One hundred years ago this week, on Friday, Dec. 8, 1911, 1,400 people packed the Cort Theatre at 64 Ellis St. – a crowd, according to this newspaper, that was one of the most fashionable audiences ever assembled for a matinee in San Francisco. The occasion was the first performance by the San Francisco Symphony. Henry Hadley, the Symphony’s first music director, gave the downbeat to Wagner’s Overture to “Die Meistersinger” at 3:15 p.m. (FULL ARTICLE: SFGate.com)