Entrepreneur • Editor • Songwriter • Dancer
Copywriting • Photography • Graphic Design
Business Organization and Development
With my dance partner, Etta Hallock, at the then-Mandala
Dance Center, 1976 (eventually, the Avenue Ballroom –1980)
Photographs
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Contents Copyright © 2019 Joel Koosed • All Rights Reserved
Wow! I’ve finally opened this, now that I’m able to see things on my new computer. Haven’t gone into it yet. Already it looks EXTREMELY professional and interesting. Let’s see.. where shall I start? Decision, decisions.
Is this Diane actually the Diane that is me? Well, okay, here I am responding to myself. I have no memory of writing the above — Sept of 2019. Not even 5 years ago. Scary. But here I am again — amazed all over again at my talented brother!
Thanks Diane – you’ve made my day – twice!
Wow! Thanks. was just musing today and couldn’t remember the name :Roommate Referral. In 1984 I passed a rental notice for a 6 room Victorian in lower Haight for $1000 a month. I was paying $495 for a one bedroom on Oak Street (noisy as hell). I had just started the job of my dreams and only needed one roommate to swing the rent. Looked for a partner. Lots of people were interested but couldn’t come up with First/Last + Sec Dep. Bluffed my way in and got it. I spent the next 18 years returning again and again to RR. Loved that service!!! Finally got Ellis Acted Out.
Thanks, Anne — so glad to hear you had a good experience with my service. I appreciate you letting me know!
Thanks so much for posting your story!
I used your service several times back in the 80s and 90s while working and going to school in the city. Still here!
To me you were an integral part of what makes SF so great.
I was trying to explain it to my college-bound daughter how it was so much better than Craigslist, and was a precursor to many online “if you like this, you might like that” services.
Well done lad.
Thanks for your note, Rob — so glad to hear Roommate Referral was able to help you out! And thank you for patronizing my business — much appreciated!
Hi Joel. Just turned 70 last month. Sometimes I’m doing the life review thing, and happened to think about the SF Roommate Referral Service, so googled it. Lo and behold I found your post. Ha. I think I even remember the business card design. Goes way back to 1977. I had just move to SF from New York. For some reason, my memory had it that I was looking at 3 x 5 cards and not binders, but my memory is not that good. Maybe I recall binders too. In the days of computers, it’s funny to think about binders. But I liked that personal contact of going into your place and sitting down and browsing the listings. The move across country was a big deal at age 25 – yep, 45 years ago – and your roommate service is a part of my memory of adventure and discovery and the unique creative 1970’s SF environment that I loved so much. By the way. The place that I found was on Geary between 12th and Funston.
Hi David,
Thanks for your note. So glad to hear Roommate Referral was able to help you out — thank you for patronizing my business, way back when! I appreciate you letting me know and sharing a bit of your story with me. I came to San Francisco in 1971 or ’72, from L.A., and started the roommate service in ’74, after having spent a long time trying to find a share rental for myself and my dog, going around to bulletin boards all over town; ultimately had to give up the dog, but my experience looking for a roommate situation was the genesis of my business. Happy to hear the roommate service was able to facilitate a soft landing for you in SF!
Thank you for creating and operating the Avenue Ballroom for twenty years, Joel! Thank you also for this remembrance of that time. The lessons and dance parties are some of my favorite memories of San Francisco. The Avenue Ballroom took you back to the 1950’s, only it was about 30 years later.
Hi Brian,
Thanks so much for your note — so glad to hear you had some good times at the Avenue! I always enjoy hearing from people who have good memories of the Avenue. I appreciate you letting me know!
My (then) husband and I took lots of jitterbug lessons from you in the early 1980s. Loved your smooth style. Now, only 40 years later, my (now) husband and I are in our 3rd year of ballroom dance lessons on the East Coast.
Thanks for your note, Christy – so glad to hear you had fun at the Avenue Ballroom, and that fun continues today on the East Coast. Enjoy!
Hello, Joel. In the late 70s and part of the 80s Sat night was jitterbug night at the Avenue Ballroom – the first dance lessons that ever “took” with me. Prior I was rather socially inept compounded by a klutz complex which resulted in never going to any of my high school dances. Happily, my 20 yr reunion in ’83 followed my 1st Avenue Ballroom lessons (I started in July ’77 at what I think was the very beginning?) as well as a ’78 lesson at Fort Mason. Happily too, it was a dancing reunion, a chance to make up for lost time. Between now enjoying, pure and simple, the physicality of swing dancing (and inspired by the music selection – like that of the Avenue, music from the Golden Era) and vanity – wanting to show my stuff – I suppose I did make up for that lost time.
I enjoyed getting reacquainted decades later, 2015, when we encountered oneanother while applying for Soc Security in Berkeley and exchanged some Ave Ballroom reminiscences.
You looked slim as always, unaged – in shape for an endless pretzel.
Frank! So great to hear from you — and thank you for prodding my memory of our serendipitous meeting at the Social Security office. I saw your post, and recognized your name, but couldn’t put a face to it until you mentioned that day we ran into each other. Thanks so much for sharing a bit of your story vis a vis the Avenue — I’m always so pleased to hear from people for whom learning the language of dance had a positive impact on their lives — it certainly did on mine. And yes, from the dates you mention, it sounds like you were there at the beginning — I was teaching dance classes at a couple/few different locations, while running Saturday jitterbug parties at what was then the Mandala Folkdance Center, around ’76, or so, until that business closed, and I picked up the lease, moved all my classes to what became the Avenue Ballroom in 1980. Always great running into you — in person or online! Thanks again for writing — you’ve made my day!