From Greenwich Village in 1969 to San Francisco’s newsrooms and civic life, Lee Houskeeper’s history reaches well beyond a press release.
Lee established San Francisco Stories in 1982 after years as a booking agent, road manager and recording studio operator. Four decades on, he is still the press agent San Francisco calls when a story breaks.
The San Francisco Chronicle portrayed an old-school press agent whose work moves between city institutions, public figures, performers and stories of consequence. Original notices name him as media contact across civil rights, environmental protection, consumer and healthcare cases, education and the arts — and he has spent years helping San Francisco remember its own history.
At 19, Lee was a booking agent in New York at the Agency for the Performing Arts. He recalled handling Jefferson Airplane and the Doors, working as Laura Nyro’s road manager, and later running a Los Angeles recording studio for five years, with friendships that included Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin and Crosby, Stills & Nash. The Chronicle also described his enduring ties with Country Joe McDonald, Wavy Gravy and Jerry Garcia’s circle.
Lee was living on Gay Street near the Stonewall Inn when the uprising began. In a 2024 interview he recalled lending metal garbage can lids to protesters and opening his apartment and phones to people organizing and calling one another.
Former Mayor Willie L. Brown Jr. is a longtime friend and client; reporting has described their regular lunches, and a 2024 profile names the former mayor among his clients. The same profile recounts Lee’s recognition by Nancy Pelosi for his Stonewall story.
Booking, touring with Laura Nyro, Stonewall in 1969, then Los Angeles studio work.
Lee opens his press agent practice in the city.
His press work, cultural connections and local clients, in print.
After 39 years helping organize the annual 1906 earthquake remembrance, Lee steps back from that role.