Background
Dirksen was born in Braunschweig, Germany and emigrated to the United States in 1948.
Dirksen was born in Braunschweig, Germany and emigrated to the United States in 1948.
He served in the Army, briefly attended San Jose State University, and entered the entertainment business in the late 1950s, hosting a live television show called Rocket to Stardom.
Dirksen was nicknamed the "Pope of Punk". He was a nephew of United States Senator Everett Dirksen. He then worked as a tour manager for several 1960s rock and soul acts.
In 1974, he began to book acts at the Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco"s North Beach, and began booking local punk acts (The Sheets, Crime, Mary Monday, etc) along with soon-to-be-famous national and international talent, such as Blondie, The Ramones, Devo, Black Flag, and The Dead Kennedys.
From 1979 to 1982, he wrote and directed Amapola Presents Show, a weekly magazine–variety show on KEMO-television, Channel 20. The show starred Filipina superstar Amapola with co-host Ness Aquino—Mabuhay Gardens" owner.
Amapola Presents Show became Dirk Dirksen"s showcase for local punk acts, local Bay Area bands and artists, and a group of Bay Area actors called "The Straight People". Dirksen gained some negative notoriety for allegedly ripping off SoCal punk rock bands Youth Brigade and Social Distortion while on their independent summer 1982 tour, and further taunting them by giving them rolls of pennies, as documented in the rockumantary Another State of Mind.
After leaving the Mabuhay Gardens, he operated the On Broadway nightclub just upstairs from the Mabuhay.
Dirksen was also active with the organization H.E.A.R. (Hearing Education and Awareness for Rockers). Later that year, he died in his sleep of an apparent heart attack at age 69. On November 12, 2008, an official measure was passed to rename Rowland Street after him.
In April 2006, he hosted a Mabuhay reunion event at the Fillmore Auditorium, featuring members of the Dead Kennedys, The Mutants, Flipper, and The Contractions.