2: Writings, Series 3: Events, and Series 4: Publications.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Bars (Drinking establishments) -- California -- San Francisco
Rock music -- California -- San Francisco
Punk rock music -- California -- San Francisco -- fliers
Heavy metal (Music) -- California -- San Francisco
Subculture -- California -- San Francisco
Fliers (printed matter).
Printed Ephemera -- Specimens
Post-punk music
Chatterbox (San Francisco, Calif.)
White Trash Debutantes (Musical group) (San Francisco)
Jackson Saints (Musical group) (San Francisco)
Osgood Slaughter (Musical group) (San Francisco)
Meices (Musical group) (San Francisco)
Motorcycle Boy (Musical group)
Spot 1019 (Musical group) (San Francisco)
Stevie Stiletto (Musical group)
Voltage (Musical group) (San Francisco)
Housecoat Project (Musical group)
Short Dogs Grow (Musical group) (San Francisco)
Stone Fox (Musical group) (San Francisco)
Haunted Garage (Musical group)
Gargoyles (Musical group)
Sister Double Happiness (Musical group)
Pigmy Love Circus (Musical group) (San Francisco)
Series 1:
Administrative
1983-1990
Physical Description:
5 folders
Scope and Contents
Contains confirmation of two ads for the Datebook in
the San Francisco Chronicle, hand-written calendars for bands
and staff, lease, permits, and other legal documents
relating to the Chatterbox business. Also, one cassette tape of a promotional spot that aired on KALX just prior to the bar
opening.
Arrangement
Arranged by type and then chronologically.
oversize-box 3, folder 3
Public Notice
1986
Material Specific Details: One oversized folder containing
Public Notice to sell alcoholic beverages.
box 1, folder 2
Chatterbox templates and newspaper ads
circa 1986-1990
Scope and Contents
Templates for Chatterbox fliers and ads.
box 1, folder 3
Chatterbox band and staff calendars
1986-1987
box 1, folder 4
KALX Chatterbox cassette
4/3/1986
Material Specific Details: Short radio blurb for the Chatterbox opening. KALX's Billy Jam talks about the Chatterbox opening with clips of Alfie Kulzick
describing the bar.
Series 2:
Writings
1987,
2003,
2010
Physical Description:
2 folders
Scope and Contents
Book proofs and correspondence.
Arrangement
Arranged by type and then chronologically.
box 1, folder 5
Book proofs and review
2003
Scope and Contents
Book proofs for the book
Chatterbox: biography of a bar, 1986-1990 by Alfie Kulzick
. Also contains a review of the book by Sammy Shiraco from the San Francisco Bike Messenger Association.
box 1, folder 6
Correspondence and notes
1987
circa 1990
2010
Scope and Contents
Contains a thank you note from
Lethal Gospel
, a party invitation, a Valentine's Day card from
Touch Me Hooker
,
and a review of the bar from
San Francisco Focus
magazine. Also,
Bathroom Tales
: with four anecdotes of bar bathrooms, including the Chatterbox.
Series 3:
Events
1986-1993
( bulk 1986-1990)
Physical Description:
9 folders
Scope and Contents
This series contains fliers for events and bands playing at the Chatterbox and other bay area locations. The bulk of material
is for bands and events held at the Chatterbox. Some original pasteups are present. Also included is a small collection of
band stickers. List of fliers with dates in each folder.
Arrangement
Fliers are arranged chronologically. Band stickers alphabetically.
box 1, folder 7
Chatterbox fliers
1986
Material Specific Details: Bands include: 16 Walls; Boss Hoss; Celebrity Skin; Crash-n-Burn; Flying Color; Jesters of Destiny; Lazy Sunday Dreamers;
Miserable Sex; Monster Zero; Our Lady of Pain; Pirates of Venus; Piston Love Machine; Popopies; Psychic Orphans; Ragged Edge;
Sister Double Happiness; Speed Queens; Spot 1019; Touch Me Hooker; Trouble Clef; War Pigeons.
box 1, folder 8
Chatterbox fliers
1987
Material Specific Details: Bands include: Assassins of God; Bad Boys; Beloved; Bleyarton; Bomb; Boss Hoss; Buck Naked and the Bare Bottom Boys; Change;
Crawlspace; Demolition Gore Galore; Den 55; Donner Party; Drunk Injuns; Electric Peace; Gasm; God (from Jerusalem); Gork;
Hanging Party; Head; Helios Creed; Heru-Ra-Ha; Housecoat Project; Jackal Johny; Jackson Saints; Kooch Bahar; Kwik Way; Lazy
Cowgirls; Lazy Sunday Dreamers; Lethal Gospel; Locust; No Grenades; Noize Boyz; Oblivious; Osgood Slaughter; O-Type; Papa
Wheelie; Ramonas; Razers; Revolver; Santa Clan; Scavengers; Short Dogs Grow; Sid Terror and the Undead; Sister Double Happiness;
Sludge; Social Goddess; Social Unrest; Speed Queens; Spot 1019; Dough Boys; Dwarves; Grifters; Muskrats; Phantom Creeps; Scavenger;
Social Club; Threnody; Time 2; Touch Me Hooker; Trouble Clef; Witness.
