DIRK B.G. DIRKSEN

1937- 2006

Dirk Dirksen has been producing television programming since 1957, including the legendary weekly twelve hour live program"ROCKET TO STARDOM" for KTTV Los Angeles. Later he was the creative glue behind the teen soap opera"NEVER TOO YOUNG" for the ABC-TV Network in the mid-60's. He found himself as the driving force behind the new music revolution of the mid-70's with the seminal avant-garde theatres the Mabuhay Gardens and the On Broadway Theatre which broke all boundaries of music and art through that turbulent period in music. Founding the DMP organization in 1974 Mr. Dirksen has provided his extensive experience as Executive Producer of all DMP/Dirksen-Molloy Productions.

Damon Molloy is a second generation video professional and television producer.(His father taught Television System Analysis for Pacific Bell for more than 15 years) Damonâs Director credits include: "B-BALL: THE TEAM THAT NEVER LOST A GAME", The feature length documentary "JITTERBUGGIN", the Human Resource training video "ACCOMMODATING EMPLOYEES AND JOB APPLICANTS WITH PSYCHIATRIC DISABILITIES IN THE WORKPLACE" for People With Disabilities Foundation and most recently a short documentary on world re-nown artist G. Mark Mulleian entitled "THE TRANSREALISM OF G. MARK MULLEIAN". He is currently associate editor on the Gospel DVD "THE TEMPTATIONS REVIEW" featuring Dennis Edwards for Acsend Music..

Together the team have completed many varied projects such as:"FIFTY YEARS IN SEARCH OF PEACE" a one hour television special which commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the United Nations Charter in San Francisco in 1945, which featured President Clinton speaking from San Francisco's Opera House, and included appearances by President Ford and President Carter. The program was satellite fed and broadcast throughout the World in 1995.

The Dirk Dirksen Presents release "DEAD KENNEDY'S VIDEO DOCUMENTARY", is a ground breaking one hour live concert capturing the moment by moment real time concert recorded with state of the art equipment on the closing night of the legendary On Broadway Theatre and Nightclub June 16, 1984 marking the end of that seminal era.

From 1990 to 2002 Dirksen-Molloy Productions produced more than 440 half hour episodes of the music, comedy and arts based television program "COSMOS SAN FRANCISCO" which aired on the multi-cultural broadcast television station KTSF TV 26. Not only broadcast, KTSF 26 is a must carry station on all 9 Bay Area County cable systemsr reaching more than 2.5 million homes.

Dirksen-Molloy Productions is also the production facility for the public information program "POSITIVE SPIN" produced by Unity Foundation of San Francisco, Los Angeles. Currently in its seventh year, it is currently cablecast in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other markets nationally and is sattelite distributed on the DISH Network on FreeSpeech TV nationwide.

DIRK DIRKSEN and MARK MULLEIAN

In the early 1970's promoter Dirk B. G. Dirksen, while living in southern California, discovered Mulleian after reading published articles in various periodicals relating to Mulleian's works. Eventually Dirksen would move to San Francisco were he would meet G. Mark Mulleian in 1974.

The artist vividly remembers one sunny afternoon when there suddenly appeared at the front door of the Frank Gallery on Sutter Street, San Francisco’s gallery row, a young gentleman about the age of 36 with a gregarious but focused demeanor, dressed in khaki colored slacks and a sky-blue blazer. Wrapped around Dirksen's neck was a very long, wide wool scarf with large red and white stripes, and on his head, a fisherman’s cap to match. Almost immediately after introducing himself, Dirk invites the artist to be a special guest, along with the prominent American lawyer Melvin Belli, for an interview on the San Francisco Viacom Cablevision weekly newsmagazine Format, hosted by Stephen Matthews. That interview eventually aired in 1974.

This was Mulleian's very first encounter with Dirksen. After a brief discussion on the doorstep of the gallery, Mulleian invites Dirk for a cup of coffee at Hankens, a corner restaurant at Sutter and Mason Streets. Their discussion covered a wide range of subjects, including their more general ideas on worldviews, to more detailed views of art, the contemporary art world, and the gay counter culture, which was just beginning to find its voice in the U.S. Dirksen was fascinated with Mulleian, he’s paintings and ideas, but he also took great interest in the artist’s humanitarian charisma.

As an already established artist in the U.S. at the age of twenty-three, Mulleian was becoming controversial, not only in his art surrounding his intense subject matter, but now also as a result of his views of homosexuality, an outspoken perspective that drew the attention of the FBI to the front door of the artist's studio.

In January 1973, The Advocate (a national newspaper in the U.S.) published one of the biggest feature stories on an individual to that date, which drew national attention and generated fan mail throughout the U.S. The cover story was two full pages dedicated to Mark Mulleian's art and lifestyle, and his views ranging from human rights to individual sexual expression.

