The six at King Ubu Gallery hosted the most important poetry reading of the twentieth century. (Read more about this.) In 1952 Harry Jacobus, “Jess” (Burgess Franklin Collins, and Robert Duncan opened the gallery at 3119 Filmore Street. Among the artists were "Jess", Jacobus, David Parker, Elmer Bishoff. The six at King Ubu Gallery hosted the most important poetry reading of the twentieth century. Artists included Brock Brockway and Lyn Brown Brockway, Edward Corbett, Roy De Forest, Robert Duncan, Norris Embry, Lilly Fenichel, Sonia Gechtoff, Miriam Hoffman, Harry Jacobus, Adelie Landis, Seymour Locks, Clair Mahl, Madeleine Dimond Martin, David Moore, Philip Roeber and Hassel Smith. I got this list from a blurb on the book: An Art of Wondering. The King Ubu Gallery 1952-1953 Published by Natsoulas Noveloz, Davis, 1989. I was surprised to see Sonia’s Gechtoff’s name, as she was married to James Kelly, painter at the California School of Fine Arts and close friend of my uncle.
By 1954 poet, Jack Spicer, reopened the gallery renamed The Six Gallery. The “six” were: Jack Spicer (poet) Wally Hedrick (painter), Deborah Remington (painter)David Simpson (painter), Hayward King (painter) , John Allen Ryan. Today, Kasa Indian Eatery (perhaps Tacko, or a rug store) , there is plaque outside honoring Allen Ginsberg and his famous recitation of Howl. My uncle, John, was an old friend of Wally Hedrick and it has given me new interest in the beat poets and entire artist scene of 1950s San Francisco.
Sonia Gechtoff
Wally Hedrick