box 1, folder 9
Chatterbox fliers
1988
Material Specific Details: Bands include: Attitude; Balls of Steel; Bar-Donkeys; Beauty of Dogs; Black Windows; Bourbon Deluxe; Buck Naked and the Bare
Bottom Boys; Bush of Bushes; Cathouse; Coffin Break; Coppa Feelie with Lord Jim; Dead Jacksons; Donkey Kong; Dwarves; Eyeball;
Fifteen Minutes; Flower Leperds; Frontier Wives; Gang War ; Gaping Wounds; Gasm; Hell's Kitchen; Hippie Bitch; Holly Rock;
House of Wheels; Housecoat Project; Jackson Saints; John Thaxton Experience; Johnny's Problem; Koel Family; Last Laugh; Lethal
Gospel; Max Volume and the Naked Lady Wrestlers; Motorcycle Boy; Noize Boyz; Osgood Slaughter; Papa Wheelie; Phantom Creeps;
Phantom Rose; Pigmy Love Circus; Ramonas; Repo; Rotting Humans; Rough Mix; Sacrifice Choir; Scapegoat Lemonade; Scarface;
Short Dogs Grow; Sid Terror; Siren Kings; Sludge; Smashrag; Sonic Brain Jam; Spot 1019; Stevie Stiletto; Stone Juju; Stunt
Cok; Stupid Bloody Cabaret; Tex and the Horseheads; The Fluid; The Snags; The Witnesses; Touch Me Hooker; Trouble Clef; Wages
of Sin; Wandering Minstrels; White Stagg; Witnesses.
box 1, folder 10
Chatterbox fliers
1989
Material Specific Details: Bands include: Alin Black and the Thrill Kills; Bacchus; Balls of Steel; Bug Tussel; Cactopus; Cameltoe; Chicken Hawk; Crankincest;
Dwarves; ED; Eye Ball; F-Boyz; Field Trip; Frisco Droogs; Fuck Ups; Gargoyles; Go, Dog, Go!; Goodbye Gemini; Haunted Garage;
Hell's Kitchen; Hit 36; Industrial Rainforest; Jackson Saints; Jill the Witch; Leroy's Pleasure Missile; Lethal Gospel; Love
Gods; Married with Children; Mom; Monster Zero; Mud Puppies; Nag Nag Nag; Nirvana (show cancelled); No Alternative; Noize
Boyz; Osgood Slaughter; Papa Wheelie; Parasite; Pink Fix; Poison Whiskey; Rough Mix; S.F. Dogs; Sacrifice Choir; Saigon Saloon;
San Francisco; Sentimental Boobs; Short Dogs Grow; Shot Gun Mama; Slang; Sludge; Smashrag; Smokin' Rhythm Prawns; Snags; Something
Scaley; Sonic Brain Jam; Speed Racer; Spiderbaby; Splat; Spot 1019; Squawk; Steel Pole Bathtub; Stevie Stiletto; Stone Fox;
Stunt Cok; The Alley Boys; The Mice; The Red Room; Turbosluts; Underdog; Voltage; White Trash Debutantes; Wrekking Machine;
Yeastie Girlz.
box 1, folder 11
Chatterbox fliers
1990
Material Specific Details: Bands include: Assassins of God; Bacchus; Balls of Steel; Boubon Deluxe; Dama Thrush; Dracula Milktoast; Dwarves; Engine Joe;
Flesh and; Spirit; Fungus; Happy World; Hemi; House of Wheels; Iron Scrotum; Izabella; Jill the Witch; Lethal Gospel; Mach
Turtle; Medicine Men; Noize Boyz; S.F. Dogs; Shit Howdy; Shooting Gallery; Sialagogue; Sloth; Sonic Brain Jam; Spiderbaby;
Splat; Stevie Stiletto; Stunt Cok; Suicide Shake; Third Rail; Thurston Howl; Turmoil; Urge; Voltage; Zona Roja.