Dirksen, who was always attracted to original thinkers and avant-garde artists, found Mulleian and his art to be the equivalent of music to his eyes and ears. Known for his intensely serious subject matter, Mulleian’s paintings were widely known among San Francisco’s hippie movement during the 1970's. The Frank Gallery became a Mecca for a substantial number of members of the hippie culture, many of whom, under the influence of whatever form of hallucinogen, would describe their experience of Mulleian's works in astonishingly similar ways. Often they would say that the energy force field within the paintings would literally come alive for them. Strangely enough, Janis Joplin was afraid of Mulleian’s paintings.

Expressing great interest in Mulleian and his career, Dirksen offered his services to the artist out of respect for his insights, perspective and skills, but it was a respect that became mutual, developing quickly into a friendship that would last over forty years.

Dirksen would write and publish many articles on Mulleian through the 70's, including the headlining news story entitled "Off the Streets", Mulleian's story of eviction from his studio in 1975. Major television news stations, newspapers and magazines such as San Francisco Magazine, the Philippine Press and the San Francisco Progress carried this article, released through United Press International,,. In 1976 Dirk Dirksen orchestrated a one of a kind event at the Mabuhay Gardens Theater Club on Broadway, in the heart of San Francisco's Barbary Coast. The unveiling of an epic work by Mulleian, entitled "The Playground", was a gala premier, the news of which would span the distance between New York and the Philippines.

From this point, Dirksen’s and Mulleian’s careers would veer in different directions and it would be many years before their paths would cross again, for the final time.

Dirksen would go on to promote numerous music groups to national prominence. In fact, it was Dirk Dirksen who introduced, for the first time to San Francisco, Punk Rock, giving the movement it’s West Coast premier on the stage at the Mabuhay Gardens Theater Club on Broadway in the late 1970’s. For this, Dirksen has become known as the Pope of Punk in the notational punk rock scene.

DIRKSEN - MOLLOY PRODUCTIONS and BROADCAST TELEVISION

Damon M. Molloy was introduced to Mulleian's works by Dirk Dirksen in the mid-1990s.

It wasn't until 2006 that Dirksen and Mulleian would cross paths once again. Early that year, Dirksen invited the artist for an interview for "Positive Spin", a national newsmagazine, produced by Dirksen - Molloy Production. This interview was aired eleven times on Free Speech TV via Satellite Dish Network and was carried on 183 Cable access stations, reaching 30 million homes nationwide.

Later, in 2007, film documentarian and chief editor Damon Molloy (of Dirksen – Molloy Productions) was collaborating with Dirksen in completing one of the most dynamic and comprehensive biographical television documentaries on Mulleian to date entitled "THE TRANSREALISM OF G. MARK MULLEIAN". Originally it was Dirksen who conceived the idea for a full biographical documentary of Mulleian’s life and work. This was to be the first of a series of segments for that project. An interview of Dirksen, recounting his work with Mulleian over the years was to have been included in the documentary but, unfortunately, he died of heart failure at the age of 69, two weeks before his segment of the program was to be filmed. Obviously, this loss was a stunning blow to all involved. Eventually, Damon Molloy would assume complete charge of the Dirksen – Molloy Production enterprise, completing the documentary, regrettably, without the finished work ever being seen by this much-missed colleague.

In that documentary, noted author Leonard Roy Frank brings together an insightful profile of the artist and his work in an interview in which he talks about Mulleian and public reaction to the artist and his works. It was Frank who discovered the artist in 1968 and arranged his first exhibit with Beniamino Bufano in San Francisco in 1969.

Also in the documentary is Paul Deegan, author of “Analysis and Review of an Artist’s Work”, who introduces Mulleian’s paintings in a narrative which begins with a visual Cosmic explosion. Illuminated in a dramatic scene through the eyes of the artist, the viewer is taken into a time portal, an ancient mirror, compelled by electrical impulses, the mirror then exploding into a supernova, revealing the 1987 work entitled Dies Irae, which warns of nuclear disaster.

This then opens an impressive gallery sequence of the artist’s work and it’s stunning detail

The entire segment is narrated by Faith Winthrop, renowned San Francisco Jazz vocalist-songwriter and singer-in-residence at the legendary hungry i, who performed there in the 60s with such luminaries as Mike Nichols, Elaine May, Jonathan Winters and Woody Allen. Ms. Winthrop is featured here in an explosive, dramatic Gallery sequence, unfolded by her elegant voice, unlocking the story behind the paintings, through which Mulleian relates his vision of the world, and the choices we make on our journey to war or peace. This enthralling documentary was executed by award winning film documentarian Damon Molloy and narrated by Molloy along with Faith Winthrop, taking nearly two years to complete.

The very last memory of Dirksen that Mulleian clearly recalls is the night Dirk gave Mulleian a ride from the production studio to drop him off at Market and Castro Street in San Francisco. Upon reaching the drop off point, Dirksen pulled the car to a stop, then sat looking quietly forward. After a very long pause’s, he simply said, “We were meant to meet.” Hauntingly, these were the exact last words of Robert F. Arbegast to his close companion, Mark Mulleian, just before he died. “We were meant to meet.” Both Dirk Dirksen and Robert Arbegast died in the same year, almost exactly seven months apart.

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