Hats Off to 40 Years of Steve Silver's Beach Blanket Babylon Set for this Summer

Today, Steve Silver's Beach Blanket Babylon Producer Jo Schuman Silver announced Hats Off to 40 Years of Steve Silver's Beach Blanket Babylon, a self-guided tour featuring iconic hats from the past 40 years running in May through June. With more than 20 hats being exhibited throughout the Bay Area, this is the first time in the show's history that this many hats have been displayed at one time. At 15 feet wide, 10 feet deep and 29 feet tall, visitors to Davies Symphony Hall can see the iconic Silver San Francisco Skyline Hat. Other hats include the World Hat and the Washington Hat at the de Young Museum, as well as the original Banana Carmen Hat at the SFJAZZ Center. A complete list of locations and viewing dates is below.

In addition to viewing the displayed hats, visitors are encouraged to tag Beach Blanket Babylon in photos of themselves with the hats using #BeachBlanket40 for a chance to win a 40th Anniversary gift package that includes a pair of tickets to see Beach Blanket Babylon at Club Fugazi, a Beach Blanket Babylon baseball cap and a Beach Blanket Babylon Ghirardelli Chocolate bar. Every photo taken with a hat counts as an entry into the contest and 40 winners will be chosen at random on Friday, June 20, 2014.

Celebrating over 15,000 performances, Beach Blanket Babylon has become a world renowned record-breaking success. Seen by nearly six million people from around the world, this San Francisco institution captures the wild, witty and wonderful world of Steve Silver. Premiering at the Savoy Tivoli in June 1974, and then moving to Club Fugazi in 1975, Beach Blanket Babylon continues to delight audiences with its hilarious spoofs of pop culture, spectacular costumes and outrageously gigantic hats.

Beach Blanket Babylon will commemorate its 40th anniversary with a special public celebration to take place at San Francisco's City Hall on Friday, June 6, 2014 at 12 p.m. City, civic and arts leaders will join the cast of Beach Blanket Babylon as the City of San Francisco salutes the world's longest-running musical revue in an event open to the public. This "only in San Francisco" event will feature Mayor Ed Lee, Chief of Protocol Charlotte Shultz, former Secretary of State George Shultz, former Mayor Willie L. Brown, Jr., philanthropist Ann Getty, President Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Dede Wilsey, San Francisco Symphony Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. Other dignitaries will be announced at a later date.

Photo Credit: Ron Scherl