oversize-box 3, oversize-folder 1
Chatterbox fliers
1986-1990
Material Specific Details: Bands include: Bad Boys; Balls to the Teakettle; Beauty of Dogs; Bleyarton; Boss Hoss; Bourbon Deluxe; Cactus Liquors; Clear
Black Paper; Crankicest; Dead Jacksons; Dracula Milktoast; Gaping Wounds; Gargoyles; Gratefuldeadkennedys; Hemi; House of
Wheels; Kwik War; Lethal Gospel; Noize Boyz; Optidelics; Osgood Slaughter; Papa Wheelie; Potential Threat; Repo; Sacrifice
Choir; Scapegoat Lemonade; SF Dogs; Speed Queen; Speed Racer; Stevie Stiletto; The Beloved; The Doughboys; The Fluid; The
Ramonas; Touch Me Hooker; Ugly But Proud.
box 1, folder 12
Other venue fliers
1979-1993
Scope and Contents
Fliers for other Bay Area venues, though mostly San Francisco. Venues include the Mabuhay Gardens, the Covered Wagon, Graffiti,
Nightbreak, DNA Lounge, the Roxie Cinema, Frederika's, Ye Rose & Thistle, Bears Lair, the Palms, Back Dor, Berkeley Square,
Club Generic, Chi Chi Club, Chameleon Club, The Stone, V.I.S Club, San Francisco Music Works, Kennel Club, Oasis, Sixth St.
Rendezvous, Crystal Pistol, and El Rio. Bands include: Bad Boys; Celebrity Skin: Checkered Demon; Come Clean; Den 55; Dwarves;
F-Boyz; Flipper; Frontline; Gargoyles; Go! Dog, Go!; Grinch; Gutter Boy; Haunted Garage; Hell Cows; Jackson Saints; Joneses;
Momma Stud; Mother Lode; Noize Boyz; Penetration; Phantom Creeps; Pigmy Love Circus; Rough Mix; Rug Doctor; Scouts Honor;
Screaming Bloody Marys; Short Dogs Grow; Sid Terror and the Undead; Sister Double Happiness; Sonic Brain Jam; Special Forces;
Speed Racer; Spot 1019; Stevie Stiletto; Stimmies; Stone Fox; Stone Juju; Stunt Cok; Suicide Shake; Ted Zeppelin; The Kage;
The Known; Third Rail; Thurston Howl; Turmoil; Urge; Vanilla Whores; Voltage; Wages of Sin; Watchmen; Wicked Thrill; Wig Torture;
Wilma Don't Tap; Zona Roja. Also, one flier for the Mabuhay with "Knuke the Knack", a flier for the Roxie Cinema featuring
a Saturday midnight showing of Derek Jarman's Jubilee and New Wave shorts from 1979, and a flier (drawing by "Spain") for
a Warren Hinckle debate at New College from 1987.
oversize-box 3, oversize-folder 2
Other venue fliers
1980-1993
Material Specific Details: Folder contains 6 fliers from the Sound of Music, Covered Wagon, The Deaf Club, I-Beam, Slim's featuring the following bands:
Alien Beach Head, Gargoyles, Hippie Bitch, House of Wheels, Mother Lode, Noize Boyz, Osgood Slaughter, Porch, Screaming Bloody
Marys, Short Dogs Grow, Speed Queens, Speed Racer. Includes a poster for Short Dogs Grow album, "Matt Dillon".
box 1, folder 13
Band stickers
circa 1986-1990
Material Specific Details: Bands include: Alley Boys; Balls of Steel; Breakouts; Bug Tussel; Dama Thrush; Eye Ball; Gargoyles; Go, Dog, Go!; Hell's Kitchen;
Lethal Gospel; Mach Turtle; Monster zero; Osgood Slaughter; Parasite; Sentimental Boobs; Slambodians; Sonic Brain Jam; Speed
Racer; Touch Me Hooker; and Tunnel Creeps. Some miscellaneous non-band stickers also present.
Series 4:
Publications
1979-2005
Physical Description:
2 folders
Scope and Contents
Rock magazines or weeklies with articles about musicians. Topics covered include: Jane Dornacher; Rotten Records; Ralph Pheno;
Iggy and the Stooges; Sea Hags; Housecoat Project; Sid Terror and the Undead; Iggy Pop; The Jam; Los Microwaves; The Ramones;
Linda Perry; 4 non-blondes. List of magazines with dates in each folder.
Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically by title.
box 1, folder 14
Magazines
1984,
1988,
1994
Material Specific Details: Three titles: Bitch-The women's rock mag with a bite; Catscratch music magazine; The Quake-FM99
oversize-box 2
Magazines
1979-2005
(bulk 1980-1996)
Material Specific Details: Titles include: Artbeat; Arthur; Bomp!; Deadbeat; Ny Rocker; San Francisco Bay Guardian; SF Weekly; Sound Check; Zero Magazine